TNT Post and Royal Mail mull joint DM initiatives
Rivals Royal Mail and TNT Post are looking at ways that they can work together to develop initiatives that will increase the use of direct mail.
The two have launched a number of independent initiatives to stimulate the use of direct mail but are now exploring what they can do in collaboration to further increase the use of the channel and improve return on investment for clients.
TNT Post and Royal Mail compete in the collection and sorting of addressed mail and both operate in the unaddressed UK door-drop marketing sector.
TNT Post is one of Royal Mail’s biggest customers for addressed and unaddressed mail because of Royal Mail’s exclusive right to deliver mail over the last mile from local sorting offices.
Lieneke Happel, marketing and customer services director of TNT Post, says working together is to their mutual benefit.
She adds that collaboration will help “improve standards, increase the use of direct mail and make it viable for businesses to spend more” on the channel.
Royal Mail recently created a team of 30 direct mail consultants to offer advice on targeting and planning campaigns in a bid to increase marketers’ use of the channel.
It also launched a “DM Sale” at the start of the year offering reduced rates for new and additional mailings.
TNT Post also recently expanded the range of services it offers direct marketers when it launched adMail, which promotes “best practice in data management” through suppression of customer data against consumer and business data files.
Royal Mail did not respond to requests for comment.