Meet The Mailers: Turning Paper Into Profitable Direct Mail

In this episode, I chatted with AJ Layo, Sales Manager at Sylvamo. Sylvamo, a dedicated paper company with mills in Europe, Latin America and North America, is headquartered in Memphis, TN.

We talked about how paper mail connects society and helps it function, and Sylvamo’s work with customers to get more from mail, and save money at the same time.

Among the many topics we covered:

• AJ’s background & role with Sylvamo
• How Sylvamo adds value to direct mail campaigns
• The company’s commitment to sustainability
• Why she values paper in communication
• What mail captures her attention

Here are some questions and answers from our conversation (edited for clarity and space):

• Why don’t we get started by talking about your journey? I know you’re a big reader of printed books. So what was it that led you up to where you are today at Sylvamo and the world of paper?
  

Yeah, so I have been with Sylvamo, which is formerly International Paper, for over 20 years now. And really my career started more as just a practical decision. I wanted to take advantage of the tuition reimbursement that IP offered to pay for my MBA, but then it turned into something much deeper. I quickly realized that we don’t just make paper, we enable communication at scale, whether it’s education, compliance, marketing, or storytelling, which is where I love with all the books that I read.

Paper is infrastructure for how society connects and functions. And I love that about this industry. You know, I can remember as a kid growing up and getting like the Sears catalogs around the holidays and circling what toys I wanted for Christmas. And I never really thought about how it was made; I just knew it mattered. And I wasn’t thinking about supply chains or mills or printing presses. I was really just thinking about the possibility of getting that new toy. And now it’s nice because I get to be a part of the process that makes that possibility tangible. So it really has turned into a true passion and a career.

• What does your job involve as a leader and a sales manager?
  

I have a really cool job. My role sits kind of at the intersection of sales, brand, strategy, and industry education. We don’t just make paper and sell paper. We help printers and marketers win business. I recently took over the role as marketing manager for our converting and printing papers where I oversee some of our most iconic brands. Hopefully you’ll recognize some of the brands, but Accent Opaque, Williamsburg Offset, and Spring Hill.

So I manage the marketing of those brands now. And then beyond brand stewardship, our focus really is just driving demand. We get to work closely with customers to educate the market on the value and the effectiveness of print. And as the industry evolves, which we know it does, we help them turn change into opportunity. So whether that’s leveraging USPS promotions, the mail growth incentive, sustainability initiatives, or new technology that enhance performance and ROI, I get to be a part of those conversations with our customers.

• Because Sylvamo is such a major player in the industry across the board, what might be of interest to printers and marketers who produce mail?
  

We’re still working really hard to improve just the Sylvamo brand recognition. It’s only been about four years, I think, since we’ve split from IP. So we’re still trying to make sure people know who we are, but we are the world’s paper company. And so our brands are behind a significant portion of the mail that runs through the USPS. In fact, about one in three pieces that goes through the Postal Service is on our paper, whether that’s a marketing piece, a statement, or even an envelope. So that scale really gives us a unique responsibility to support the health of the mail channel.

I mean, direct mail is really important to us. One of the biggest opportunities ahead is really the USPS Sustainability Add-On for the 2026 promotions, where all of our North American products are pre-approved, which makes it really simple for printers and marketers to participate without added complexity. You really just have to know how to execute it. And that’s kind of the hard part. So in today’s environment, if you are not leveraging these available promotions, you’re really leaving margin on the table. That’s where Sylvamo makes a difference. We combine scale, our product leadership, and industry insight, really to help mailers and marketers protect margin, demonstrate sustainability, and drive measurable results. We want to be more than just a paper manufacturer. We really want to be a resource for our customers, and I think that’s what makes us different.

• Would you say that scale is one of those real specific advantages of partnering with Sylvamo?
  

Yes, I would say that’s one of our biggest advantages. All we do at Sylvamo is make uncoated freesheet paper. So really, because that is our main focus, that clarity really translates into stability for our customers. We’re not converting machines to make other grades, and we’re not shifting from that category. It’s all we do, and we are committed to it, which gives printers and marketers confidence in long-term supply. Supply is a big topic right now. And so partnering with Sylvamo, you have that confidence that we’re not going anywhere. In fact, we are investing. We announced a couple of months ago, we are going to be spending about $150 million just this year to improve our Eastover, South Carolina mill and our Sumter, South Carolina sheet plant, which will add about 60,000 tons of domestic capacity. So, big investment. I think that investment really signals that commitment. We’re here, we’re focused, and we’re building for the future, and we’re not going anywhere.

• In January, Sylvamo was a sponsor of a webinar about the 2026 USPS promotions. I think we can talk about which ones provide 3 big benefits to printers and end users of mail.
  

Yeah, so we’re doing this whole Pressing Issues webinar series. A lot of it has been focused on the USPS promotions and the mail growth incentives. But we do talk about other hot topics in the industry. A big one right now is Extended Producer Responsibility and the European Union Deforestation Regulation. So we’re trying to just really be thought leaders in the industry. We view it really as our responsibility to help the industry capture available value.

So specifically to the USPS promotions webinar, which you can find on our resource page, you can watch the recording, you can even get the deck. But really, postage is the largest line item in a lot of mail campaigns. So ignoring these promotions is like voluntarily paying more. It’s really our job to help educate our customers on how to execute that. Again, we don’t want mail to decline as postage rates go up. So that’s why we started this series. But we’ve learned a lot of printers and brand owners and MSPs still don’t really know how to execute these promotions. So we walk through step-by-step even through USPS’s Business Customer Gateway portal, what you need to do to upload and get approval to take advantage of the promotions. And so we kind of just walk through all the specifics to help our customers save money and continue to send mail.

• Right, I mean, to me, that’s the value of it. Why leave money on the table when it’s right there for the taking? And for a lot of people too, it’s about making people aware of all these amazing technologies that really push the envelope, so to speak, and make more mail more valuable to the end users.
  

Right. The promotions are really, of course, to help you save money. But like you said, it’s really about how can you improve that piece to get more engagement? And it really encourages you to try some new things that will hopefully be a win-win for everybody.

• You mentioned that Sylvamo produces paper products that are pre-approved by the USPS Sustainability Add-On promotion. But let’s talk about getting buy-in. How can printers and marketers counter the pervasive myths and misconceptions about how paper is produced and how it goes through the whole life cycle?
  

Yeah, I would say there’s a lot of myths in our industry, and it’s really just about education. Two Sides North America – they do a great job. They have a good website that has a lot of myth busters out there. But really, I think the biggest myth that we struggle with and try to educate our customers is it’s OK to use paper. Paper is a renewable resource. Our entire business depends on the sustainability of forest. So without trees and sustainable forest, we couldn’t exist. Paper-based products are among the most recycled materials on earth. So again, it’s okay. It’s OK to use paper and send mail. It’s OK for the environment to do that.

Whenever I see the mail I get, which I’m always paying really close attention to what is coming in the mail, but whenever I see “go paperless saves trees”, that one’s always a tough one because it just creates that impression that trees are a finite resource and that forests are being depleted. And in reality, the amount of forest land in the U.S. has been increasing annually for more than 30 years. So that’s the biggest misconception. You know, we’re trying to educate our customers and just the industry as a whole.

• So ultimately, what’s the value of paper to you, whether it’s a book or other printed material? Why does it work for you?
  

Yeah, I mean, I love this question. And if you follow me on LinkedIn, every week I post my book, that’s my printed book that I’m reading. I try to read about a book a week. And I also have two young kids in school. Research shows that reading on paper often leads to higher comprehension and deeper learning than reading on screens. As a mom having these two kids, of course, that’s important for me to make sure my kids are not in front of a screen all day and are reading from printed books. Also paper just kind of slows you down in a way that deepens understanding. And I feel that when I read a printed book versus something on the screen. You always hear about that digital fatigue. So sitting in front of a computer all day, it’s always nice to turn it off and pick up something physical and hold it and turn the page. And so I really appreciate that part of the industry.

Here is our conversation (with all questions and answers). We’ve added timecodes for your convenience.

Thank you very much, AJ, for sharing your perspective and your expertise! To learn more about Sylvamo, visit their website at Sylvamo.com.

Your comments and ideas are very important to us in making your Who’s Mailing What! experience even better for you. Through these engaging talks, we hope you’ll take away practical tips, insights, and personal stories to inspire and build your own success.

If you have any feedback — or are interested in sharing your story and viewpoint with our wide and diverse audience on “Meet the Mailers” — please reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you!