The IPC, a leading postal organization, has published a guide to direct marketing that addresses three topical industry issues: GDPR, programmatic direct mail and geomarketing.
The International Post Corporation is an association of 24 postal operators in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Some will be well-known to our blog readers: USPS, Deutsche Post DHL, Royal Mail, La Poste – to name but a few. The IPC itself is based in Brussels and provides industry research and business-critical intelligence for the international postal industry.
And so when we heard that the IPC had just published a Direct Marketing Guide, we thought it might be worth a read. And we were not disappointed. It is a very thorough, useful and on-the-pulse expert view of the direct mail industry seen from a global perspective.
Not surprisingly, GDPR takes centre-stage in the guide among the “most-discussed” topics in the industry. It has probably been discussed more than all the other topics put together over the last year! But moving quickly on, what else makes this guide so worth a read?
We were particularly interested in the summaries of in-depth research on mail advertising conducted in various countries – Canada, France, Germany, Sweden and the UK. Two clear themes stand out: consumers everywhere like, trust, recall and respond well to printed mail advertising; and its overall share in the marketing mix is growing again.
The guide then goes on to cover three topics in depth: the use of direct mail to drive e-commerce, programmatic direct mail and finally geomarketing. The theme that clearly binds these together is the effectiveness of direct mail when used within tightly integrated, multichannel marketing strategies. Advertising mail campaigns drive e-commerce sales with remarkable success in China. Automated, programmatic direct mail is bringing lapsed customers back to make online purchases in the USA and UK. And geomarketing that uses location data to grab consumer attention is driving offline sales in Europe and North America.
Of course, we’re also pleased to read that locr is “at the forefront” when it comes to geomarketing. But there’s plenty more to discover and learn about the latest techniques and talking points in direct marketing in this IPC guide. We’re simply proud to be a part of this huge and exciting industry together with our clients and partners.
And, if like us, this industry excites you too, take a look at some of the many case studies from around the world featured at the end of the guide. Maybe even consider entering one of your own campaigns into next year’s USPS Irresistible Mail™ Awards. It’s bound to be irresistible if there’s a locr personalized map involved!
