Business Junk Mail Reduction Project

Ways I have reduced junk mail to my business:

- Be listed by name and phone number only in the telephone book.

- Do not buy Yellow Pages advertising, since we get all our work by word of mouth anyway.

- Print and hand out business cards with name, phone, e-mail, website, but no address. Run advertising the same way. There are plenty of ways for clients to reach us, but none that we can't turn off or erase easily.

- For registration at conferences, sign-up sheets at meetings, entry forms at fairs - whatever - use name, phone, e-mail, but no address.

- You can code your name with a special middle initial, say Z, if you give your address to someone who says they won't sell it to others but you suspect that they will. Then when you get mail addressed to John Z Doe, you know who gave out the name and can call them on it.

- If forced to give an address, such as for returning merchandise at some retailers, give a phony one like 123 Main Street. If an address is required in a field on a computerized form, just put in an X and the computer will usually accept it.

- Pay by credit card instead of by check, since most checks list address.

- Subscribe electronically to newsletters, magazines, newspapers and so on. This is becoming more and more available. Some use e-mail to notify us that a new issue is available on line.

- Do not register software. Usually, the only benefit to the buyer is a few months, at most, of free technical support calls. And it is not a required part of the licensing agreement, as many believe.

- Do not return warranty registration cards for consumer products. Again, there is very little, if any, benefit to the buyer. In case warranty service is needed, the sales slip and the serial number off the product will prove purchase date and eligibility for service.

- Call senders of unsolicited mail and ask them to remove your name from their mailing list.

- We call senders of unsolicited mail and explain that if they want our business (the purpose of sending their mailers), they shouldn't send us any more mail, because then we will intentionally not purchase from them. This is a hard one for them to grasp, since instead of getting business by sending mailers they get it by NOT sending it. But some catch on, and I explain that I know who they are and have a good memory.

In Sweden it is the law that any mail box with "Ek Reklam" (no junk mail) on it forbids the mail carrier from putting unsolicited mail in it, and they must return it to the main post office. Presumably word gets back to the originator that fewer copies are needed for a particular zip code. We could use such a law in the U.S.!

Note that I am especially diligent about avoiding junk mail; it is a pet peeve of mine. Good luck!

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