3 Underused Postal Solutions That Improve Marketing ROI
For many marketers, sending a direct mail campaign out the door feels like crossing the finish line, but it’s just the beginning of an even bigger opportunity. Direct mail remains one of the most effective ways to connect with customers, yet its full potential often goes untapped due to underused postal strategies.
By integrating a few advanced postal solutions, you can improve deliverability, save on postage, and get your message where it needs to go. Before your next direct mail campaign, consider implementing one—or more—of the below underrated but very useful postal solutions.
- Informed Delivery
How it works: Informed Delivery allows USPS account holders to receive daily previews of their incoming mail, including “Daily Digest” emails, images of letter-sized pieces, and mail tracking.
What it means for marketers: USPS Informed Delivery is among the most widely used postal solutions by Americans. According to recent data, Informed Delivery has:
- 62.9 million users, with 31.8% national saturation
- 41.8 billion impressions and counting
- 62.2% average email open rate (compared with approximately 35% for other emails)
Marketers can access data about email open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement with digital content. While it can’t provide user-level data, information is available on total clicks to compare performance and determine which content is performing best.
Informed Delivery can also function as an element in the larger puzzle: omnichannel marketing. When users can interact with mail tangibly and digitally, it enhances visibility, produces higher open rates, and produces a more engaging customer experience that can generate better ROI and conversion.
- Track ’N Trace
How it works: Track ’N Trace is software that delivers frequently updated data to monitor the progress of mail pieces as they move through the mail stream.
What it means for marketers: The software delivers step-by-step delivery data, allowing marketers to predict delivery patterns. That information can be used to improve timing in other channels, such as digital and social advertising and email marketing. Better coordination in campaign elements can also enhance marketing ROI.
- Marketing Mail + Return
How it works: This approach combines Marketing Mail standard rates through the USPS with a preselected return option for undeliverable mail.
What it means for marketers: USPS Marketing Mail is not automatically returned or forwarded if it can’t be delivered. Instead, such items are handled based on the endorsements pre-placed on the piece by the sender. Mail without endorsements is disposed of.
The USPS provides an extensive list of endorsement options on their website that you can select to redirect mail pieces. These solutions increase the odds of getting mail to its destination and allow you to see what mail is undeliverable and why. In turn, the data helps you to better clean your lists, save on postage, and ensure mail gets where it needs to go.