USPS’s proposed price increase might shoot-up costs by 5% for direct mailers, and more than 23.3% for companies that mail Standard Mail Parcels, reports DM News. Ouch.
Regardless of how you feel about it, postal charges will invariably increase over time. There are many reasons behind this trend. Instead of complaining or worrying, the pragmatic thing to do is embrace cross-media services. Why? Because cross-media can help insure your business against adverse effects of any price increases – now and forever. Here’s how.
A postal price increase will cause one or all of the following reactions among marketers:
- They will expect more results from their marketing dollars. In other words, they’ll seek to make their marketing more effective, and basically do more with less. Adding cross-media services – such as PURLs and Landing Pages – will lift response rates and greatly improve the effectiveness and impact of each and every dollar they spend.
- Marketers will demand better measurability and analytics for all their campaigns. Remember, you can’t evaluate what you can’t measure or track – and cross-media services connect print and traditional media to DATA. Say hello to “Quantifiable ROI.”
- Marketers will reduce the amount of direct mail they send out and spend more money on new media (Internet marketing). Direct mail is here to stay, but any way you slice it marketers will invariably seek to add more new media to their mix, including email marketing, text (SMS) marketing, QR Codes, etc. This is an inescapable trend. So instead of swimming against the current, seize the initiative and be the one to offer your customers these services.
Not only will cross-media services insure you against losing business due to rising postal costs, they also enable you to profit in all three scenarios. Not just profit, but also become a high-value marketing solutions partner to your customers, which will help you sell more and more effectively. (And you get all those benefits for a surprisingly small price!)
If you don’t offer these services, your customers will go with someone who does.
