U.S. Postal Service Targets Small Businesses for Growth

The U.S. Postal Service today unveiled a new integrated marketing campaign to promote easy-to-use and affordable direct mail and shipping services to America's small businesses.

"Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and the Postal Service plays an important role in enabling their growth and commercial success," said Paul Vogel, president and chief marketing/sales officer, U.S. Postal Service. "We are providing a suite of mailing and shipping services tailored to the needs of small businesses to help them compete for customers and run their operations more efficiently."

At a press conference to discuss a new marketing campaign, the Postal Service previewed television, print and marketing mail advertisements to promote Every Door Direct Mail, a simple Web-based service that helps small businesses prospect locally to new and existing customers without the need for names or addresses. The mailings can be dropped off at a local Post Office.

"Every Door Direct Mail is designed for small businesses," said Vogel. "For less than 15 cents a piece, our customers can send fliers, menus, brochures and advertisements in highly targeted ways. The Web tool is free and easy to use, enabling restaurants, doctors' offices and other small businesses to map their coverage areas online, so they can really zero in on the streets and neighborhoods they want to reach."

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Vogel added that Every Door Direct Mail generated $153 million in revenues for the Postal Service since its launch in April 2011 through December 2011.

John DePaola, President of Long Fence and Home, a family-owned business in home improvement serving the Washington Metropolitan region, joined Vogel at the press conference to tell how the Every Door Direct Mail program has helped his business.

"This program allows us to deliver our valuable message with pinpoint accuracy to the exact neighborhoods we wish to target for our products and services," said DePaola. "It provides an efficient way to achieve market coverage by focusing on the key areas where there is a need for home improvements."

The Postal Service also announced enhancements and new tools to help small businesses ship their products, such as a redesign and re-launch of Click-N-Ship, which enables small businesses to go online and ship their products in four easy steps. Vogel said Click-N-Ship provided the Postal Service with billions in revenue in 2011, a 10 percent increase over the prior year.

The "If It Fits, It Ships" multichannel advertising campaign was cited by Vogel as an example of one of the drivers of growth by the Postal Service in the small-business market.

"The key to helping small businesses prosper is being innovative and responsive to their needs and ensuring that our products are not only simple to use and affordable but also offer our customers a way to generate positive return on investment from their marketing campaigns," said Vogel.

"With more than a million registered users, half of whom are small businesses, Click-N-Ship has been remarkably successful," Vogel said. "The redesign, which includes several improvements, such as simplified Priority Mail Flat Rate shipping and a simplified payment and printing process, will only help us become even stronger in the shipping channel."

The Postal Service also announced that it would be launching Click-N-Ship for Business by mid-April. Click-N-Ship for Business is designed for small- and medium-size businesses that have 10 to 100 pieces of mail to ship per day. Some new features available on Click-N-Ship for Business will include a downloadable desktop application and expanded payment options, including for international services.

"We want small businesses to make the U.S. Postal Service their shipper of choice," Vogel said. "We are doing that by developing smart tools and product offerings that help businesses grow — both theirs and ours."