Current mood:

creative

Hey, Zumbox, now what?
The Zumbox blog has an entry called "I've Got My Zumbox. Now What?," but comments are closed. I just got set up tonight. I am asking the same question: now what?

I heard about Zumbox from Triple Pundit. The idea is simple: register your postal address at zumbox.com, and you can receive mail targeted at that address. The mail is, of course, electronic. They've done the work to validate 150 million U.S. addresses already. You may have mail waiting for you. It's ideal for organizations (both for-profit and non-profit) to send you mail that they would normally pay to prepare, print, and have delivered by your postal carrier.

Individuals can send 50 pieces per month for free. I tried sending a postcard to demo addresses listed at the Zumbox site, but they're not valid.

One obvious question regarding person-to-person mail is, why not send email instead? I can give you one reason. Let's say I want to contact all my neighbors. I don't know all their email addresses. With Zumbox, I can do it electronically. There's a certain attraction to the semi-privacy of sending email to a postal address instead of an email address. I don't know their email address, and they don't know mine. But using Zumbox we can still communicate electronically.

So here are my first impressions:

1. I need a way to query whether an address has been claimed. At other social media sites, I'm asked to upload my address book to see which email addresses are active at the social media site. Zumbox should do the same. Then automatically add those addresses into my Zumbox contacts list so I can easily send them Zumbox mail.
2. Looking the other way, Zumbox should list the organizations who are set up to send mail to me. It's self-evident if the organizations I care about are using Zumbox. I would be getting mail from them. But maybe I want to support organizations who have gone paperless. For example, if L.L. Bean was set up, but Eddie Bauer wasn't, then maybe I want to do business with the former and not the latter.
3. Building off the previous idea, Zumbox should also have an easy way for me to petition the organizations I care about to start using Zumbox. I should be able to search for organizations, and check a "me, too" box if someone has already petitioned them. This will be powerful ammunition for Zumbox's marketing efforts if they can show organizations that their constituencies are asking for them.
4. Here's another variation of this idea of using demand from constituencies to drive businesses to use Zumbox: give me an email address where I can forward all of my opt-in commercial email to Zumbox. Then Zumbox can tally the pieces they're getting and market Zumbox to those commercial email producers. This could be powerful bait -- do you want to manage a list of email addresses, or do you want to reach your customers literally where they live? Having a postal mailing list guarantees no bounces, and it allows detailed analysis based on ZIP codes. Thus Zumbox could become a powerful competitor against other opt-in commerical email services. I would encourage organizations with whom I already have relationships (Amazon, eBay, etc.) to use Zumbox to reach me. I am more likely to read ads, etc. in my Zumbox account than I am in my regular mail account. I want my email inbox back! I know email is essentially free and Zumbox charges $0.05 per piece. But don't you think both sides would be willing to deal?
5. Zumbox needs to be thinking in both directions. They're obviously set up for electronic correspondence. But it's advantageous to connect to the paper world during the transition to paperless. They should create some attractive postcard designs. Greeting cards, too. I would pay to have these pieces printed and delivered to my friends and family. They get snail mail from me, and Zumbox gets viral marketing paid for by me! How about linking up with electronic greeting card companies?

Finally, I'll point out that if this idea fragments, chaos could destroy it. I'm not going to deal with multiple providers. The U.S. Postal Office should have thought of this first. or FedEx. Or UPS. But Zumbox is in the game. I wish them the best of luck.