Is seeing really believing? 

For readers that don’t know who IMN is or what she does please allow my brief biography.  IMN (Intra-Mail network) was conceived with a purpose.  I will keep the intimate details of her conception private but please know that she was engineered to solve a specific problem within a specific time and space. 

Problem:  how can outside mailers send a significant number of pieces of mail to a group of specific consumers whose address’ are on a non-postal mail route through the United States Postal System? 

Answer:  You can’t.  Or better yet you can send it to the mail center (every non-postal mail zone has one) and hope that it reached the intended recipient. 

Back to my original point, IMN was born to solve this very specific problem.  All over the US corporations are mailing catalogs, brochures, magazines, newsletters, postcards (and the list goes on) to Non-postal route customers including colleges, universities, military bases, hospitals, and large office buildings. In these cases, the U.S. Postal Service delivers the mail to a central location at the particular institution. That mail center then distributes mail to the singular ultimate customers like college students, faculty, soldiers, nurses, or office workers. However, the problem is that incoming commercial mail is unsorted and virtually never conforms to the institution’s delivery pattern.

IMN (much like the USPS, FEDEX, UPS) serves as a bridge between the two entities, partnering with non-postal route customers, understanding their unique delivery schemes and maintaining updated records with regard to end users on their delivery routes.  IMN also serves client mailers to ensure that they are reaching their intended parties.

Unfortunately for Mail Centers and mailer clients alike IMN was born long after it was determined that the USPS and non-postal zone Mail Centers would be two separate entities, meaning that there is no nationally standardized delivery scheme for any one particular institution.  Again this is where IMN comes into play, she retains an intellectual wealth of knowledge of many of these delivery schemes.

Now that you are somewhat familiar with who IMN is and what she is here for I can revert back to my original question.  Is seeing really believing?  I ask this question to understand what exactly it takes to convince Mail Centers and mailers alike that everything that I have mentioned above is the absolute 100% truth.

Recently an anonymous institution referred the name of a particular mailer whose piece was deemed undeliverable to IMN. This information was accompanied by several photographs of the piece in the “recycling bin” (trash).  This information was forwarded to the mailer along with some information about IMN and a quote for services.  Compared to the original budget for production and postage on this piece if the mailer utilized IMN’s services they would have saved over 50% of their budget and received confirmation that their piece was delivered.  I personally believe that money like energy is never really created or destroyed, it is just transferred and no one likes to waste or throw theirs away.  So back to my original question, is seeing really believing?  As a mailer isn’t it your job to make sure that your marketing piece gets in the hands of your intended target?  So if, with your own two eyes, you see your marketing piece (marketing dollars) literally in the trash isn’t it your duty to figure out a way to keep it out of the trash and get it to the right destination?  Mailers really don’t believe that their marketing materials are going straight to the trash, sometimes un-removed from their packaging.  IMN seems like a no brainer to me.  What do you think?

~Green Girl