The following article was produced by David Swetnam-Burland and Stacy O. Stitham of Brann & Isaacson, exclusively for Mailers Hub.

The privacy of personal information – online and elsewhere – is in the news as tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Apple are facing questions (and lawsuits) seemingly from all directions – probing what personal information they collect; how they get it; what they do with it; and whether they are being honest when they say they are committed to personal privacy.

Today's commentary was contributed by Scorecard expert, Mailers Hub webinar presenter, and all-around industry guru, Tom Glassman. 

Our guest blogger today, Andy Paparozzi, is Chief Economist for SGIA, and presenter for the December 17, 2019 Mailers Hub webinar, the 2020 Economic Outlook. 

The American economy has now grown 125 consecutive months, making the current upturn the longest on record. And headline numbers, such as 615,000 jobs added and retail sales up 4.0% over the last three months, suggest more growth is ahead.

Contributed by Summer Gould, President, Eye/Com

Before we really get started let’s define what personalization in direct mail is. It is more than just putting the name and address on the piece. In 2019, even just adding dear name or just a name is no longer the best way to personalize your direct mail. Don’t get me wrong, you still need to have the name, but you can get so much more creative than that now. So don’t just stop there, get more personal with offers, images, landing pages and more.

Growing your print and mail business by getting in front of your customers means putting them first and making the relationship you have with them an all-day every-day proposition. This probably makes sense to you. But just because it makes sense doesn’t mean it’s easy to actually do.

Courtesy of Mailers Hub subscriber and Eye/Comm President, Summer Gould

Direct mail is a very powerful marketing channel. Now you can enhance it more by adding informed delivery. What is informed delivery? The USPS offers a free service to subscribers, that sends an email to them with an image of that day’s mail. The default images are not in color, by participating in an informed delivery campaign, you can replace that image with a color image and even add a web link.

Client Misconceptions about Direct Mail

Your clients may have outdated ideas about the effectiveness and value of mailed communications. Mail may seem old fashioned to them, or too expensive. The future of the US Postal Service may concern clients because of reported financial problems or they may be unclear about how to track and monitor mailed communications.

At your next client meeting, block out some time to talk about the role of mail in modern marketing strategies. Showing clients how direct mail has changed to meet the needs of today’s marketers can spur conversations leading to profitable repetitive work.