The US Postal Service announced it will be seeking a price increase to restore it to financial sustainability. The agency is forecasting a $7 billion loss this fiscal year. The USPS does not receive any funding from our tax revenues, instead funding operations with revenue from postage, products and services.

When news of the impending postal increase was released, we all heard (or felt) a collective sigh of disappointment, but I rejoiced. As far as I’m concerned, this is good news for companies sending and receiving direct mail — and for agencies or consultancies adhering to the principles of creative pinpoint marketing. Here’s why:

The Holy Grail of marketing efforts, and most every company, is return on investment (ROI). Although there are numerous channels through which companies can communicate with their customers and prospects – email, call centers, flesh and blood representatives, and online portals and services – I propose that many are too dependent on direct mail. So the increased cost of mailing upsets the ROI calculation for this channel, decreasing the direct mail return but increasing the relative return for all other channels. This forces companies to explore these other channels and make them part of their overall communication strategy.

But we all know that direct mail is not going away anytime soon. So the postal increase also forces companies to further invest in the effectiveness of their direct mail communications using analytics and insight. Analysis can be used to target customers who will be the most receptive to your message and customer segments that have high-value potential. It can also be used to identify prospects who are most likely to become high-value customers. These insights can be leveraged to produce meaningful and effective communications, an investment that will drive better returns for the brand.

And, by the way, this is also good news for customers and prospects. Those who prefer to receive communications through the direct mail channel will benefit from more relevant and engaging communications – and will continue to respond. Those customers who prefer other channels will receive less of it. All in all, this is good news for marketers and the customers who receive these communications.

Not knowing exactly what a credit adjustment is, I rip open the nondescript, official looking envelope to find that I have been included in a select group of individuals chosen for a special publisher’s offer on a three-year subscription to Motor Trend magazine — an offer not available to the general public.

The regular subscription price is $179.64, but with my special credit adjustment of $161.64, the price is only $6 per year. Wow.

Not only that but they’ll also throw in a free a multifunctional watch with my paid order. I would think a free watch would be more appropriate for a subscription to Time magazine, but nonetheless, it’s a pretty impressive deal. The only problem is I don’t have the least interest in cars or motor sports, which begs the question of why they’ve selected me for this offer, other than the fact I subscribe to a couple of other unrelated magazines.

It doesn’t seem to be a very targeted or cost-efficient direct mail campaign. With access to as much consumer data as there is available, one would think they’d be able to match those with a propensity to subscribe to magazines with those who have an interest in cars and motor sports.

The bigger issue is that they have very adeptly compromised any perceived value I might have had for Motor Trend magazine, as they’re about giving it away and attempting to bribe me with a free watch. This smacks of a desperation tactic and I can’t help wonder if they’ll even be around three years from now.

It’s another good example bad marketing — the kind of thing that gives direct mail a bad rap.

The case in point would be the direct mail I keep getting trying to sell me the company’s Google Apps Premier Edition, which provides low-cost messaging and collaboration tools, including email, voice and video chat. Most recently I received a mass mail form letter from Matt Glotzbach, Director of Global Products, Google Enterprise, telling me about the power of business-class email and the money I can save with their hosted services. Included is a savings calculator wheel that is randomly stuck to the back of the letter with booger glue. I have no problem with the calculator tool, in fact it’s pretty cool that I can select the number of employees in my company, from 10 to 2,500, and view the annual savings I can expect to realize. One would think that were the data available they should already know how many employees I have and could just tell me up front what the savings might be — it’s a far more effective way to capture my attention than Matt telling me traditional email and collaboration tools can be costly to set up and maintain.

It’s interesting that Google would be using direct mail to market its email services, but good for them as they’re demonstrating responsible use of the media they are promoting. Blasting out spam would be far more intrusive and even less effective, at least for me. But let’s at least try to do a decent job of it, guys.

I have no problem with the offer of a 30-day free trial, but the engagement strategy is incredibly weak and the creative… well there is no attempt to be creative or innovative. The mail piece itself plain vanilla and poorly done — representative of the 98 percent of mass mail solicitation that doesn’t work. Maybe they figure the power of the colorful logo atop the letterhead is enough, but to me it says they really don’t care and are just mailing it in. For an innovative company like Google I would expect a better effort, even if this app is outside (and no doubt beneath) their domain.

Currently, however, it is the delivery utility and not communications that is keeping the USPS alive (though just barely with a reported loss of $3.8 billion this year).  Like most organizations the USPS will have to continue to downsize and further reduce its cost structure while redefining service levels in order to survive in the new market order. The core focus going forward will be parcels and packages, competing with Fed Ex — all that stuff sold at Amazon has to get shipped.  That could be an opportunity for direct marketers to break through the mailbox clutter, when there isn’t as much clutter.

The letter side of the mail system has obviously been eroding for years as email has displaced personal correspondence and bills/statement continue to migrate to electronic payment. And so our mailboxes will be noticeably emptier as mail volume continues to decline (25 billion less pieces were delivered in 2009 than in 2008). We’ll still be getting our fair share of junk mail, but less of it. Even at reduced volumes, there is a very good reason direct mail will continue to be a viable medium for companies that can use it effectively as part of a cross media marketing strategy — because people like it.

Numerous research studies have shown that in fact the vast majority of people actually look forward to getting their mail every day. It’s a physical medium in an increasingly virtual world and a long-standing part of our social and cultural heritage. We enjoy sorting through the mail and pulling out the new Netflix movie. We set aside the bills and scan the junk mail on the way to the garbage can. When compared to email solicitation and annoying telesales calls, it is one of the least intrusive mediums.

It is because direct mail is less intrusive that it’s often less effective, but let us not put the blame on the medium. The problem is that most companies have not learned to use direct mail effectively.  As with all media, it is the content that drives value, not the delivery channel.