Direct Mail is an essential part of every company and organization’s marketing strategy so it only makes sense to take advantage of the Direct Mail Discounts available to you as well as the Direct Mail Promotions available through the USPS. What many marketers are unaware of is that there are a number of ways to reduce the cost of marketing to customers through the mail. This is an easy way to increase the ROI of your marketing efforts and the fact that Direct Mail is such an effective channel you’ll find that it extends well beyond the basic cost savings from the discounts & promotions applied to the direct mail campaigns themselves.
In this article we’ll look at the most common types of direct mail and the most effective direct mail pieces you can utilize that are a part of these discount & promotional programs.
Types of Direct Mail
Ultimately anything mailed out to a customer or your target audience can be considered direct mail, but for the sake of being as relevant as possible we are focusing on the marketing aspect of direct mail and not simply communication. With that being said a number of different marketing material can be sent out via Direct Mail (which also takes advantage of the direct mail discounts available through the USPS).
Let’s look at a list of the most common and most effective types of direct mail that companies and organizations are using to get in front of their audience.
Brochures
These are perfect for sharing critical information or hard hitting sales copy that either educate or move customers to action. They are a good middle ground type of marketing piece that will do a good job of increasing visibility and driving engagement.
Packaging Inserts
With the explosive growth of ecommerce, this type of direct mail is coming nested inside of another type of direct mail. Package inserts are being used inside the parcels containing other products that consumers are purchasing which cross-sell, upsell or enhance the experience through brand.
Catalogs
All of us are familiar with catalogs and most of us love to look through them. There has been a resurgence in the demand for catalogs and retailers have taken notice by doing more catalog printing as well as mailing of catalogs. Typically these have a higher cost because they are bigger and heavier, but that’s why taking advantage of direct mail promotions is so important to keep those costs as low as possible.
Postcards
A tried and true direct mail piece is the postcard. A simple but effective mailer that gets a message, invitation or promotion in front of your audience quickly and at a low price point.
Direct Mail Discounts Through the USPS
Many marketers are unfortunately unaware that the USPS offers a number of direct mail discounts and direct mail promotions throughout the year every year. This is extremely helpful in that it can drop costs for your direct mail campaigns, but also in many cases has attached to it other value adds that will generate a higher ROI for your marketing efforts.
Below we have a list of the recent direct mail discounts & promotions being offered by the USPS.
Tactile, Sensory, & Interactive Mailpiece Engagement Promotion
Anyone including a tactile or sensory experience to their mailer such as visual effects, scent, etc. get a postage discount.
Earned Value Promotion
With this direct mail promotion mailers earn a $0.02 per mailpiece credit when using Business Reply Mail, Courtesy Reply Mail, or Share Mail.
Emerging & Advanced Technology Promotion
To be eligible piece must incorporate any of the following technologies: NFC technology, Video in Print, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, or Integration with Voice Assistant.
Informed Delivery Promotions
We highlighted this direct mail promotion and are writing about it since at the time of this writing it is the current active promo with the USPS and a good one to take advantage of.
This direct mail promo is providing a 4% discount on postage for any company or organization that runs an Informed Delivery campaign. And if you aren’t aware of what Informed Delivery is, it’s basically you promoting your direct mail piece via email through the USPS which also links back to your website or landing page. Cost savings and higher ROI for your direct mail campaign.
Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion
This one encourages companies to highlight marketing messages using color, dynamic variable print, and / or personalization.
Mobile Shopping Promotion
This direct mail discount is a 2% discount for companies that send mailings that utilize the connection between direct mail and the digital shopping experience. Getting recipients to go from the mailpiece, directly to a mobile-optimized online shopping experience using things like QR Codes, Snap Tags, and Watermarks.
So if you didn’t know, now you do and if you did already know about these direct mail discounts & promotions, this is a great reminder. The fact is that taking advantage of these promotions makes sense for nearly every organization and we are here to help.
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