The Saturday Delivery Debate (Is It Time To Rethink Mail?)

I’ll admit, when I first heard that the USPS was contemplating ending Saturday delivery a few years ago, I was largely against the idea. As a loyal Netflix subscriber, I thoroughly enjoyed getting movies in the mail and was always excited when I was able to watch a movie by Wednesday night, return it and get a new red envelope on Saturday. Score one for awesome timing!

Here are 3 reasons why mail is still a valuable part of your marketing:

1. Scarcity
   As I mentioned, most of my family’s Netflix viewing is now done by streaming via our Roku. It’s easy entertainment for afternoons when our daughter is upstairs playing dress-up and it’s a nice fallback for bad weather nights (or never-ending winters like the one we just made it through) to watch re-runs of great TV shows (anyone else giddy about the resurgence of Arrested Development???). But, it always seems like the one movie I can’t wait to watch is offered as DVD only (and not surprisingly, the same goes for the 9-year-old). The coveted physical DVD. And, of course, we only have the 1-DVD package. So there is a premium placed on who gets the next DVD in the queue and, instantly, I’m back to excited about getting that indistinguishable red envelope in the mail again.
   Likewise, there is more value to that which is less available. In a time where it feels like we are inundated with email and web ads, the now underutilized mailpiece seems like a treat.
2. Leisure
   I have this habit at work of starting my day sifting through my email, LinkedIn and favorite aggregator sites, constantly clicking on links to articles that I feel like I MUST read. My thought is that if I keep all of these articles open in different tabs, I’ll get to them throughout the day as I have a moment to spare. More often than not, though, what happens is 5:00 arrives and I realize as I’m shutting down my computer that I haven’t read through a single article. Information that seemed important enough to open earlier is now lost foreveras I close my browser.With mail, I have the ability to set aside an article in a pile to read and know that if I don’t get to it today, it will still exist in that pile tomorrow (and because it’s on paper, I have that physical reminder of it on my desk).
3. Cost
   Huh? You say. How can cost be a valuable factor? Stick with me…
   I’ll be honest, when compared to email or other online channels, postage isn’t cheap. And if you think of the cost to send something to thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, it adds up quick (and you still have to factor in print and mail costs too).So for someone to send you a message through the mail likely means that 1) they thought the message was really worth sending and 2) that you were worth sending it to. No spambot randomly filling your inbox with obnoxious messages (and potentially viruses), but real, live companies with real products and services that they are proud enough of to invest in sharing with you. Consider that the next time you sort through your mail…

What mail is no longer as important for is speed. No matter how fast we print and process mail, no matter how efficient the USPS sorting gets, no matter how fast the trucks drive, we can’t compete with the instant delivery that the internet offers. And that’s OK.

So while the Saturday debate will likely continue (and I know that there are real instances where losing Saturday will make a substantial difference for certain mailers; and certainly there is a whole, other conversation surrounding potential loss of jobs with one less delivery day), I think the better conversation for marketers is about what mail means to your marketing now and how you can use the scarcity, leisure and cost aspects of mail to your benefit.