Our team is always on the lookout for ways to improve our clients’ campaigns, by providing better results or by making the process easier so it requires less of their time. One recent example is that we looked into ways to provide an improved experience with return-mail processing. Any time you are mailing to a large group of people, some pieces will be undeliverable for a variety of reasons. Previously, undeliverable mail from our letter campaigns was returned to our clients’ offices. As many people were forced to work remotely in 2020, we realized that these pieces could stack up at empty offices, so we explored ways to improve our process.
The main goal for our targeted direct mail campaigns is to diminish the amount of work required by our clients while providing them with viable leads. We created the process to have prospective clients call them, limiting the amount of promoting and outreach law firms need to accomplish for a steady stream of leads.
To provide a personalized and professional direct mail campaign, we use our client's business for the return address. This presents the impression that the letter came directly from the law firm and instantly displays dedication that the firm is knowledgeable of their case and can defend the recipient. The downside of this design choice was that it left the recycling and disposing of undeliverable mail up to our clients. It might sound like an insignificant issue, but taking time away from our client's daily tasks is not what we want to accomplish.
USPS BlueEarth Recycling Program
Our team discovered the USPS BlueEarth Recycling Program to eliminate this issue. This program is part of the USPS® BlueEarth sustainability initiatives and an opt-in service. The new program securely shreds and recycles letter and flat-sized pieces of Undeliverable-As-Addressed (UAA) First-Class Mail® with personal protected information that would otherwise be returned to the sender. This program allows our direct mail to still feature our clients as the return address but eliminates the tedious task of disposing of the mail pieces. It's a win, win.
Benefits of the program include:
Saving time for our clients - All delivered and undelivered letters are digitally tracked, reducing administrative clutter. Returned letters no longer clog our clients’ business.
Better for the environment - Recycling programs like the one offered through USPS® BlueEarth saves on energy transport costs and landfill buildup, which can be taxing on the environment. First–Class Mail is automatically intercepted then securely shredded and recycled.
Digital insight - Every month, our team provides a full campaign analysis of your campaign, including where improvements can be made, often through A/B testing initiatives.
More efficient - One of the main goals at Key Dynamics is to provide continual quality and efficiency improvements throughout the duration of a campaign, requiring no administration work or additional time from our clients. Automation is key in our operations. This program aligns with our goals. It is entirely automated and an immediate opt-in for each campaign at the time of launch.
What This Further Means For Our Clients
Visibility of the return rates for our client's campaigns does not diminish, but it is presented to them through monthly electronic reports. We provide monthly reports of all information regarding the letters sent, and now, you can also request information about any letters that could not be delivered.
This program also improves privacy protection for our customers. The process takes place within secure USPS facilities by Postal employees, reducing risks of information exposure.
The USPS BlueEarth Recycling Program will not alter our relationship with our clients as we continue to monitor their campaigns response rates at a digital level, and improve overall data quality and accuracy of deliverability. Although it's impossible to be perfect, the goal of our data team is to achieve a limited amount of undeliverable mail. We pride ourselves on keeping the undelivered mail rate on average around 5% but if this draws below 10% of a campaign, we provide a refund for any letter sent over that.
Additional Benefits of the USPS BlueEarth Recycling Program
When evaluating the program, we found there were multiple sustainability benefits outside of eliminating returned mail. Enhancing our programs and becoming more efficient is crucial to the continued success of our clients, but having a focus on providing more sustainable outreach serves a greater purpose.
With the USPS BlueEarth Recycling Program we can reinforce it will:
Reduces carbon emissions (i.e., greenhouse gases). The USPS estimates that for every 25,000 pieces of carrier delivered Return To Sender (RTS) mail that is destroyed, carbon emissions are reduced by an average of 1 metric ton of CO2 equivalent.
All securely destroyed mail will be recycled, thus reducing the demand for natural resources.
Learn More about Key Dynamics’ Data-Driven Legal Direct Mail Campaigns
Our proven campaigns provide superior response rates and ROI for attorneys. Interested to learn how Key Dynamics can cost-efficiently grow your business, or how our process works?
We primarily work with law firms across all industries to deliver reliable, consistent results. Our services are flexible and proactive. Our pragmatic approach and marketing expertise have proven popular with our clients. No matter how small or large your business needs are, know that the team at Key Dynamics provide the same attention to detail in every campaign.
Through our data-driven approaches we aim to deliver a higher than average response rate. Our results speak for themselves.
When combined with effective digital marketing tactics that promote your law firm’s brand and services, a high-quality direct mail campaign is even more likely to reach your best prospects.
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