USPS is working to “reposition” mail and ensure businesses recognize it as an effective marketing channel, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer Jacqueline Krage Strako told industry leaders this week.
The organization has conducted research that shows businesses can attract new customers and grow their sales by integrating mail into their digital marketing efforts.
“This is the opportunity for our industry,” Strako said at the National Postal Forum, the mailing and shipping industry conference being held in Indianapolis this week.
For example, Informed Delivery allows consumers to see their mail twice — once when they receive their email notification showing the pieces that will soon arrive in their mailbox, and again when the customer retrieves those pieces from the box.
“Informed Delivery has multiplied the impressions of mail, and it is transforming the ‘mail moment’ from physical to digital and back again,” Strako said.
She also discussed how businesses can use the mail to reinforce messages delivered through other channels.
One example: Using data collection analytics, a retailer can see the kind of products a customer is researching on social media, then send a customized mailing to promote those offerings based on the customer’s visit to the firm’s website.
Strako also cited examples of businesses that have used postcards with promotional codes to drive consumers to their websites. One company saw a 35 percent lift in orders per customer and an almost 60 percent increase in the amount each customer spent.
The bottom line, she said: “Mail combined with digital are powerful drivers of communications and commerce.”