April 15th, 2019
You may have heard about the US Postal Service’s Informed Delivery—it’s a free service that provides residents with a scan of all mail delivered each day. An estimated 14 million households have already subscribed to this free service, almost 10% of all residential mailing addresses in our nation!
But did you know your nonprofit can use this service to further promote your mission and enhance your mailings … and get paid for it?
The basic service is just a B&W scan of the front of each mail piece, provided whether the mailer participates in the service or not. To create additional interactivity, nonprofits and other mailers can provide supplemental content that allows recipients to take immediate action. This can be a full-color image with a clickable link that can drive supporters to a web page for donations, additional content that complements a mailing, efforts to take actions like signing a petition, or providing a coupon or discount code for a special event.
When the recipient views their mail in the Informed Delivery app, the preview page shows supplemental content with an active link to a targeted webpage. The mailer can even include a full-color sample of the piece to replace the B&W scan. Sub-groups within a mailing can receive different offers that allow for testing of various opportunities or actions to see what motivates readers the most.
An estimated 14 million households have already subscribed to this free service, almost 10% of all residential mailing addresses in our nation!
For an environmental nonprofit, the link could land the reader on a page with a vista of land and wildlife that needs protection… a hospital could offer a hands-on tour of a newly opened facility … international relief charities could transport donors to an emergency … or an animal welfare nonprofit could show their rescue team in action. Of course, links can also direct the reader to the donation form!
Best of all, the USPS provides a 2% postage discount for all campaigns mailed between September 1 and November 30, 2019, for those who have registered. Although there is no way to determine which supporters are already enrolled in Informed Delivery, one would imagine that they are both tech-savvy and mail responsive—why else would they want to know what’s in their mailbox every day? This combination of skills and responsiveness may provide an extra boost to your efforts while also saving on postage. Seems like a win-win!
Blog written by Anna Hall | Senior Production Manager