PagePlane.com

The USPS challenge is common to posts around the world. And it has nothing to do with how many letters you or I send as consumers. The vast majority of mail is generated by larger enterprises and much of this has been administrative mail (bills statements etc).

As the bottom falls out of this volume, many corporate direct marketers are finding they can no longer piggy-back off administrative postal (and CRM) costs with statement stuffers etc. They need to instead find fresh, solid reasons to reach out to customers.

Well designed direct mail has great cut-through but still needs to make sense for consumers or it will be relegated to junk status with increasing fervour. It needs to work within their overall communications (incl. online) more now than ever, as consumers learn and expect a greater say in how they interact with business.

It's value will actually be forced up because, unfortunately, it is likely to have to justify higher postal charges; the probable future for posts around the world with lower volumes across fixed cost networks.

I'm with you 100 percent Tony. Permission marketing.

As a direct marketing designer who works on print material, I've been reading these articles with interest.

Most of my clients are very sure about their lists. In other words, they're not doing the "spray and pray" method... it's a targeted list and normally a list of their own customers.

New prospects are usually contacted through a partnership with companies where there's a synergy between the two. (Basically, sharing solid lists for mutual benefit between the companies.)

I also focus on larger pieces like magalogs and this is something where people are still hungry for accurate and relevant information. So, good content to a good list is still working. That's going to be important for marketers if mailing costs go up.

Something else I've realized is that while "online" seems like nirvana in terms of reaching the masses for little cost, some businesses sell product or service that people wouldn't know to look for. One prospect of mine want to reach high-level doctors and lawyers and he knew they weren't going to be online looking for a service they probably didn't realize they needed. Direct mail needed to be their solution.

Another aspect to this that designers should keep in mind is that we're not restricted to the U.S. for work. Just last night I was reading "The End of Mail" in Bloomberg Businessweek.

It talked about how, in other countries, the postal system is doing pretty well compared to the U.S. As freelance designers, especially those of us who focus on print, we can work with anyone in the world as long as we're willing to reach out beyond our own shores.

I don't mean for any of this to diminish or write-off the problems we have here. There are serious problems happening. But among other lessons, it probably shows marketers that they need to be even more targeted with their message so it cuts through the clutter. And most of that clutter these days is online.

Well said Mike. I especially like your thought that people are not searching online for products and services they don't know exist.

We're a small non-profit healthcare membership organization - very careful what we mail and how it affects our bottom line. Discovered last month during a seminar that personalized direct mail communicates "serious/important material" to young adults. Email messages indicate casual/optional information.

We'll continue to use direct mail with members and potential members. Just creating address lists that drill down to those most likely to respond.