A Grand Rapids, MI, supermarket chain recently agreed to send 23 million direct mailings during the next year, generating $5.7 million in Standard Mail revenue for USPS.
The sale began when Greater Michigan District Sales Executive Don Hooker and District Sales Manager Mike Spaulding met with the company’s executives, who were frustrated because their longtime marketing method — newspaper advertising — was becoming less effective.
Hooker and Spaulding explained the company could cut ad costs and boost foot traffic to its stores by using direct mail to pinpoint potential customers who live nearby.
The executives put the proposal to the test and were so pleased with the results, they agreed to the sale.
“Once [the executives] understood the value of mail, the sale took off,” Hooker said. “Showing them a return on investment by directly communicating with their customers proved double and sometimes triple the responses from their previous advertising programs.”