As discussed in last week’s blog, the USPS recently sent out a carbon-neutral direct mail piece printed on FSC Certified Paper¹. This piece was produced Sandy Alexander, which purchases 100% wind-generated electricity to power its manufacturing and office operations. Last week’s blog discussed the importance of eliminating bad addresses. This week’s blog outlines additional steps that the USPS² suggests to hone your mailing list. A quality mailing list can help ensure that you are maximizing your return on every dollar that you spend.

To improve your mailing list, the USPS offers the following suggestions:

1. Provide frequent and clear opportunities for customers to opt in and opt out
2. Maintain a do not mail list to prevent unwanted communications
3. Allow customers to specify their preferred method of communication
4. Keep a detailed suppression file that classifies customers by the products they are interested in, as well as the products they are NOT interested in
5. Use incentives to encourage customers to proactively notify you of incorrect mailing information or duplicate mailings
6. Target and mail efficiently using segmentation and modeling to select recipients
7. Personalize your message to increase relevance and reduce waste
8. Test a sample of your list before mass-mailing to ascertain its accuracy

No one wants to waste resources. In addition to hurting the planet that we are trying to protect for future generations, waste is expensive for you and your business. Getting the right messages to opt-in customers will help you maximize your return on investment!

For further information on this concept, please visit www.usps.com or https://www.mailgreener.com. For examples of Tukaiz paper and ink products that are FSC-certified and environmentally-friendly, visit www.tukaiz.com/environment.

Tune in next week when we’ll continue our discussion on environmailism, offering suggestions on how to choose the right paper.

¹ environmailism: your handbook to greener Direct Mail, USPS
² Copyright 2008, United States Postal Service, Registered Trademark, All Rights Reserved.