• The best of all worlds: Valley Values delivers direct mailers in a magazine format. Unlike individual one-page mailers or newspapers, Valley Values is a magazine with a longer shelf life and value.

• Valley Values has been providing great results since 2002.

• Valley Values offers reach and frequency with in-home deliveries twice a month.

• Valley Values offers a variety of purchase plans designed to fit your budget.

• Valley Values will design your ad free of charge.

• Valley Values will give your business eye-catching 4 color ads at no additional charge.

• Valley Values offers excellent coverage of Merced and Stanislaus Counties, and is easily the best value for your advertising dollar.

A recent national research study has concluded that consumers value and use their mail. In fact, almost 70 percent report that mail is more personal that the internet. The Postal Service is here as a valuable resource for businesses that want to gain a better understanding of how their customer base can grow through the effective use of direct marketing. As an advertising channel in today’s media marketplace, where marketers place a high level of accountability on each dollar spent, mail offers the ability to target customers directly and with measurable result. The “Mail Moment” is that point when consumers bring in their mail to sort, organize and read, and it offers a clear, compelling perspective for marketers to incorporate efforts to reach consumers.

Mail gets marketing messages immediately into the hands of consumers who are eager to see what’s in their mail.

• 98% of consumers bring in their mail the day it’s delivered
• 77% of consumers sort through their mail immediately.
• 72% bring it in as soon as possible

Mail boasts a loyal readership and consumers spend a significant amount of time each day with their mail.

• Consumers spend an average of 30 minutes reading their mail on any occasion
• Consumers spend 45 minutes with magazines, 30 minutes with catalogs and 25 minutes with direct mail.

Mail may be the easiest way to reach the person in charge of managing household operations and finances.

• 90% of household mail sorters determine which mail is kept for review
• 84% are the principal grocery shoppers.
• 81% of sorters review financial documents

Mail is useful and consumers are more likely to read it if it helps them perform one of three household job functions.

• Browsing for new purchases
• Managing the home
• Overseeing finances.

Mail evokes emotion among consumers.

• 67% feel mail is more personal that the internet
• 56% say receiving mail is a real pleasure
• 55% look forward to discovering the mail they receive.

The role of mail remains very much distinct from e-mail marketing and the internet, yet the two continue to work well together, especially when a direct mail piece drives consumers to the internet for information or to make a purchase.
David Dillman, Postmaster, Sacramento. United States Postal Service

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