Informed Delivery® has grown tremendously in the last three years, and USPS is working hard to add features most requested by Mailers and Mail Owners.
And that effort is paying off in a big way.
Since its release in 2018, Informed Delivery has grown substantially – both in its consumer base and in adoption by Mail Owners. More than 2,000 Mail Owners and brands now take advantage of the platform to extend their digital marketing footprint.
If you haven’t looked into incorporating Informed Delivery into your mailings, the upcoming promotional period is an excellent time to do so.
Informed Delivery offers Mailers and Mail Owners:
- The ability to expand marketing efforts beyond the traditional channels
- It increases response rates from consumers by providing interactive links for taking immediate action on mail pieces.
And best of all, it’s currently a free service. Plus, during the Informed Delivery Promotion Period (September 1, 2021, through November 30, 2021), you can save 2 percent on postage if you register now and meet all promotion requirements. (See the link at the end of this email to register.)
Consumer enrollment has grown tremendously since the program’s launch, and the COVID-19 pandemic spurred exponential growth in subscriptions. More than 40 million registered users now take advantage of the program, which is currently free to subscribers. As of May 2021, the saturation rate was 23.0 percent (up 8 percent over the last year – 15.6 percent in May 2020), and the average email open rate remains steady around 64.7 percent compared to an industry average of about 28%.
In addition, USPS continues to refine and expand this popular program. At the end of 2020, Informed Delivery introduced the Multiple Address feature which gives residential customers the ability to register and manage/view mail and packages for more than one address – for instance, a residential address and a PO Box.
In February 2021, a Social Sharing feature was added that allows consumers to “share” an Informed Delivery campaign via Facebook from their dashboard. Consumers can share a mailpiece directly from the dashboard now, and plans are in the works to expand that service to Daily Digest emails in the future, along with integrated sharing across multiple social media platforms.
Other enhancements are coming soon, including a URL-MID integration feature that will enable Mail Owners to better trace Informed Delivery-driven referrals to URLs by adding the Mailer ID and Serial Number to campaign URL links. There is also a Reminders feature that will allow customers to set reminders from their dashboard on mailpieces with campaign treatments so they’ll remember to follow up on mailpieces at a later date. The Reminders feature is expected to be released to the Dashboard this summer, and there are plans to add it to the Daily Digest in the future.
Package campaigns are also on the horizon which will allow Shippers to include marketing content with package tracking data for Informed Delivery users. A pilot program has yielded promising results, and the wider launch is expected within the next year.
Finally, an API Integration feature is under development. It will allow Shippers to integrate directly with Informed Delivery to create Package Campaigns. It is currently in the pilot phase as well, with an expected release in 2022. Once that program is fully released, there are plans to extend the functionality to include Mail Campaigns. This feature would, essentially, provide Mailers with a more robust, real-time method of creating and managing Informed Delivery campaigns.
To sign up for the Informed Delivery Promotion, click this link https://postalpro.usps.com/
