USPS wants to close 3200 locations

Attention all of you who are addicted to paper marketing. It looks like snail mail is on it's way to the Smithsonian, right next to the abacus. I know that in saying we need to get off our addiction to paper, at Active Rain I am preaching to the choir as we say in Oklahoma, and the amen corner is very loud this Sunday. It is not a shock that stamps are going up constantly and usage decreases, and that the Post Office is beginning to downsize. I still have checks from six years ago because of online banking. If you still are only going to give up paper marketing when the pry your cold dead hands off it, consider a few other recent events.

The Boston Globe barely made it. Without significant union concessions and others, they would be toast. Seattle now has an online newspaper only. The Rocky Mountain News is no more. Have you heard of a Kindle? That and it's competitors are changing the face of publishing. I'm finally ready for it. It was hard to lose my addiction to books. Now I know how addicts feel during withdrawal. Real Estate sections started disappearing from newspapers over a year ago.

Now lets look at a survey from the Piper Jeffrey Company about the cost of leads in our business. Per lead here is the breakdown: Search .45c, email .55c, Yellow Pages $1.18, Banner Ads $2.00, and the No 1 and biggest loser is Direct Mail $9.94. Surprised? I was about direct mail. Now besides books I have another addiction to get over.

Finally, let's talk ecology. Virgin Forest are fast disappearing. Real Estate needs to get ahead of the curve on the greening of America and the world. Besides the obvious cost savings detailed in the last paragraph we should show our stewardship of our planet and we can lead the way. This includes making sure your state will accept digital signatures, that we use the electronic forms now available for contracts and addendums and not paper, and even to start using talking sign technology rather than brochure boxes. Besides how many boxes have you seen without flyers?