If your agency’s omnichannel marketing approach for your clients does not integrate print into the media mix (which it should), read on to see how you can offer direct mail services to your clients.
Don’t let an understaffed team or lack of mailing experience keep you from making the most of an effective communication channel that produces results. You can implement a direct mail strategy without adding staff with direct mail automation from Postalytics.
Take note: Printed mail is not to be neglected. “Direct mail is still a $60 billion marketing channel,” reports Chris Lyons, president, and publisher of BRAND United, adding that employing advanced software and automation technology can help any marketer’s cause. When executed in a “smart” way, printed direct mail is an extremely effective medium that “can be up to 600 times more effective than your digital marketing spend,” Lyons says. That is eye-popping ROI (return on investment)!
What we’ll cover:
Marketing Agencies That Lack Direct Mail Experience Can Be Wary
However, it is challenging for many agency creatives to grasp and understand the impact of a direct mail campaign from start to finish. Many younger, digital-centric graphic designers “Come in blind,” Lyons laments, “Because people coming out of school are not being educated in direct mail communication and print production.” So, self-education becomes paramount.
“Mailers who are precise with their manufacturing, distribution, and database management can actually decrease their overall costs,” Lyons adds. Targeted digital printing enhancements, such as the use of variable data, are nothing new in the direct-mail sphere. Yet many marketers are not aware of how these capabilities work, how they can boost digital campaigns and their potential impact on sales.
They may also be wary of the rules and regulations marketers must follow to qualify their mail for the lowest postage costs. Designing mail according to postal service specifications and preparing the mail correctly are skills that some agencies simply do not possess.
Today’s sophisticated, data-driven innovations can provide the cleanest, most efficient, and most powerful mailing lists for your clients, especially for those brands that are leveraging outbound, electronic content marketing to create huge databases.
“Deliverability is crucial to print campaign success,” Lyons states, “And implementing the right software programs can almost ensure there is no wasted distribution.”
The Postalytics Approach to Direct Mail for Marketing Agencies
Lyons describes software that enables data access and integration as the “secret sauce” for marketers in the know. Automation that can turn direct mail into a digital marketing channel provides a distinct competitive advantage. For example, “Postalytics, Inc. taps into CRM [customer relationship management] and marketing automation systems,” he explains. “Its tools give [these] attributes to direct mail as part of the process.”
The firm’s all-in-one, self-service direct mail automation makes it fast, easy, and simple to create, send, and track the results of direct mail campaigns. Postalytics campaign dashboards show the delivery and response status of each piece of mail, with critical ROI metrics calculated in real-time.
Lastly, during these times of workplace staffing shortages, partnering with a vendor that has mailing/software expertise can be a cost advantage because agencies don’t have to bear the brunt of bringing on full-time employees, notes Joe Marin, Lyons’s colleague and senior VP of Education & Training at the PRINTING United Alliance national trade association. “Finding dependable, skilled full-time employees is a challenge—and they’re expensive!” Marin notes. “Depending on the industry, a lot of staff movement and poaching may be going on.”
Mailpieces designed with Postalytics templates meet USPS requirements, and the platform handles all the steps necessary to verify deliverability, submit the mailings, and track the results. Your clients will love it.
The Postalytics Agency Edition: A White labeled Profit Center for Agencies
The team at Postalytics has created a special version of the software for marketing agencies, the Postalytics Agency Edition. Agencies are flocking to sign up, as this version of the automated direct mail platform has some amazing features that have never been available previously:
- Unlimited number of client accounts in one agency edition account
- White labeled experience, your clients will never know of Postalytics
- Add margin to the mailers sent in your account – the more you send, the more you earn!
Postage Rate Hikes Are Minimized
Because of inflation and increased operating expenses, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has told mailers to expect twice-a-year postage rate increases until the USPS generates enough revenue to support operations and sorely needed capital expenditures.
When the price of a First Class Forever stamp rises, the increase is widely reported. However, Postalytics customers do not pay the single-piece retail postage rates associated with the Forever stamps. By combining mail from multiple customers and performing sorting and preparation steps, mail for Postalytics customers typically qualifies for lower rates.
Nobody enjoys paying more for postage. Partnering with Postalytics allows agencies to take advantage of mailing expertise to lower the impact of rate adjustments.
Chris Lyons of print/direct mail proponent BRAND United referred to Congress passing the Postal Reform Act this past winter as “a miracle,” considering the federal agency’s complex relationships with its 650,000 employees and their respective labor unions. The new law, along with the rate increases, will provide the US Postal Service a level of stability that decreased when mail volumes began dropping years ago.
Marketing agencies that may have shied away from offering direct mail strategies to their clients because of a lack of mailing experience or uneasiness about the USPS can now take advantage of this highly efficient marketing channel. Direct mail fits perfectly with digital marketing campaign elements. Postalytics offers agencies an opportunity to use direct mail without the need to add expert mailing employees to their organizations.
About the Author
Dennis Kelly
Dennis Kelly is CEO and co-founder of Postalytics. Dennis joined Boingnet, the predecessor to Postalytics, in 2013. Boingnet was focused on providing print and direct mail marketing service providers the ability to add digital marketing channels to their direct mail campaigns. Postalytics is Dennis’ 6th startup. He has been involved in starting and growing early-stage technology ventures for over 30 years and has held senior management roles at a diverse set of large technology firms including Computer Associates, Palm Inc. and Achieve Healthcare Information Systems.