Is using the post office for your business going to be a thing of the past? Many would say that snail mail is on its way out because of the growing popularity of corporate shipping and also the fact that it is so easy to send someone a message by email. Aside from the expense of maintaining an email list, it is practically free to send out an email or make announcements on FB. Sending out advertisements on postcards is a lot more expensive, even if you are opting to use bulk rate.
Another thing to consider is that the United States Post Office has been in trouble financially since 2006 and is projecting real layoffs and shortfalls by 2016. The United States Post office has announced it will cut half of its workforce by then and as of August 1, 2013 it has already stopped delivering mail on a Saturday. This is because the administration is making employees pay for retiree health payments 75 years in advance, a move that was legislated and is now costing the post office 9.2 billion dollars. The result to have prefunded benefits caused the Postal Service to default on $5.5 million dollars announced that it would stop delivering mail on Saturdays as of August 1, 2013. This plan, announced on January 27, 2013, was thwarted after Congress passed legislation saying that the Postal Service had no authority to implement such a measure without a rational analysis of the agency’s current financial situation being done first.
The result is that it now barely has the funds to stay in business. There has been a lot of criticism of this move with many perceiving that services are mainly cut in rural areas where the post office is needed the most. Postal service is crucial in rural areas without sufficient Internet service.
It does not help that the post office has many corporate rivals like United Parcel Service, FedEx and Pitney Bowes that can do everything from mail sorting to air delivery a lot cheaper. In fact the U.S. Post Office now outsources some of their mail sorting to Pitney Bowes.
In the end it does seem that snail mail is more expensive and less popular and people may be less inclined to open an envelope with an advertisement in it. However, there is another point of view that some people see the mailing of ads to be more personal that being bombarded with them online. They also equate the expense of the mailer with dealing with a high-end company.
In the end it is up to you decide if mailing ads is for you. It may work the best if you are mailing out discount coupons, for instance. Sometimes, if you are serving just a neighborhood, you might get more business as well.
