Pandemic-prompted ecommerce purchases created
a 25% year-over-year shipping and packages revenue increase
Live
bees are OK to mail via the United States Postal Service (USPS) during the
holidays, but bottles of whiskey are not. Pop-up mailers depicting X-ray rooms
are welcome, but not explosives. Even performance marketers need reminders like
these about what can and can’t be mailed during this month’s package deluge.
USPS
decided to highlight the rules because the agency will be dealing with millions
and millions of boxes in many shapes and sizes. As of Sept. 30, the USPS saw
pandemic-prompted ecommerce purchases create a year-over-year shipping and
packages revenue increase of
25%. What’s remarkable
about that number is it includes last year’s holiday season of 1.7 billion
packages.
That’s
why the postal service pivoted the day after the U.S. general election that had
required prioritization of record numbers of mail-in ballots. On Nov. 4, USPS
highlighted guidelines for all mailers about what USPS allows its customers to
send. These guidelines are especially necessary now, because the postal service
expects Dec. 14-21 to be the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week
of the season.
While
the agency’s cautions against shipping ammunition are largely aimed at average
Americans mailing presents to loved ones, USPS said the guidelines also apply
to marketers.
USPS
senior public relations representative Kim Frum said the No. 1 mistake all
postal service customers will make this month is getting mailing addresses
wrong, so “never guess at the ZIP code.” Still, Frum and Martin said, mail carriers
won’t be Grinches.
“If
there is improper postage, no postage, or is below minimum size, greeting cards
without a return address will generally be delivered with postage due during
the month of December,” Frum said. (This is for domestic First-Class Mail
only.)
What about direct mail marketers who
want to stand out?
If
the postcard from Whalen’s Furniture arrives address-side up, the first thing
the recipient notices is it looks like a woman is kicking her way out of it
with her wedge platform sandals. This is an example of an irregular-shaped
mailer, also known as customized market mail, said Tiffany Narwick-Krivos, vp
of business development for ShipShapes, a product of ImageWorks Manufacturing.
She
said marketers are snapping up oddly shaped, uniquely textured mail from ShipShapes at much higher volumes because
of the pandemic. The goofy mail pieces have also yielded clients response rates
as much as 300% higher than their traditional direct mail campaigns.
“We
are busier this year with B2C, because marketers know everyone is home,”
Narwick-Krivos said about her company that sells to b-to-b and B2C marketers.
“We have seen about a 15% increase in sales compared to last year.”
Some
clients’ b-to-b customers are in their workplaces, though. That’s why marketing
agency Verdi Group’s flat direct mail piece that opens as a pop-up of an X-ray
room is seeing a 20% lead rate only halfway into the eight-week campaign.
When
the targets of the campaign, radiology directors and managers at U.S.
hospitals, open the mail, a miniature machine, wall stand and patient table
appear to depict Carestream’s product launch of its DRX-Compass X-ray Room, said Mary
Bonaccio, Verdi Group’s client services director.
“The
creative challenge was to prepare an intriguing piece that would have a shelf
life,” Bonaccio said. “We know from the Carestream reps and from their customers
that our past mailers, particularly dimensional ones, are not only shared with
colleagues, but kept on a shelf where they are displayed, often for years.”
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