We have teamed up with Marketreach to launch an invaluable step-by-step guide on how to use mail more sustainably.
The guide, written with the help of our SMP members, has been designed to help brands and agencies understand how they could potentiallyreduce their carbon footprint by producing more sustainable mail campaigns.
Called simply ‘Using Mail More Sustainably, A Step-by-Step Guide’, it aims to benefit the planet and mail producers’ customers.
Our SMP members who have contributed to the guide were Paul Sumner from Go Inspire, Angus Campbell from Paragon, Webmart’s Tom Oldershaw and Metromail’s Neil Hoban.
All marketing, even a basic customer email, carries a cost because the energy and materials it uses has a carbon footprint. The guide aims to help brands and agencies enter meaningful discussions with mail producers to make informed decisions, across all areas of the mailing process, to use mail more sustainably, and cost effectively. From understanding business sustainability priorities, and choosing the right supplier, through to targeting accuracy, the production process, recycling and much more.
Key learnings from the guide include:
- The opportunities to make carbon conscious mail campaigns
- What mail sustainability factors to consider, from design concept right through to recycling
- How to assess sustainable paper options, inks, other materials and print processes
- How effective data targeting can help to reduce the carbon impact of direct mail and other printed mailings
- Ways to offset carbon emissions of your mail campaigns.
Consumer attitudes are changing towards the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions, with four out of five people admitting they are more likely to choose a brand that considers a positive approach to environmental sustainability.
Not only this, but customers are becoming wiser, as to how businesses behave, therefore, being sustainable is now essential rather than a choice.
Key sections in the guide include:
- Guidance for sustainable mail
- Reducing waste through data
- How to choose suppliers
- Delivery footprint
- Encouraging recycling.
All media channels and marketing activity have an impact on the environment, particularly regarding carbon footprint.
Protecting the planet by improving sustainability must be a major priority. This guide provides genuine guidance for mail users including practical insights on ways to take, often simple steps within the mailing sector to becoming more sustainable.
Following the steps in the guide is an extremely useful place to start for brands on the journey to becoming more sustainable; even if it simply helps them to know which questions to ask production partners and printers.
We hope the guide gives organisations a better understanding of when and how they could reduce the carbon footprint of their mail campaigns, as every change we make today can lead to a more sustainably optimistic future within the mailing industry.
