Tag: direct mail

Snail Mail is going digital (U.S)

Posted by | Sep 18, 2008 | |

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is going digital on bulk mail service. Unique scannable bar codes will start to show up in May 2009 on business, first class mail and packages. The codes should speed up processing of that mail and will allow businesses as well as post offices to track the movement and delivery of each piece sent.

Businesses can expect the bar codes to bring the same kinds of efficiencies in data mining and management found online to snail-mail billing and direct marketing. The digital mail revolution, named “Intelligent Mail” by the USPS, will help companies zero in on their best sales prospects by much more quickly gauging response rates to mail offers and tweaking pitches if they flub.

By May 2011, all bulk mail must be coded to receive postage discounts, although, at first, mailers can choose whether or not to use Intelligent Mail. Figure about half of first-class mail will be voluntary participants.

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Hungarian Postal Service to refresh information for their database

Posted by | Sep 10, 2008 | |

The Hungarian Postal Service (Magyar Posta) will refresh its database containing information about the lifestyles of clients, and consequently they are currently sending out millions of questionnaires to Hungarian households, reports Napi.hu (subscriber only).

The questionnaires will be addressed to those clients who are currently included in the database, in addition to being sent to another two million residents. The questions can also be answered online.

The update was made necessary because the rights to manage the current database will expire at the end of this year, so Magyar Posta is required by law to delete it. Results from the current study can be used from next year onward. Based on the collected information, the company can approach clients with customized offers which fit into their lifestyle.

As they have previously, the company is encouraging clients to fill in and return the questionnaires with prizes worth a total of Ft 10 million (over €41,000), with the main prize being a Fiat.

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Royal Mail puts brands into consumers hands through innovative new channel (UK)

Posted by | Sep 8, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is continuing its drive to deliver innovation in marketing by launching a new advertising and communications solution named Matter, which literally puts brands into consumer’s hands.

Matter is a box that fits the standard dimensions of a UK household letterbox, containing a range of physical brand representations enabling advertisers to get their products and services into the homes of their target customers.

And Matter has already received the endorsement of consumers – with more than 30,000 people registered to receive a box of brands after a test mailing created a storm of interest, featuring on more than 100 blogs and websites, as well as YouTube.

Royal Mail, which developed the solution in an exclusive partnership with Matter Media Limited, is now talking to advertisers keen to be involved in the next Matter mailing scheduled for October.

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USPS looks to change Move Update requirements

Posted by | Sep 5, 2008 | |

New proposed changes to the US Postal Service’s Move Update program would require businesses to update their bulk-mailing lists every 95 days, instead of the current 185 days.

The proposed new standard, which pertains to Standard or First-Class Mail pieces, would take effect on November 23. It is intended to reduce costs and waste from undeliverable bulk mail 50 pct by 2010, the USPS said.

According to the USPS, an estimated 9.7 billion pieces of undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA) mail are received every year, costing around USD 2 billion to process.

Companies that fail to comply can be charged 7 cents for each piece of mail in a mailing. Previously, there were no fines for mailings that had a considerable amount of undeliverable mail.

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Taiwan, China urged to launch direct mail

Posted by | Sep 5, 2008 | |

Taiwanese and Chinese mail operators on Wednesday called on their governments to allow direct mail delivery across the Taiwan Strait soon.
“It takes five days to send an ordinary piece of mail from Taipei to Beijing because the mail has to go through Japan or Kong Kong,” said Huang Shu-chien, chairman of the Taiwan Postal Association and vice president of Taiwan’s state-run Chunghwa Post Co.

Huang, along with other senior postal officials and company executives from the two sides, made the appeal at a seminar during his visit to Beijing.

Taiwan and China, which split during a Chinese civil war in 1949, began allowing mail to be delivered between the two sides through a third place in 1979.

Huang noted that there are no technical problems with bypassing a third location to directly deliver mail between Taiwan and China, but he said it requires negotiations to solve the issue of direct transportation.

“The opening of direct mail delivery would halve the time and money,” Huang said.

Wang Yuci, deputy head of the State Postal Bureau of the People’s Republic of China, also urged both sides to grasp the historic opportunity to enhance and expand cooperation in the area of postal services and to soon make possible direct cross-strait mail delivery.

Taiwan-China relations have been improving since Taiwan’s new President Ma Ying-jeou, who favors closer ties with China, took office in May.

Taiwan opened itself to more Chinese tourists and the two sides launched direct weekend cross-strait charter flights in July.

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