Two Sides Member Q&A – Citipost Mail

David Bradford, Director of Marketing and Regulatory Affairs at Citipost Mail answered our questions on mail and explains why they joined Two Sides.

What were the reasons for Citipost Mail joining Two Sides?

We really support what Two Sides is doing. It’s the right thing to do and the organisation has been getting some really impressive results. There’s also the huge range of resources on offer, which we can repurpose and use to communicate with our existing and prospective clients. Citipost Mail has a large number of clients in many different sectors, so we need a lot of information about the effectiveness and sustainability of print and paper, which Two Sides has.

Are your clients asking a lot of questions about the sustainability of paper?

Curiously, no. We move between 270 and 300 million items a year, so you would think it would come up more. But I think that’s down to the work that Two Sides and other organisations are doing. The message that paper is recyclable and highly sustainable compared to digital and online, along with the greenwashing issue, is getting across really well, so we don’t get asked about it much. We tend to get asked more questions about where we are as a company on our net zero journey and how we have reduced our carbon emissions.

What’s the market like for direct mail at the moment?

Overall, the market is declining at a steady rate but there are a number of reasons for that. There’s some attrition from campaigns moving to digital, but targeting for direct mail is also getting better. People are targeting customer groups and prospects much better, which reduces a lot of waste. Previously, brands would have a scattergun approach, so there would be a lot of wastage and lower return on investment than if the targeting was right.

Is that the same across the different types of mail?

A lot of the decline in direct mail is transactional mail – bank statements, fines, medical appointments – but advertising direct mail is having an uptick at the moment. We’ve certainly seen that over the last six to eight months. Companies may be reducing the number of items they are sending for a campaign because of better targeting, but they might be increasing the number of campaigns.

How can companies increase the effectiveness of mail?

A lot of the work we’re doing with clients at the moment is trying to convince them to include us as early as possible in the campaign conversation because we can help with the data selection. We can also help with the creative for direct mail as we know what works and what doesn’t work. Marketers are starting to realise that the attention that mail gets compared to digital is so much higher, so it’s worth the investment if you do it right.

For more information on Citipost Mail, go to citipostmail.co.uk

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