A new offering for 2019 in the United States Postal Service® (USPS®) promotion and incentives program is the Informed Delivery Promotion, which runs from September 1 through November 30 of 2019. Registration for this promotion starts on July 15, 2019 and runs through November 30, 2019.
The goal of this promotion is to increase the adoption rate of Informed Delivery by offering a 2% discount on postage to mailers who leverage Informed Delivery to reach their target audience through the Informed Delivery digital channel.
Preparation
You may be asking: this promotion is months away, why do anything about it now? Mailers definitely need to be thinking about this promotion now, as it involves advance planning of mailpieces and campaigns. Also, if you have not yet submitted an Informed Delivery campaign, you need to become familiar with that process, determine which submission method best meets your needs, and try submitting some campaigns to get some experience under your belt.
Campaign planning
Mailers should be taking a look at their planned mailings for 2019 and determine which mailings may be candidates for Informed Delivery campaigns. The goal of Informed Delivery, from a business mailer perspective, is to increase the reach and touch points of your physical mailpieces by offering Informed Delivery participants the opportunity to interact digitally in their delivery notification emails. To optimize the effectiveness of these campaigns, mailers should carefully plan the design of their mailpiece and what web content they want to offer to the recipients.
The mailpiece design is important, regardless of whether you plan to use the gray scale USPS scanned images of your mailpiece or use color replacement images for your campaigns. In either case, pay special attention to how the mailpiece will appear to the recipient in their email notifications. The goal is to attract attention and encourage recipients to click through to your digital message. If the addressed side of your mailpiece is not particularly attention-getting, you may wish to use a color replacement image, you may wish to change the design of the addressed side of the piece, or perhaps do both.
You will also want to spend some time working on the design of your ride-along image for the campaign. This is the image that the recipient clicks on to access your digital content. Again, this should be designed to grab attention and encourage recipients to click through.
You’ll also want to plan ahead for your digital content and create new content or modify existing content as appropriate. Consider what the goal of your physical mailpiece is and offer the same calls to action in your digital content.
Resources
The USPS has many resources available to business mailers to become familiar with Informed Delivery campaigns. The best place to start is the USPS web site. This site has links to many guides, FAQs, and other valuable resource. You may also contact the USPS at USPSInformedDeliveryCampaigns@USPS.gov or 1-877-329-7206. Many Mail Service Providers and mailing software providers also provide assistance with submission of Informed Delivery campaigns, so check with your providers to take advantage of this help.