USPS: Reports Decline in Mail Volume

I am reading today that USPS has experienced a decline in mailing due to the current economic slow down. They expect to end the year with a overall decline of 9 billion mailing pieces.


Here are some collected resources on the matter:

• Economy-Driven Mail Volume Decline Contributes to Postal Service $2.8 Billion Year-End Loss
• Raw Data Provided by USPS
• Good Commentary
  

USPS: Rent a PO Box Online

USPS now PO Box rental and management online. I am not sure exactly how this works, but I imagine you go to their website, find the PO Box section. Register and pay for the rental of a PO Box, and then they will mail you a key or you will have to go down to the post office and verify yourself to pick up your key.

Pretty Cool.
Http://www.usps.com/poboxes

DHL Rumors - Switch to USPS?

There is rumor in the printing industry that DHL is about to suspend ground shipping operations.

Our company is considering switching to usps to handle our postcard deliveries. USPS/Priority Mail will do 3 day shipping for us whereas DHL would not. We also expect to save overall money on shipping.

Increase Returns 44% by Using Customized Messaging.

Do you want to increase the return rate of your advertising? Using custom messaging and variable printing postcards can increase your return rate by up to 44%. Imagine how much growth your business will see if you can increase your return rate by 44%. Doesn’t that make the cost of custom postcard printing seem like a good investment? Spending at least part of your advertising budget on digital printing of direct mail marketing materials is a very smart way to reach more customers.

Using cost effective advertising is very important for most small businesses these days because most businesses have a very tight advertising budget. With the economy the way it is today companies simply can’t afford to waste money on advertising campaigns that don’t work. But using custom printed postcards and other direct mail marketing materials do work, and you can use direct mail marketing to increase your return and drive new customers to your website.

Direct mail marketing is the best way to reach your target audience, and when you use coded and custom printed postcards to advertise your business it will be easier for you to see how well your direct mail marketing campaign worked so you will know how much of your advertising budget you should continue to spend on direct mail marketing campaigns. Studies have shown that an average business can increase its advertising return rate by up to 44% just by using variable printing marketing materials. Can you afford to throw away potential business by not using digitally printed and custom designed postcards for your business? Most businesses can’t.

Variable printing and customized messaging of direct mail marketing materials is a lot cheaper than print ads and other types of traditional advertising and direct mail marketing has been proven to have a higher return rate, so when it comes to advertising it makes the most sense to use a targeted direct mail marketing campaign using professionally designed and printed postcards and other marketing materials.

If you want to know that your advertising dollars are being spent on advertising that really works then invest in variable printing and custom messaging direct marketing materials from a reputable company that has a good reputation. Then you will know that your advertising is getting seen by your target audience and that it’s driving customers to your website which will help your business thrive.

5 Reasons You Need to use Direct Mail Marketing More than Ever

A lot of people are worried about the economy these days, and money is tight for a lot of businesses. So how can you market your business and bring in new customers without going broke doing it? The key to advertising success in a tight economy is not to stop advertising but to look for more effective ways to advertise so that you’re not wasting money on ad campaigns that don’t work.

Direct mail marketing has always been effective, but lost popularity with businesses when Internet advertising became trendy. However, more and more businesses are realizing these days that direct mail marketing is still one of the most cost effective marketing tools there is. Here are five reasons that your business should be using custom printed postcards and other direct mail marketing tools to market your business:

1. Postcard marketing makes it easy to track your rate of return – Using custom printed postcards and other direct mail marketing materials makes it easy to code your materials so that you can find out exactly how many new customers found your website as a result of your postcard marketing. That’s something that can be very difficult to do with other types of advertising.

2. With a postcard marketing campaign you don’t have to wait long for a response – Your direct mail marketing campaign will either work within the first week or two or it won’t work at all. If you notice a spike in hits to your website then you’ll know that using postcard marketing is an effective way to advertise your business, and if you don’t see any increased traffic to your website then you’ll know it didn’t work very well. Either way you won’t have to wait to know the result and you’ll know if you should continue doing direct mail advertising or look for another advertising method.

3. Postcard marketing gives your best sales presentation to thousands of customers – If you have a custom printed postcard that has a beautiful image of your best product that one image can do more to sell your products and get people to your website than any other type of advertising and thousands of people are seeing it all at once. Seeing that photo or design can create a lot of interest in your website and your products.

4. Direct mail pieces are tangible and can be passed along – Word of mouth is the best kind of advertising and when you send customers a custom printed postcard with photos of your products and your website address they have a tangible item to hand their friends and family that will remind them what the website address is. One custom printed postcard can generate dozens of website hits just because it gets passed from one person to another.

5. Direct mail marketing is targeted advertising – Targeted advertising is always more effective than general advertising. When you use custom printed postcards and other direct mail marketing materials you can target your advertising to the kinds of people that would be interested in your products so that you are spending money effectively and reaching the right kinds of customers.