Mailings;

Tweet

If you're into mass mailings, you're probably throwing away money. In 1986, 76.2 billion pieces were mailed first class alone, and a good percentage of them went straight into the wastebasket, or should have.

There are things you can do, however, to cut your postal expenses and improve the odds that your promotional mailings and announcements will get read. For openers, trying asking the people on your mailing list whether they wish to continue receiving material. That's the approach taken by A. Gary Shilling & Co., a New York City economics consulting firm that does weekly mailings to clients and prospects. The firm annually asks everyone on its list to fill out a prepaid postcard confirming that they want the mail. Not that a recipient is automatically dropped if he or she neglects to send back the card. "That seemed a little excessive," says Karen Mishler, Shilling's administrative manager. Nevertheless, the system does allow the firm to keep its mailing list relatively up to date, while saving some money -- and perhaps a couple of trees.