<br />
Uncertain Futures: The USPS and Direct<br />
Marketing's Changing Role<br />
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Nikki Baird, Managing Partner, February 2012<br />
Introduction<br />
In Fall 2011, the United States Postal Service announced major cuts to its services<br />
to help the entity stabilize its ballooning costs and declining revenues. Whether<br />
Congress intervenes or the planned cuts and price increases help the USPS<br />
return to growth and profitability, the agency continues to face additional pressures<br />
from the digital domain as consumers increasingly turn to digital channels to<br />
receive communications that once came exclusively via their homes' mailboxes.<br />
While it is still unclear exactly which planned changes will ultimately be<br />
implemented, and whether they will have the desired effect, there are several<br />
things that direct marketers can do to prepare themselves for change. Direct<br />
marketing's role will never go <a title="The USPS and Direct Marketing's Changing Role page 1" href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/456223e7?page=1"> Uncertain Futures: The USPS and Direct Marketing'</a>
<a title="The USPS and Direct Marketing's Changing Role page 2" href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/456223e7?page=2"> The Uncertain Future When the USPS first announc</a>
<a title="The USPS and Direct Marketing's Changing Role page 3" href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/456223e7?page=3"> How will your company's investment in each channe</a>
<a title="The USPS and Direct Marketing's Changing Role page 4" href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/456223e7?page=4"> Delivery timing changes will make coordination be</a>
<a title="The USPS and Direct Marketing's Changing Role page 5" href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/456223e7?page=5"> online-oriented calls to action. This leaves reta</a>
<a title="The USPS and Direct Marketing's Changing Role page 6" href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/456223e7?page=6"> direct mail piece onto their website would be rav</a>
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