Informed Delivery for Business

Using USPS informed delivery direct mail to market your business.

What is the difference between informed delivery from regular direct mail?

The Postal Service Informed delivery is a digital enhancement of a regular direct mail campaign. The primary difference is companion email message is sent along with your hard copy piece. In addition, the Email is sent to people who have opted-in for informed delivery.

Why incorporate Informed delivery into your direct marketing plan?

Multiple and diverse impressions:

Opportunity to bring prospects to website/landing page:

Additional tracking options:  IMDB

Additional insight:

Increase ROI

What is the cost to add Informed delivery?

The service itself is currently provided free by the USPS; However, this may change in the future. Although the post office currently provides the service for free; The mail house or direct mail agency setting up the mail campaign will have to charge for their time. In addition, there are extra images that need to be designed to accompany the email campaign (known as the “rider image”) The rider image replaces the black and white scan provided by the post office. The rider image also contains a hyperlink. So it is a good idea to consult your webmaster/designer to build a corresponding landing page, so there is a cost associated with the web development services as well.

How much extra time will it take to add Informed Delivery service to your campaign?

Two extra Images need to be designed (we usually get this done within 1 hour if we created the original mail piece, making the process a little smoother). In addition to the extra graphic design time, there is a significant amount of administration time. This can take anywhere from an additional 1 to 2 hours for a small run list of approximately 3000 records. Therefore, you will need to budget for a larger list for more administration time.

What technical skills are needed to incorporate informed delivery into my mailing?

  • Graphic design.
  • Intermediate knowledge of database management.

The ID entry requires using a string of numbers to be extracted from the Intelligent Mail Bar Code. This could be a tedious task without advanced mailing software or other database management software that would allow those edits to your mail file.

Is Informed delivery worth the extra cost and time?

When you are planning on using direct mail to promote your business, then yes, included informed delivery to your campaign is certainly worth the extra investment. Considering the extent of the benefits of a small extra investment, it is well worth it. When you consider the added benefit of adding prospects to your remarketing audiences on your digital marketing campaigns, the benefits begin to compound.

72.5%Average Open Rate

USPS-generated reports; 6-month average of aggregate email open rate as of December 2017.