The following article by Satori Software President, Hugh Rogovy, was published in the Mail magazine 2011 CEO Perspectives issue:
Over the last fifteen years, growing use of the Internet has claimed many functions formerly only handled by mail. Everything from daily correspondence with family and friends to bill payment and other business transactions have moved from physical mail to email and online transactions. Every industrialized country’s post has experienced double-digit decreases in mail volume in the last decade.
Yet people still look forward to receiving mail. And more importantly to marketers, people still respond to materials received through the mail. To prosper, mailers must continue to be advocates of direct mail AND help clients improve their ROI on direct marketing activities.
Educate Clients about Address Quality
A successful mailing preparation operation needs to look beyond per-piece-profits and encourage their clients to go for quality rather than quantity. USPS® estimates that the quality of stored U.S. addresses decays at a rate of 17% per year. Low address quality results in mail that cannot be delivered, recipients receiving multiple copies or mail meant for another person. This hurts everyone: the mailer, the client and USPS — and contributes to the general public’s feeling that all advertising mail, or junk mail, is annoying and bad for the environment.
Help clients improve the odds of a successful mailing. For a very conservative example, consider that for a mailing of 10,000, where it cost $1.50 for printing, postage and mailing preparation, a 20% undeliverable rate equals 2000 printed pieces thrown-out and $3,000 in wasted budget. Beyond these hard costs, the response rate could have been 20% higher.
When applicable, encourage clients to implement point-of-entry address verification. Good address quality starts at the source. Point-of-entry software does not eliminate the need for on-going address maintenance, but it does improve the efficiency of address maintenance processing.
Simply put, an uncorrectable address cannot be updated by an automated process — yet the mailing house gets the blame for the returned mail.
Identify and Remove Duplicates
Duplicate addresses cause more problems than just wasted materials—and are not worth the incidental revenue they generate for mailers. They waste everyone’s time and lead to poor customer satisfaction.
Imagine the problems and ill will generated for the mailer’s client when a customer record is duplicated as a prospect. This can happen when a contact comes through a call center but purchased through a website or visa-versa. That customer may get promotions for a product they already own, perhaps at a lower price, resulting in a poor impression of the organization.
Mailers that go beyond the USPS-required address cleansing processes to truly help their clients use only the best quality lists will gain trust, respect, loyalty and more orders.
Continue to Advocate Direct Mail
Organizations that continue marketing efforts in a down economy are best positioned, not only to wait out the market, but are generally the first to benefit when the recovery comes. Direct mail continues to deliver both a strong return on investment as well as positive brand recognition when executed properly. Decision makers read and respond far more consistently to relevant offers received by mail than other mediums, including email. From the results of their 2009 Channel Preferences Survey ExactTarget reported a similar finding in consumer behavior. Less waste and greater efficiency enables marketing dollars to go further.
Protect your clients’ return-on-investment and provide first-class service so that they will not drift to other suppliers. Build trust by freely sharing your knowledge of postal regulations to help your clients get the most out of their mailing dollars. Encourage them to design mail pieces to get the best postage rates and still achieve the goals of their mailing. Jump on opportunities to quickly and inexpensively improve address data — and improve customer satisfaction — every time you prepare mail.