The Future of Mail
May 28, 2015   Dave Lewis

Are you in position for it?  One of the highlights from last week’s National Postal Forum was the keynote presentation by Megan Brennan, the new Postmaster General. The PMG keynote is often a laundry list of new Postal programs, but Brennan aimed a spotlight at a couple of programs that we think may well transform mail in the coming years, and further build a bridge between Postal mail and the online world. The program that really caught our attention is a new application called Real Mail Notification™ that will provide notifications on when your mail is being delivered to your mailbox today – and what will be in that mail. Ultimately, she envisions creating links to those mailers through the digital platform that the Postal Service is creating, so customers may be able to respond without actually opening the mail. This is a huge deal! Once this digital platform is in place, we may be well on the way to a true digital mailbox that links your mailing address to your online and mobile world. We have long thought that this may be the future of mail, and now the Postal Service has just provided a road map. And, this is not some grand theory – it is rolling out into its second phase of market testing in New York City.  If you are counting on direct mail production to drive your business in the future, you should give some serious thought to this development. The Postal Service will still deliver messages to the public, but it may be much more digitally centered. You can count on SnailWorks to provide innovative solutions in this brave new world, so you can continue to provide your customers with access to all of the relevant direct marketing channels. The skills of the direct marketing and mail community will still be essential – address management, database management, digital personalization, and a relationship with the Postal Service – who are unlikely to become easier to deal with. But you need to look beyond the envelope and be a marketer for your customers. Fortunately, SnailWorks will be there with you.

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