A Postcard with Two Jobs: USPS Confirms and Advertisers Convert

Every year, about 8% of American households move and, consequently, change their mailing address. That’s about 28,000,000 moving events each year.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) offers a change-of-address service to its customers, whereby mail sent to their former address will be automatically forwarded to their new address.

While some people may not wish to provide a forwarding address, the vast majority do, so it only makes sense that the USPS use 2-factor authorization to confirm that a change-of-address request is legitimate. This process requires the USPS to communicate with these customers, which it does through this postcard.

This side of the postcard outlines exactly what the recipient must do to confirm their new address. (Even though some of the content is redacted, the process seems straightforward.)

This campaign addresses an operational issue that the USPS encounters millions of times each year, specifically, confirming the validity of a change-of-address request. Obviously, this postcard costs money to print and mail (even if the USPS could establish a privileged postal rate for its own use).

However, smartly, the USPS minimizes or eliminates this cost by…

Selling the other side of the postcard! Like this:

Here, two advertisers that may benefit from a household moving to a new address offer deals to new movers.

Moving to a new home will cause some of the 66% of American households that own a pet to consider Chewy.com and its delivery service for their pet’s needs.

And any new home — whether larger or smaller — may require some new furnishings, from Wayfair.

The cost of this advertising for Chewy and Wayfair will be much less than a solo, or even shared, mailing to the same audience.

Also, the list for this campaign — people who are about to move — is probably better than commercial “new mover” lists, which typically, comprise names of people who have moved (recently). That subtle advantage of message timing — about to move versus recently moved — may make a significant difference in the response the advertisers receive. (This advantage may be more beneficial for Wayfair than Chewy.)

A win-win-win.

I found another postcard from the Who’s Mailing What! archive, where the USPS promotes its mail forwarding service.

In this promotion, the USPS offers “$750 in coupons and savings” to those who update their address (see red arrow).

This campaign has been mailed repeatedly since 2020, whereas the confirmation campaign is new. (WMW! has received it once, earlier this month.)

The USPS may have a “one-two-punch” for movers across America.

Can your business benefit from partnering with complementary resources in your direct mail campaigns?  I don’t know, but the idea certainly merits your consideration.

David Foley is a shameless champion of direct mail, particularly in this “digital first” age, and a partner in the Direct Mail Insiders community.