Royal Mail to up B2B marketing drive
Royal Mail is to step up efforts to push its B2B products and services later this year in the wake of a steep decline in revenue from its letters business.
It is believed that activity will focus on services such as database management and data cleaning services it currently offers companies including Tesco but are not widely promoted.
Royal Mail chiefs hope that the campaigns will shift perceptions that that the firm is just a letter delivery service.
Royal Mail is under pressure to find alternative revenue streams after its letters, parcel and international business swung to a £120m loss in 2010/2011 from a £20m profit in 2009/10.
Revenue declined to £9.2bn in the financial year 2010/11, down from £9.3bn a year earlier. The loss was blamed on a 4% fall in core mail volumes.
The company said in June that it would be looking to bolster the media and data services it offers to offset the losses, and make it more attractive to potential suitors.
In June, MPs paved the way for a full or part sell-off of Royal Mail by passing the Postal Services Bill.
Last week, Royal Mail was forced to delay plans to introduce a “delivered by….” mark on direct mail after being inundated with complaints from direct marketers concerned that the change would reduce response rates from DM packs.
Royal Mail recently appointed Beta to handle creative work.
