USPS 2024 Incentives: A Direct Mail Renaissance in Digital Marketing? – CMSWire

The Gist

• Direct mail meets email? USPS’s 2024 incentives offer a 30% postage credit for increased mail volumes, aiming to blend direct mail with digital marketing strategies.
• USPS credits as incentive. Registration for the incentives is through the USPS Mailing Promotions Portal, with credits applicable until the end of 2025.
• The customer experience benefits. The program encourages a multichannel approach, integrating direct mail with digital for a seamless customer experience.

The

There are three conditions that exist for a Mail Owner to receive these postage credits:

1. The mail owner must register for the incentive and agree to their baseline volume.
2. The mail owner must mail at least 1 million qualifying mail pieces in CY24 in the mail class relevant to the incentive in question (First-Class Mail or Marketing Mail).
3. The mail owner’s CY24 volume must exceed their volume in FY23.

Related Article: Using Data, AI to Maximize Email Engagement and Personalization

Who’s Excited About Direct Mail? 

According to a recent survey by RRD, which provides direct-mail services along with marketing, packaging, print and supply chain solutions, consumers are showing renewed interest in direct mail (63% of Gen Z and 62% of millennials are more excited about direct mail now than they were a year ago). 

The sell for marketers to take the direct-mail plunge?

“Today, virtually all serious direct marketers are incorporating USPS postal promotions into their budgets and counting on maxing out savings in an effort to offset rising postal expenses,” said Steve Arsenijevic, vice president of Client Strategy, Direct Marketing, RRD. “This began as an optional program where marketers would only participate in certain promotions like tactile, emerging tech or informed delivery (ID). Now policy and best practices indicate that the USPS promotional discount should be applied and achieved throughout the year, and on every possible qualifying piece of marketing mail.”

If indeed there is the so-called renewed interest in direct mail, especially among younger demographics, how should marketers adjust their messaging, design and content strategies to engage these audiences effectively?

Clearly there is evidence of the mail channel growing in certain markets and applications, according to Stefanie Cortes, director of Strategic Analysis, Direct Marketing, RRD. Using mail as the proactive, lead-generating channel is resonating with digital advertisers, and new techniques in creative presentation and format along with advanced digital print and delivery systems connect the mail channel with the digital, social and email cadences, she added. 

“This allows direct marketers,” Cortes said, “to look at campaign activity and performance results at the customer/prospect level across all media spend. With these more comprehensive insights, marketers can give better direction to creative teams about messaging. When are we communicating with this prospect or customer in relation to their experience with us and our previous messaging? Answering this allows creative teams to be responsive and interactive as opposed to simply restating the same message over and over. Rather, the messaging can evolve and add interest to the recipient as they move along their decision journey.”

Cortes argues there is clear evidence that direct marketing requires multiple touches with a prospect to gain an optimal adoption rate and response. The series, or sequence of messages along with the timeliness and relevance of the message content, factor heavily into this optimization as well, she added. 

“So the prescription for success in the new and emerging direct marketing categories seems to be: incorporate mail into existing campaigns, measure cumulative success across all channels, version mail creative to fit into an overall campaign that is reflective of prior touches and other channel activity and test, test, test,” Cortes said.

Related Article: 7 Irresistible Email Subject Lines

What Are the Pitfalls for Marketers When Planning Mail Budgets?

Robert Lindsay, vice president, Postal Affairs, RRD, said marketers should engage enthusiastically with this 2024 Growth Incentive in concert with the 2024 Promotions that have also been approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). Postage costs for the incremental volume not only get the 30% credit but are also eligible for promotion discounts ranging from 3% to 5%, he added.

“Assuming many marketers throughout the country engage in this Growth Incentive — this will send a clear message to the Postal Service that there is indeed a ‘price elasticity’ relationship between postage rates and volume,” Lindsay said. “This will then lead to continued initiatives by the Postal Service to increase volume by offering other targeted postage price reductions.”

Clearly the USPS postal rate increases over the last and coming cycles create a hurdle for direct marketers. This has led to a chilling effect in several mainstream mail sectors (nonprofit, retail, financial services, telecom/cable, just to name a few), according to Lindsay. 

“As costs rise, the line of acceptable response goes up, cutting quantities and causing large-scale marketers to recalibrate their cost to acquire metrics,” he said. “The postal promotions program is a lifeline that must be incorporated into the overall budgeting plan for direct marketers today. That said, plans must sometimes wait for the issuance of the next year’s calendar for promotions in order to confirm that certain promotions are continuing, understanding new promotions and program changes since these discounts are now counted on as part of the overall direct marketing budget.”

Incorporating Online and Direct Mail Marketing Strategies

Naturally, no marketing team will recommend putting all marketing eggs into the USPS. Are there any innovative strategies for integrating direct mail with digital channels to create a seamless customer experience?

There are many opportunities for marketers to leverage offline channels that complement and reinforce online channels, according to Cortes. Sending personalized direct mail to a prospect who visited your website — or, for example, left something in their cart — can effectively convert them into a customer. Retargeting involves obtaining the visitor’s IP address from a website visit, or mailing address from an app visit, and then sending a dynamically printed postcard with a targeted message to their residence.

“We’re also seeing a massive uptick in QR code usage in the past year; some research has pointed to QR code usage has more than doubled YoY,” Cortes said. “Marketers are also able to leverage this data to get to the next level of engagement.” 

The extension of the use of dynamic QRs is the implementation of PURLs (personalized URLs) can also aid a multichannel strategy. Through the PURL, marketers can sharpen their response tracking and, more importantly, increase their response by offering prospects a personalized web landing. 

“This allows us to take the key drivers from the mail impetus and carry them forward to greet the respondent as they continue their decision journey to the web page,” Cortes said. “Time and time again we are realizing substantial lift and persistence in respondents that move through this tactic.”

Environmental Impact of Direct Mail

Of course, when talking about direct mail, there will be environmental concerns. Sustainability is a big topic today, and marketers must be conscious of this dynamic. How is the USPS addressing environmental concerns, if any, related to increased mail volumes? Are there sustainability initiatives tied to this program?

“The Postal Service Corporate Sustainability Initiatives team focuses on integrating sustainability principles across the Postal Service,” Lott of the USPS told CMSWire. “This includes eliminating waste in our operations, reducing negative environmental impacts by focusing on conserving resources at the facility level, increasing recycling, reducing waste sent to landfills, expanding procurement of environmentally preferable products, and reducing consumable spending.”

Adblock test (Why?)