“Can They Deliver?”
According to its own statistics, the United States Postal Service (USPS) ended 2011 with a net loss of $5.1 billion. By the end of its second quarter in 2012, it had already lost $3.2 billion net, compared to $2.2 billion net for the same period a year prior. In that same six-month span, operating expenses went up $938 million and total mail volume dropped down 1.7 billion pieces. Year-to-date for 2012, losses already are at $6.5 billion, which is $1.4 billion more than all of 2011, and there's still a whole two quarters left in the year.
So, on the surface at least, "financially sound," isn't a way you'd describe the USPS. It sounds bleak, especially if you depend on the USPS for your business, but oddly enough, "bleak" doesn't necessarily mean "bad". In fact, for your business that may be exactly where you want the organization to be.
While it's true that costly retiree benefits, declining mail volume and congressional gridlock (the USPS needs government approval outside itself to alter certain parts of its financial structure, such as how employee benefits are funded) are strangling the USPS financially, that doesn't mean the organization has become any less efficient or useful. If anything, the opposite is true.
Predictably, the USPS has responded to a lack of revenue with an effort to (wait for it) get more revenue. These money-making efforts have manifested themselves a lot of different ways: Increased advertising, budget cuts and fat-trimming where possible, and what matters most to you—a slew of new direct mail products and generally handy business tools.
From discounts on certain types of direct mail to wholly new marketing products, the Postal Service is going out of its way to get your business. Direct mail and package services are a big deal for the USPS (package services and shipping being one of the few growth areas at a revenue gain of 13 percent last quarter), so it's promoting their use. While the USPS may be floundering, its suffering may be your gain in the form of reduced costs, new direct mail products and a drive for technical innovation and cross-market integration.
The Drive to Digital (and How it's a Good Thing)
It's easy to see how digital communication has hurt the Postal Service's bottom line. Less mail equals less money, pure and simple. But, as digital kills overall mail volume and eliminates the relevancy of certain forms of printed communication, it's also making other kinds of mail more common and valuable—such as cross-media mail-to-web marketing pieces.
"Some people have looked at the mail and said digital is the enemy, but we look at it the total opposite way," said Gary Reblin, vice president of domestic products for the United States Postal Service. "How can digital open new experiences, open new opportunities, work with the mail? That's what we're really trying to do, push the mail into what it will enable, what it will be able to do in the next 10 or 20 years."
Sounds nice, sure, but what does this mean for your business? How about discounts on direct mail that uses certain technology features like QR codes? What about couponing that involves social share features incorporated with Facebook? Catalogs and circulars that integrate better with shopping discounts via smartphones? Improved direct mail product samples, say of a promotional mug or T-shirt? All that and more is either already here or on the way from the USPS. Most notably, in January 2013, the Postal Service will begin issuing a calendar of sales for its marketing products, making it easy to coordinate your work with available sales on its products. Some of the savings can be substantial (and well-timed), such as sales on direct mail planned around the holiday shopping if it uses certain cross-media features.
"We're really trying to link multi-media approaches to campaigns," said Reblin. "What we're trying to do is go through and look at a series of ideas, and then work with mailers to look at and try some of these things to see how they relate to their businesses."
Market Better, Easier
Working with technology is one way the USPS is trying to expand its business, offering more technical mastery and power behind direct mail, but it's also marketing its services from a near-opposite angle: simplifying mail product usage and lowering cost. Whether through simplified shipping processes to new direct mail offerings, the USPS is doing a lot to make mail easier and cheaper.
"What we've done is tried to work on simplification," said Reblin. "People have often thought that mailing is difficult, especially for small businesses. What we're trying to do is offer new products in direct mail that make it simple for small businesses to hit their targeted areas."
One such product is Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). "What it allows people to do, especially neighborhood businesses, is just mail to everybody on that carrier route about your business," said Reblin. "Say you're a pizza shop that just opened in the neighborhood. What you'd do is just go online, put in your address and it will tell you what carrier routes are in that area," he explained. "So if you wanted to mail everyone in that carrier route, you would say, 'just deliver 520 pieces' and you can bring it to your local post office, and the only thing you need to put on it is 'postal customer' and just on the slip you give us tell us what carrier route it's going to."
Proforma Big Easy Solutions is one business that has been using the USPS Every Door Direct Mail program to great success. Theresa Mueller, owner of the New Orleans-based company, explained how she's turned the program into a workhorse for her business.
"The USPS EDDM program allows businesses to mail carrier routes for a reduced postage rate," she said. "We have developed a turn-key solution that includes designing the direct mail piece, printing, route selection, maps, paperwork completion and delivery to the post office. Our program provides customers a direct mail solution that saves them time and money.
"The program was created in the wake of the Post Office's recent budget problems, she explained. "The EDDM program is designed to increase the Post Office's revenue without increasing overhead. This allows businesses to use direct mail at a more affordable cost. It's a win-win situation."
The Future ... of Mail Analytics
While new products and cross-media integration are more or less here now, the USPS is working on some features to improve its business in the future. One such area would be an analytics platform for businesses, similar to Google Analytics, designed to record and track the performance of direct mail.
"The postal service is exploring many other areas in [mail tracking]," said Reblin. "We've actually just started a new digital group that's exploring what we can do more to give a customer a platform to be able to go and manage all the tracking data. That's our next foray into it, just exploring into how to allow someone to manage it and get more value out of it."
From high-tech options like the above, to better, simpler products, the USPS seems to be committed to surviving the digital crunch and coming out a stronger and more effective organization. As for what will be the outcome of its budget struggles, it's hard to say, but in the meantime, there seems to be plenty of benefits for your business. 
- Companies:
- Proforma
- Places:
- Honolulu
- New Orleans