Data-driven marketing bears potential opportunities for international postal operators to boost e-commerce and connect consumers with brands by means of leading global marketers, according to speakers at last week’s 2015 International Post Corporation Annual Conference in Seville, Spain.
The IPC conference themed ‘Data-Driven Marketing and e-Commerce: opportunities for posts’ hosted 25 CEOs and senior managers of the posts from America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The conference focused on how the postal companies can successfully leverage advertising mail and data-driven marketing to boost e-commerce and explore new business opportunities.
Advertising and trans-promotional mail account for around half of all mail volumes worldwide and are therefore a huge business for posts, IPC explained. While priority and non-priority letters are in continuous decline, the reduction in addressed advertising mail has stabilised to 2.5% and unaddressed advertising mail has even recorded some growth in two of the last three years, according to the IPC Global Postal Industry Report.
IPC also stressed that advertising mail can boost e-commerce volumes thus substantially contributing to online sales. “Through catalogues and vouchers, advertising mail is one of the most impactful channels to boost sales, with for instance 65% of US consumers of all ages making purchases as a result of direct mail.”
Herbert-Michael Zapf, President and CEO of IPC commented: “In today’s digital era, advertising mail remains a powerful and trusted tool and continues to present opportunities for posts. By comparison to other direct marketing tools, direct mail has the biggest return on investment. Surveys show that even digital natives trust direct mail more than other tools. The marketing reality of today is not about finding one channel or about choosing between online or offline, but about the right set of channels working together to maximise the return on investment.”
“Advertising mail delivers advantages that digital media simply cannot match: it is the only medium which speaks to customers’ senses of touch and smell. It is also increasingly used by e-commerce players to boost online sales. Even big players such as Google are using direct mail.” Zapf concluded.
