Why try and stop direct mail?

Few people would argue that SPAM email or dinner time telemarketing calls are not a problem. Proponents of SPAM email claim that it is simple to just hit the delete key. Proponents of telemarketing suggest that you can choose to not answer the phone for any caller ID you do not recognize.

Similar arguments can be made for direct mail – just throw it in the trash. The Direct Marketing Association even goes so far as to suggest donating unwanted direct mail to a school library! As direct marketers become savvier to the ways of the consumer, they continue to try and craft direct mail into forms that will trick us into thinking it is legitimate mail, and we open it. We also waste thousands of tons of our limited natural resources each year, and fill landfills with the unnecessary products of direct mail. Direct mail can be a serious risk for identity theft, for instance, pre-approved credit offers.

I am not against direct mail, I am against sending direct mail to people that don’t want to receive it. It is unfortunately very difficult for a small business to responsibly insure that direct mail goes only to those that want it or don’t mind it – the current system doesn’t allow for it.

What many proponents of direct mail don’t understand is that the people that would join a national do-not-send list, if it existed, are the people that are not likely to buy from them anyway. A major reform of the direct marketing industry would eventually lead to a more efficient direct mail machine and many dollars saved in lower printing and postage costs. Those pennies add up.

If I could choose what types of direct mail I was open to receiving, and know that I could turn off the spigot anytime I wanted, I would gladly subscribe to those things that were of interest to me.

Why Me?

As the Christmas season of 2002 approached, I realized that, despite being on the DMA’s do-not-send list for over three years, I was still getting lots of direct mail. My mailbox was overflowing with mail and yet only a few pieces were mail that I wanted. Catalogs, credit card offers, mailers from every type of business, mortgage refinance offers, real estate flyers, supermarket flyers – the volume and variety was incredible. During the Christmas season, I received 22 catalogs from companies I had previously ordered from. Some companies were mailing me more than one catalog per week.

I decided to see how much of this flood I could stop and find out what my rights were. Over the next several years, I tried to stop every single piece of direct mail I got. With some types I was successful, with others I was not. What is clear to me now is that there needs to be a simpler way to respond to direct mail in order to stop it. Overall my results were disappointing – I managed to make only a small reduction in the overall amount of direct mail I receive. Perhaps my failure can also be seen as a success of sorts: Had I not been doing what I have been doing, the amount of direct mail I receive would likely have grown exponentially.

Through my experience, I hope to give you the information and tools to stop the most amount of direct mail possible and spend the least amount of time doing it.

Some background on direct mail

You would be surprised if you knew how many mailing lists you were on and how mailing list vendors got your name and address. Virtually any transaction where you give a company your name and address can, and most often does, result in your name being added to a mailing list. Most companies, even if you ask them not to, will put you on their own mailing list and will sell your name and address to others, even if you explicitly ask them not to.

Mailing lists also come from public records information (county property transactions, etc.). If you own a home, you are on a list.

Mailing lists come from:

• Companies you have ordered a product from
• Warranty cards you send in
• Public records (property transactions, etc.)
• Voter registration lists
• The US Postal Service
• Financial institutions
• Utility companies

Basically, anyone that has your name and address and possibly any other information about you can and often does sell that information to mailing list vendors. Even the US Postal Service, despite their insistence that they do not, provide marketers with your name.

A few years ago, the rules for financial organizations changed and they are now allowed to sell your personal information (including information that indicates how affluent you are) to outside parties – you have to specifically opt-out with each of your financial organizations to stop this from happening.