Direct mail marketers say they can work around the 5-day postal delivery cycle
Published March 08, 2010
Although the recently proposed plan from the U.S. Postal Service to halt mail deliveries on Saturday could adversely impact direct mail marketers, many say that the change would not unduly challenge their business.
The president and executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association, Hamilton Davison, told Advertising Age that "it doesn't do any good to have something delivered two days after the sale is over," but added that the change could help make direct marketing services more economical to provide - and cheaper for clients.
Advertising Age says that estimates of the amount of money that the Post Office could save with the elimination of Saturday delivery range from $2 billion to $3.5 billion per year. The service is deeply in the red, and its leaders have proposed the plan as one of several to help contain costs.
The proposed shift away from Saturday delivery could require integrated marketing professionals who use direct mail as one of their channels to adjust their strategy in order to maximize its effectiveness.