The spin-off company of Newington mail marketer Data-Mail is gaining traction for its ability to coordinate marketing campaigns across platforms, especially as U.S. Postal Service delivery is about to become less definitive.
Windsor-based Intelisent was first spun off from Data-Mail one year ago, and in that first year, the company doubled its business from 1 billion pieces of mail in 2010 to 2 billion pieces in 2011.
“We think we’ve just scratched the surface,” said Mark Mandell, co-founder and chief executive officer of Intelisent.
Intelisent’s technology allows direct mail marketers to track their mailed fliers and promotions much like FedEx offers tracking for its packages. The company allows clients to determine where their mail is in the delivery process and confirm when it arrives at its intended location.
The service was first offered strictly to Data-Mail’s customers in the early years, but the company was spun off in 2010, allowing a far greater reach.
“It is a pretty powerful tool,” said Stephen Colella, vice president of Chicago mail marketer Calmark, Inc. “We have clients that use it to make sure there are no pockets in the country where it takes mail longer to be delivered.”
Unlike first class mail, which is almost always delivered in a 1-3 day window, standard mail has a much larger window, so marketing materials sent via mail could arrive in a 7-10 day window.
The old model in mail marketing was using elaborate tracking charts guessing when the mail might arrive, Mandell said. It is little more than crossing fingers and hoping the mail emerges from the post office as predicted.
By using Intelisent and knowing when promotions will arrive, companies can plan ahead to coordinate their marketing campaigns, Mandell said.
If a retailer knows a promotion for a certain product arrived on a specific day, the company can stock up on that sale item in anticipation of demand. With a restaurant sending out a coupon, the venue knows to increase staff when the coupons arrive in customer’s mailboxes. For a marketer planning a multi-platform campaign where the mailer serves as the basis, the company knows to wait until the mail arrives before placing a follow-up phone call, e-mail or social media post.
“Any good campaign needs to take into consideration all the various platforms the customer will use,” said Rebecca Mead, incoming president of the Connecticut chapter of the American Marketing Association. “The message should be coordinated across any platform that you choose.”
If a company has set up a Web site as part of a marketing campaign, the firm needs to make sure the Web site is working before people receive the mail promoting the site. If the mail arrives earlier than expected and the site isn’t ready to handle the new traffic, the whole campaign loses impact, Mead said.
“You lose somebody right then and there,” Mead said.
Calmark has used Intelisent for three years, before and after the company was spun out of Data-Mail. Getting clients to sign up for the service has been a tough sell, because it costs extra, Colella said.
“It will be a little easier sell this year as the post office begins collapsing their system,” Colella said.
On May 15, the U.S. Postal Service said it will close 252 of its 487 mail processing facilities and 3,658 post offices to move toward solvency. The main impact is expected for first class mail, but mail marketers using standard mail are concerned about how the changes will impact delivery.
Colella said his company had four new clients sign up for Intelisent’s services since December.
Intelisent has fewer than 100 customers, Mandell said, but there’s a lot of room to grow. Political campaigns, retailers, financial services and telecommunication all will need to know when their mail will arrive, and Intelisent can guide them when the USPS makes its changes.
“There’s going to be a lot of chaos in the postal service delivery network over the next three to 30 months,” Mandell said. “We can track mail through the chaos.”
If, for example, a major retailer offers a promotion through the mail that will arrive in Los Angeles five days earlier than San Francisco, the company can have the foresight to move some inventory to Los Angeles to meet the early demand, Mandell said.
Intelisent doesn’t hold a patent for its technology. The service, though, offers real-time tracking, instead of competitors who only can issue reports when the mail arrived, Mandell said.
“You should see the look on people’s faces when you tell them there is a service for their direct mail equivalent to FedEx delivery confirmation,” Mandell said.
