What Is Informed Delivery?

Pat Mango is a 20-year veteran of the mailing industry. He was the Manager of Postal Relations at Quadient USA, responsible for creating and implementing postal initiative programs in support of Quadient's Postal Relations team. Now Pat works at the USPS®, but he still provides essential thought leadership we can share with our readers and customers. We sat down with him to get answers to our questions about the Informed Delivery program with the USPS and to learn how it can help business mailers. 

1. What is Informed Delivery in a sentence or two?

Informed Delivery allows people to have a digital preview of their daily incoming postal mail in their email! There are some exciting elements mailers can integrate to enhance and extend the mail experience for their customers.

2. Is Informed Delivery free for mailers?

Currently, yes—there is also a current promotion from the USPS for Informed Delivery. You can get more information and see if you qualify by visiting the USPS website and checking for 2020 promotions calendar.

3. What types of mail are eligible for Informed Delivery?

Letters, postcards, and flats are all eligible. In 2019, Informed Delivery was extended to include parcels. 

4. Can any business in any industry use Informed Delivery?

Yes—currently about 1,500 brands spanning all industries are benefiting from using Informed Delivery.  

5. Is Informed Delivery popular? How many households are currently using Informed Delivery?

Yes, overwhelmingly so. There are now 15.5 million Informed Delivery users and 10.6 million email-enabled users. In addition, 8,514 campaigns have been developed using Informed Delivery.

6. What are the benefits of Informed Delivery for mailers?

Informed Delivery provides assurance but also frequency because you now have three opportunities to interact with your customers—the mail piece, an email notification, and a special feature called Ride-Along digital content. 

7. What is Ride-Along content and what makes it so valuable in the direct mail industry?

Mailers can place a digital ad that aligns with each of their mailings called Ride-Along. The Ride-Along image adds a branded, clickable button with a call-to-action within the preview email of your customer’s mail piece. The call-to-action aligns and reinforces the objective of your mail piece and links directly to one of your web pages. Allowing your customers to interact with direct mail campaigns digitally increases engagement and provides more face-time with customers. Brands that integrate digital and direct mail earn 39% more of the customer’s time. 

8. For those who are already running an Informed Delivery campaign, what are some tips or best practices?

First, be aware of the shape of your mail piece or flat. Catalogs and some flats can’t be scanned like traditional postcards and letters, so be aware of what they look like in the email. Second, include Ride-Along content in the email preview. Try to grab the customer’s attention and have a strong call-to-action encouraging them to do something. Lastly, keep mobile in mind. Make sure your content is optimized and taking advantage of mobile.

9. Is Informed Delivery safe?

Yes, the Postal Service's Information Security program and the Inspection Service constantly monitors the network for suspicious activity to ensure information is kept secure. 

10. Where can mailers learn more about Informed Delivery?

They can learn more on the USPS website. 

Now that you have new mailing campaigns, start saving on them with a meter!
 

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