On May 4th, 2018, DirectMail 2.0 and Presort Plus announced a brand-new integration between Informed Delivery® and DirectMail 2.0. The new integration gives companies the opportunity to supplement their physical mail campaign with engaging impressions and clicks by increasing exposure for specific users. When customers add Informed Delivery® to their multi-channel marketing campaign, they can expect to increase impressions by an average of 10-20%. With an expected 10-20,000 new users joining every day (according to USPS), you’ll be able to improve response rates and enhance your digital marketing campaign like never before.
How does Informed Delivery® work?
Every digital marketing campaign and direct mail campaign should be employed with the express purpose of increasing your audience—if the steps you’re taking aren’t generating the attention you need, then you’re putting your company at a disadvantage. Informed Delivery® enhances your client’s mailing piece with a clickable, full-color ad within the email sent by USPS. Driven by customer feedback, the integration will help clients track when and where their ads are opened, help customers see when their package is going to arrive, and much more. It makes customer service more manageable, it improves visibility for your product or service, and it promotes lead generation in a platform that before led to more ambiguity for businesses and their customers alike.
What is DirectMail 2.0?
Founded in 2015, DirectMail 2.0 is a cloud-based integrated marketing platform that helps small and medium-sized businesses launch, manage, and track multi-faceted digital marketing campaigns to expand the reach and return on investment (ROI) of their print campaigns.
Why should I use Informed Delivery?
Not every marketing platform is designed to optimize your strategy like Informed Delivery®. Digital and direct mail marketing campaigns can be difficult to track, leaving your digital strategy in flux with more questions than answers. The easiest way to generate brand awareness is to increase the reach of your digital campaign and make sure that your target audience has the option to give you more pertinent information than conventional marketing tactics. If you want to increase your brand’s visibility, simplify your tracking, and drive up the awareness around your marketing campaign, Informed Delivery® from DirectMail 2.0 is an excellent strategy for your business.
With the 2016 elections coming up, be prepared for lots of reading materials in your mailbox, same as every four years. But while this has been the norm for those earlier generations, the Millenials are finally moving out of their parent’s house and living on their own. They have to begin checking the mail everyday and now there is a brand new set of eyes on political direct mail pieces…but are they really making an impact on the digitally connected millennial generation? According to the USPS, yes!
The USPS has conducted a joint survey that has found that this new class of voters “pay close attention to political mail and in fact favor it over other forms of political advertising.” It also found that millennials are more involved in politics and very engaged with the direct mail that they received, even more than non-millennials. In fact, 40% thoroughly read political mail and an even bigger 78% discuss it with others.
Finally, about 80% of millennials prefer political ads through the mail rather than online. They feel as if it is a more authentic and direct connection to the political candidates.
So what can we gather from this?
For starters, that it would appear that millenials still very much sort through and read their mail on a daily basis. About 36% of those under 30 years of age are eager to check their mail everyday. Not only do they sort them, they even open them immediately just as much as non-millenials. It would stand to reason that this applies to all direct mail pieces as well. If millennials are open to mail pieces with a message, they might just be open to your particular message.
Many of the same tactics used in political mail can be applied to consumer-related direct mail. It’s all about reaching that age by using authenticity and directness.
Now that we know millennials are a good audience, below are some tips for trying to reach them with your direct mail
- Make it authentic
- Right away, millennials can assess when you’re trying too hard to connect with them. Just have a relevant message that they want to hear and if you present it in a way that’s on their level, they will be more responsive. Keep things simple and loose and they’ll come to you.
- Make it easily accessible
- If millennials can’t easily access something you’re trying to push, then it is not worth the hassle. And as always, make it easy for someone to reach out to you. If you’re accessible to responses, chances are you will get more responses.
- Use technology
- At their heart, millennials are digital natives and will always fall back on those resources. Make sure your direct mail campaign connects to online sources in which the younger generation can easily find information, share that info, place orders…etc. Finally, it is also worth noting that Augmented Reality is a great way to integrate technology and direct mail.
- Make it visually appealing
- Millennials tend to be visual learners, so it might just be worth that extra penny to make something look cool to catch their eye. It could be the difference between a sale or the trash.
Pricing – keeping you informed about the prices and mailing standards of the United States Postal Service
First-Class Mail Parcels transfer to the Competitive Price Listing
On July 20, 2017, the Postal Regulatory Commission (“PRC”) conditionally approved the transfer of the First-Class Mail Parcels (“FCMP”) product from the market-dominant product list to the competitive product list. The transfer was conditioned on the subsequent proposal, review, and approval of prices for the transferred product. On July 28, 2017, pursuant to Governors’ Decision 16-9, the Postal Service filed a notice of price change seeking to implement new prices for the transferred product.
The Commission approved the new rates (13 rate cells in total) on August 9, 2017, See Order No. 4032 in Docket No. CP2017-230, and they will go into effect on September 3, 2017. After implementation, the FCMP product will become a new “Retail” rate category within the existing First-Class Package Service (“FCPS”) product. The new “Retail” price category will be called “First-Class Package Service – Retail” while the existing FCPS price category will be renamed “First-Class Package Service – Commercial.” The new FCPS-Retail product has the same characteristics as the former First-Class Mail Parcels product.
View the complete announcement here.