Royal Mail [http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm ] has appointed leading mobile marketing and technology firm, Incentivated [http://www.incentivated.com/web/Home.aspx ], to be their mobile partner, in order to help their business customers improve response rates [http://www.incentivated.com/web/acquisition.aspx ] from direct mail promotions as part of the new MarketReach initiative, launched this week.

In these days of email inbox overload and budget cutting, there is an emerging willingness to revisit the entire marketing toolbox. This includes printed mail where, due to the rush to email, there is now a better opportunity to achieve stand-out on the doormat. Royal Mail’s MarketReach business is helping brands to improve visibility and ROI (currently measured at an average of GBP3 for every GBP1 spent according to Royal Mail) with the combination of a range of creative and digital response mechanisms.

Royal Mail has launched MarketReach to provide companies and their agencies with a full suite of mail solutions to grow their businesses. MarketReach will provide the expertise and skills needed to add a real element to marketing campaigns which are becoming increasingly digital-led.

MarketReach, in partnership with Incentivated, now offers business customers the option to add a range of mobile-optimised ‘calls to action’ to any piece of direct mail, allowing business to take advantage of the immediacy of mobile to respond quickly to postal sales promotions. In addition, through Incentivated, Royal Mail can offer its clients mobile sites and apps.

The three different, and complementary, response mechanisms offered by Incentivated are:

    
    - SMS response: MarketReach can now offer 'text for appointment', 'text for
      coupon/ voucher', 'text for callback', 'text for app/ website' and 'text for nearest
      [store etc]' for example.
    - QR codes: these can be generated securely by MarketReach for their clients
      using Incentivated's Barcode Generation tool), typically for 'scan for app', 'scan for
      mobile website' and 'scan for contact details' etc.
    - Personalised email addresses: allows the same functionality as SMS or QR
      response, but for customers who can't access richer media on their phones or who
      prefer to interact via email. The personalised address that the email is sent to can
      be used to trigger different responses etc in the same way as keywords and QR codes.

Royal Mail can set up and provide detailed reports and analytics for customers through “iris” (Incentivated’s mobile campaign management platform). Royal Mail’s clients can have secure access to their own campaigns through the platform. Fulfilment following a mobile response will be handled by the Royal Mail.

Antony Miller, Marketing Director for MarketReach said: “We are delighted to be able to offer enhanced response functionality for our clients. Direct mail is a proven marketing channel that has consistently shown itself to be successful. It provides the ability for our customers to have access to a mobile call to action allowing us to keep direct mail at the forefront of 21st century marketing solutions, and for our clients to increase the profitability of mail for their business.”

Jason Cross, Marketing Director for Incentivated, commented: “By bringing together the continued effectiveness of direct mail with mobile response mechanisms, MarketReach clients’ mailers can now feature the return path that customers increasingly prefer to use when responding to offers. We look forward to delivering mobile response for Royal Mail’s clients, and to bringing DM up-to-date by enabling other mobile formats such as apps and sites for tactical campaigns as well as longer-term strategic value.”