COVID-19’s Impact on Mail

While technology allows for online interaction, many still feel isolated. The United States Postal Service recently surveyed how COVID-19 has affected mental health and individuals’ attitudes about mail. Unsurprisingly, a majority of respondents reported feeling more isolated, distant from others, and anxious; but, mail makes a positive impact:

• 17% reported mailing cards and letters more frequently,
• 65% agreed that receiving mail from friends/family lifts their spirits, 
• 60% agreed that letters mean more to them than an email, and
• 42% reported being more reliant on mail as a result of social distancing

Connecting the Dots for Businesses  

Connecting by mail isn’t just for family and friends. Businesses should take advantage of this direct line to customers to build trust and rapport, especially during tumultuous times. 

Step One: Leverage Consumer Desire for Mail

Utilize your business’ various owned channels to build connection and trust with your members. Online communication should be combined with a direct mail counterpart to maximize your brand’s supportive presence. 

Stuck on what to say? Read How Financial Institutions Can Help Alleviate Consumer Concerns During Economic Hardship and our 7 Customer Communication Tips for Financial Institutions.

Step Two: Double Down on the Customer Experience

Consumers’ experience with your brand has a direct impact on their loyalty. Communication your business provides to customers should be: valuable, easy to understand, and elicit a positive emotional response. Using current data from the USPS, direct mail is a particularly impactful way to connect with customers right now.

Step Three: Increase Customer Loyalty

High-quality customer experiences will lead to increased loyalty. Meaning your business will reap the benefits of high customer retention, increased purchases, and word-of-mouth advertising. 

How We Can Help  

An effective communication strategy leveraging direct mail is going to set your business apart. Here at Output Services, we offer a wide range of services to help our clients stay in touch with their most valuable resource—the people they serve.

We help your business continue to support valued relationships, as well as create new ones. By designing and developing key marketing strategies that employ the use of all types of printed and mailed formats, we can help non-profits, medical and dental offices, financial institutions, and other industries stay in touch with their base.

We also help government agencies such as city, county, and state administrators stay in touch with their constituents by providing written documents to community members, thus keeping them abreast of the latest health updates, available resources, and more. 

Our wide variety of services that will help organizations stay in contact with their clients include: 

• transactional printing services
• statement processing and printing services
• communication printing services
• compliance letter services
• bill printing services, and so much more

A Full-Service Solution 

We are a full-service printing and mailing solution, serving organizations since 1987. Our in-house design team can help our clients create an original design, or a client can supply their design. We can offer suggestions on the most impactful mailer for a specific campaign, such as an eye-catching brochure, a coupon book, or a simple postcard—as well as how to target individual markets more successfully. 

We also incorporate time and money-saving processes such as address cleansing and pre-sorting to take advantage of discounted postage rates, thus reducing costs for our clients. Lastly, our team adheres to stringent industry standards for the protection of PII (personally identifiable information) during all phases of designing, printing, and mailing for our clients.

If you would like more information on how your company can help people and communities still feel connected during the pandemic with direct mail, please visit our website or email us at [email protected].