US firm launches hybrid direct mail service for small businesses
Virginia-based printing and mailing company Taradel LLC has launched a new online service to help small businesses set up local direct mail campaigns anywhere in the United States. The U-Select service effectively offers entry for small businesses into a kind of hybrid mail service through Taradel’s printing house and the US Postal Service.
The website allows small businesses to target specific US Postal Service Carrier routes or zip codes in their neighbourhoods, in order to direct a saturation mail campaign.
A user can type in their physical business address and zip code into the U-Select website to display an interactive map of areas surrounding their business. They can then “point and click” to hand pick target areas, generating an instant count of households and businesses within the area.
The process then allows the user to select a direct mail product through Taradel’s graphic design, printing and mailing business.
Taradel’s system is designed to work with the US Postal Service’s new Every Door Direct Mail service, a local advertising mail delivery service based on a simplified approach to addressing. The service was launched as a market trial this month, allowing direct mailers to avoid permit fees and requirements to use individual recipient addresses for mailpieces.
Jim Fitzgerald, the founder and CEO at Taradel, said that throughout his 20 years in direct mail, he had seen small businesses put off from direct marketing because they saw it as a “complicated experience”.
He said: “When we learned that the USPS was expanding the simplified mail process we decided to leverage that opportunity and build a targeted selection tool.
“With U-Select, and our aggressive turnkey print and mail programs, we’ve effectively democratised direct mail for millions of businesses,” Fitzgerald added.
