Why It’s Time To Ditch Snail Mail For Good

Ben Smith

Did you know that junk mail produces almost 1 billion pounds of trash each year? (And that’s a conservative estimate.) That’s a lot of trees, man.

Think about your own mail routine for a second.

Exactly how much of it do you go through, let alone use, and how much of it goes straight into the trashcan? It’s a safe bet that the ratio is slightly weighted toward the waste bin.

Safe estimates put the volume of snail mail at 177 billion pieces a year. A little over half of that is comprised of birthday cards, pen pal letters, and fake hostage notes to get people out of work. The other 47% is junk. That’s over 80 billion pieces of mail a year just sent straight into the trash. That 80 billion figure doesn’t just represent wasted mail, it represents a waste of time, effort, and materials. Or, to put it bluntly, companies still using this archaic form of marketing may as well have just taken money, throw it in a big pile, and then set it on fire.

Fortunately, though, we live in a world where you really only need snail mail to send thank you notes, delicious baked goods, and amazing short-shorts.

Because there’s an amazing tool you can utilize that will save the planet, save you money, and allow you to reach out to subscribers with personalized, engaging, and mind-blowingly awesome messages: Email. And really, in this day and age, it’s kinda ludicrous that marketers are still employing that tired, uncreative batch-and-mail-a-bunch-of-coupons routine as their go-to method for connecting with customers.

Getting your act together and getting your email marketing program on track will provide you an avenue to deliver messages and deals to your subscriber quickly, allowing you to capitalize on trends, holidays, and big events in a timely fashion. Not only that but you also get the added benefit of…

Better Organization

The great thing about getting on board with this whole email marketing thing is all the information you need to utilize is quickly and easily accessible in your database. Digging through filing cabinets and Rolodexes is for the birds, man.

Better Segmentation

On a basic level, snail mail marketers certainly have their customers and subscribers divided into some sort of groups. This is pretty standard to keep things from happening like sending subscribers in Athol, MA mail that should’ve gone to folks in Ahoskie, NC. But getting it going with an email marketing program allows you to segment so deeply that it’s pretty mind-blowing. Do you have subscribers on your list that moved from Athol to Ahoskie and like chocolate-drizzled bacon? With a good email marketing program, you can segment those folks into their own list and then target them with personalized emails based on that information.

Which leads us to…

Better Messaging

Not messaging in the sense that you’re dropping a message to your subscribers faster than a bunch of cheetahs (those that’s a super bonus, obvs). Messaging in the sense of what you’re actually saying to your customers. And those messages can span the entire spectrum: welcome messages, birthday wishes, anniversaries, tearful good-byes — the possibilities are endless.

Heck, you can even set up a series of messages that’ll send automatically to certain segments of your list.

So what’re you waiting for? Ditch that snail mail routine, get up with some amazing people who want to help you send awesome emails, and then throw a dance party with all the free time and money you’ll have.

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