Direct mail has one major advantage that digital channels simply can’t replicate: it puts your message directly into your customer’s hands.
But what if your campaign could start working before that happens?
That’s where USPS Informed Delivery® comes in.
Informed Delivery gives direct mail campaigns a digital extension, allowing recipients to see and interact with your message before the physical mail piece arrives at their door.
What Is USPS Informed Delivery®?
Every morning, consumers enrolled in Informed Delivery receive a Daily Digest email showing a preview of the mail scheduled to arrive that day.
For a traditional piece of mail, that preview is typically a grayscale image of the outside of the envelope or mail piece.
But when you add Enhanced Informed Delivery to your direct mail campaign, you can turn that preview into another branded touchpoint.
Instead of simply seeing a grayscale image, recipients can see a full-color promotional image with a clickable call-to-action.
That link can send them directly to:
- Your website
- A campaign landing page
- An online offer
- An appointment scheduler
- A product or service page
- Another destination relevant to your campaign
So your audience doesn’t have to wait for the mail to arrive, open it, and decide what to do next.
Your campaign can give them a reason to take action before they ever open the mailbox.
Your Direct Mail Campaign Gets a Digital Head Start
Think of your physical mail piece as the centerpiece of your campaign.
Informed Delivery adds another path to that same message.
A recipient might see your campaign in their Daily Digest in the morning, click through to your website, and then receive the physical mail piece later that day.
Or they might see the digital preview, remember the message when the physical piece arrives, and be more likely to engage with it.
Either way, you’re creating another opportunity to capture attention and drive action.
And because the digital experience is connected to the physical mail campaign, you’re not replacing direct mail with digital. You’re extending it.
Millions of Consumers Are Already Using It
Informed Delivery isn’t a niche service with a tiny audience.
More than 74.8 million customers have signed up for the service, making it one of the largest engaged digital audiences available through the Postal Service.
USPS reports that Daily Digest emails consistently achieve open rates above 60%, significantly higher than typical commercial email campaigns.
And recipients aren’t simply opening those emails and ignoring what they see.
Interactive Informed Delivery campaigns have generated more than 10.6 billion impressions and nearly 18.7 million clicks during the most recent reporting period.
That’s a lot of additional visibility for campaigns that already have a physical presence in the home.
It Can Also Help You Test What Works
One of the biggest advantages of adding a digital component to direct mail is the ability to measure and test different creative approaches.
USPS has highlighted campaigns from organizations including the Pittsburgh Pirates and Bono’s Pit Bar-B-Q, where Informed Delivery was used to A/B test creative and messaging.
By pairing direct mail with digital previews and interactive content, both organizations increased response rates by more than 30% compared with traditional direct mail alone.
That means Informed Delivery isn’t simply another place to display your creative.
It can also give you another way to learn what messaging and imagery resonate with your audience.
Give Your Direct Mail a Digital Advantage
Informed Delivery® gives your direct mail campaign another opportunity to reach your audience, drive engagement, and generate measurable results before your mail piece even arrives. By combining the impact of physical mail with a clickable digital experience, you can make every campaign work harder.
Let’s talk about how Informed Delivery can add another layer of engagement to your next direct mail campaign.
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