Postal Service Cutbacks Increase the Advantages of Email Marketing

Direct mail via the United States Postal Service has long been a marketing standby. As promised by postal service creed, your marketing message will arrive to your customer despite rain or heat or gloom of night – at least if it’s not a federal holiday. Or a Sunday. Or now, it seems, a Saturday.

The U.S. Postal Service has announced plans to do away with Saturday delivery, citing a need to reduce costs. U.S. Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe said at a recent press conference that the cash-strapped federal mail service will reduce services to weekdays only starting in August. While the change is not yet a done deal (lawmakers and businesses are fighting to revise the plan), it’s a move that’s certainly jarring to businesses that depend on traditional mail services to deliver time-sensitive offers and messages to customers.

It’s also another reason for marketing managers to consider the advantages of transitioning to digital marketing efforts. With business happening 24/7 in the online marketplace, email marketing is steadily gaining traction over traditional direct mail.

Here are just some of the advantages:

• Email marketing makes it possible to customize the time your message is delivered to your customer right down to the optimal hour and minute of the day. You have total control over delivery, eliminating worries about potential service reductions possible with the U.S. Postal Service.
• Email marketing also gives you verifiable results. Do you know how many of your direct mail marketing materials were opened and read versus how many were simply tossed in the trash? With email marketing you can track every click to see how your customers are responding to your message. You can also agilely test and improve your marketing efforts with the feedback you receive.
• You can actually reduce your costs and reach more customers with email marketing when compared to traditional direct mail. Going digital means eliminating the cost of printed materials and avoiding the ever-climbing price of postage.

Are you ready to transition to email marketing? Try a free email append match test from TowerData to see how many customer email addresses could be added to your mailing list in just one day.

Photo Credit: joelanman