Guest Article: Changing the Game Increases Response Rates
By Adam Armstrong, Uluro
Twenty years ago, there were only two ways to communicate with someone you could not see in-person: you made a telephone call, or you mailed a letter or postcard. Yet today, even as digital technology fostered the most connected society in human history, it created a swirling clutter of companies and products vying for consumer attention. Marketing and promotional messages are delivered relentlessly via email, websites, texts, and TV commercials. Yet response rates continue to slip.
But now, advances in the same omnichannel technologies that enhanced connectivity enable mailers to increase delivery and response rates while creating a two-way communication stream with end recipients.
For example, Track N Trace® by BCC Software utilizes the Intelligent Mail® Barcode (IMB®) process created by USPS® to modernize any traditional mailing. Scans from USPS enable Track N Trace® to accurately pinpoint delivery dates for mailings. The IMB system has been used for call center staffing and mailpiece marking for several years and is now available for mailers of all sizes.
When integrated with Uluro uDeliver®, a database-managed content delivery platform from Transformations that can also create the mailpiece, Track N Trace® is able to generate a text message letting an end recipient know they have an important mailpiece waiting for them. For instance, text messages could contain short notes such as:
- “Please reply ‘C’ to confirm you received your important letter from Cal Tech today.”
- “You have an important letter from ABC Debt Management. Reply ‘50’ to get an instant 50% off your balance. Watch your mail for details on this special offer.”
- “Wouldn’t it be Gr8 to cut $25 a month off your cell phone bill? There is a T-Mobile letter in your mail box, Reply ‘T’ to learn more.”
Through such simple statement- or question-based text messages, instead of generic notifications, mailers can initiate two-way text conversations with a recipient— a channel that Pew Research says has a 98 percent read rate. This statistic may seem unprecedented, but text messaging is actually a short, relevant conversation with customers who are interested in hearing from companies they do business with. While text messaging usually does not have the power to sell like a traditional mailpiece, combining it with targeted direct mail creates an unparalleled campaign for only a few pennies more than each standard mailing.
Such Informed Delivery or package tracking is a truly compelling touch point for reinforcing a brand and gaining customer attention. Mailers have long chased mindshare with personalization, oversized postcards, and the use of color, but those should be considered first steps in a larger campaign. Track N Trace® and Uluro uDeliver move these strategies to the next level to help drive response rates and revenue through multi-channel communications.
To learn more about Uluro uDeliver and Track N Trace®, and how you can modernize your mail, see us at PRINT 17. You’ll find BCC Software in Booth #642, and Uluro in Booth #1661.
About Uluro: Uluro is the most comprehensive automated document production platform on the market for creating, producing, delivering, and tracking critical customer communications. Uluro supports creation and delivery of all forms of communication from traditional Print and Mail, email, web presentment, fax, Text Messaging, IVR with full payment functionality.
