The U.S. Postal Service has launched an integrated media campaign to promote its free Web-based service Every Door Direct Mail for small businesses, said Patricia Licata, senior PR representative at USPS. USPS also re-designed its online shipping tool Click-N-Ship and said a Click-N-Ship for Business product will be available mid-April.
USPS’s awareness campaign for Every Door Direct Mail, developed by its AOR Campbell Ewald, will include television ads shown throughout the summer as well as print ads and mail flyers. The campaign will also include spots on national radio at the end of April, web banners from March through May, and presence on the USPS Facebook and Twitter pages, said Paul Vogel, USPS’s president and chief marketing sales officer.
“We want to raise awareness among small businesses about the benefits of direct mail and how easy and affordable it is to use,” Licata said.
Every Door Direct Mail is an expansion of Simplified Addressing, which allows customers in rural and urban areas to send mailings without the recipient’s full name or address. In April of last year, Simplified Addressing expanded into a product for small businesses and re-branded as Every Door Direct Mail. Its current incarnation allows small businesses to distribute mailings by neighborhood, ZIP code or city, in lieu of an address list. Leveraging USPS’s delivery statistics, small businesses can decide which geographic area to target based on the number of active deliveries per route. The mailing process, from determining where mailings should be distributed to generating facing slips, can be handled online. Customers drop their mailings off at the post office and pay only for the postage they use.
Vogel said during a March 20 press conference that Every Door Direct Mail had generated $153 million in revenue from its April inception through December. USPS’s target is $1 billion by 2016.
The USPS also re-designed and re-launched its Click-N-Ship website, adding a “Ship Again” feature that allows users to leverage shipping history to quickly recreate labels.
Other new features include the ability to save labels as PDF files, easier access to Priority Mail Flat Rate Shipping, and increased Address Book capacity from 3000 to 5000 addresses.
In April, the USPS will launch the redesigned Shipping Assistant desktop application as “Click-N-Ship For Business.” The redesigned app will provide an improved customer experience and streamlined “look and feel”. Additional enhancements are planned for later this year.
In mid-April, USPS will launch Click-N-Ship for Business, targeting small- and medium-size businesses that require shipment of 10 to 100 pieces of daily mail. Features unique to Click-N-Ship for business are a downloadable desktop application and enhanced payment capabilities that include international shipments.
