Last week I read a column in Catalog Success (we follow the industry press) by Jim Gilbert about the conversation regarding USPS moving to a 5 day delivery schedule. What is interesting about Jim’s article, USPS Column Hits a Naive Nerve, is his response to a comment attacking direct marketers. Jim, a seasoned expert in the direct marketing, caught my eye in his description of what consumers can do to work with marketers to go green. Here is an excerpt from his article:
More and more, mailers and catalog companies are doing what they can to go green. But is this enough? In a word, NO! We’re getting there though.
Here are some suggestions for you:
1. Recycle any direct mail you’re not interested in.
2. Contact catalog companies who send you their catalogs and ask to be removed from their future mailings.
3. DON’T buy anything from a catalog, otherwise (and here is the relevancy issue) you will be tagged as a “mail order buyer” and will receive other catalogs of products which have an affinity to your last mail order purchase. In fact, don’t buy anything mail order, or respond online to any offer!
4. Opt out of receiving business mail using Catalog Choice: http://www.catalogchoice.org/.
5. Use the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service to manage or stop direct mail offers: http://www.dmachoice.org/.
We’re happy not to mail offers to you if you don’t want them (it saves us a bunch of money). Just let us know as described above, and we won’t send you any more mail.
We were very pleased to see our solution called out as an ingredient for what consumers can do to help green their end of marketing channel.
As Jim and all the other marketers I talk to say, they don’t want to mail offers to those of you who don’t want them. So, take Jim’s advice if you want to cut down on unwanted mail.
