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Direct mail has always been a crucial part of a marketer’s toolkit. Its tangible nature, as well as its personalization and targeting capabilities, can lead to significant returns on investment (ROI). With Informed Delivery, you can enhance your direct mail campaigns by integrating them with digital capabilities. Imagine being able to supercharge your direct mail results even further!

What is USPS Informed Delivery?

Informed Delivery is a service that bridges the gap between traditional mail and digital convenience. It provides direct mail recipients with digital previews of their incoming mail. These previews appear in recipients’ email inboxes or on their Informed Delivery dashboards, doubling the marketing impressions and increasing the likelihood of your message being seen.

Imagine launching a postcard ad. With a well-managed Informed Delivery account, your postcard’s digital preview can appear in full color, complete with interactive elements that drive traffic straight to your website. This is more than just a grayscale image; it’s a vibrant, engaging representation of your brand that can elicit powerful responses from your audience.

In today’s digital age, consumers are finding their email inboxes increasingly cluttered, leading to a resurgence of trust in traditional mailboxes. Research indicates that campaigns combining direct mail and digital perform better than email alone. This is where Informed Delivery shines, blending the tangible impact of direct mail with the broad reach and interactive capabilities of digital marketing.

The marketing benefits of USPS Informed Delivery

Informed Delivery offers numerous benefits for marketers who create campaigns:

1. Higher Email Open Rates: According to USPS, emails from Informed Delivery tend to have higher open rates than average, boosting your campaign’s visibility.
    
2. Multiple Impressions: With each piece of mail, you have the potential to generate at least two impressions: one when the consumer views the digital preview, and another when they physically interact with the mail.
    
3. Driving Consumer Response: Through Informed Delivery, direct mail transforms into an interactive platform. Your campaigns can lead consumers to a digital experience, such as your website or a special offer, prompting immediate action.
    
4. Digital Reach: Informed Delivery takes your direct mail efforts to the next level. It not only mirrors the capabilities of email marketing but also enhances them by providing a tangible, physical component that can be interacted with.
    
5. Increased ROI Potential: By doubling the impressions and creating the potential for an interactive experience, Informed Delivery could significantly increase your campaign’s ROI.
    
6. Insightful Analytics: USPS Informed Delivery allows you to analyze your campaign results, including email open rates and number of click-throughs, providing invaluable insights for future initiatives.

To fully harness the power of Informed Delivery, it’s crucial to set up the service correctly. This involves designing an Interactive Campaign with a full-color image and interactive elements, such as URLs. While this might require an initial learning investment, it’s a step you can’t afford to skip if you want to reap all the benefits of this powerful tool.

USPS Informed Delivery offers a seamless blend of direct mail marketing and digital interaction. This service enables marketers to create more impactful campaigns, connect with customers in an innovative way, and potentially improve their ROI. Don’t miss the chance to transform your direct mail marketing approach with this innovative tool!

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Selecting the right colors for direct mail is not all black and white. There isn’t necessarily one right color or one wrong color—but there are definitely good and bad choices. Engaging colors can draw attention to your direct mail piece, increase brand recognition and even get people to read it.

The wrong color may get your postcard tossed. Color selection should be strategic. Not all colors say the same thing, and once you do make your choice, how you implement color is important.

Here are some good rules to follow:

Marry your color with your message

Colors have the power to make people feel certain ways, so select hues that reinforce (rather than contradict) your message. For example, many Americans associate gold with wealth, so using that color to promote a low-priced item could confuse your audience. Orange, however, is a playful and vibrant color that can make a product look more affordable. Or if you’re promoting something related to the environment, green is a natural choice. It’s already linked with eco-friendliness, so it makes sense.

Stay true to your brand

Remember to consistently represent your logo and corporate colors throughout your marketing pieces. Regardless of the colors you choose, your brand colors should always be included.

Don’t let color interfere with readability

Text is most legible when its color is highly contrasted with the background. Black on white is the easiest to read. Other legible combinations include black on yellow, red on white and blue on white.

Don’t use the whole rainbow

Too many colors can make your piece look less sophisticated. Consider creating contrast by using different shades of the same color.

Finally, don’t discount the idea of using tinted paper. A soft-colored paper can add warmth to your message, for example. And printing one or two colors on tinted paper may be more cost-effective than using several inks on white paper. The right colors will make your direct mailings pop!

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In fact, direct mail is more than just alive and well: In 2023 alone, U.S. companies invested nearly $40 billion to reach people at the curb. Even Google, of all firms, is widely known to spend heavily on direct mail marketing.

So what gives? When email and other digital channels are so cheap, why are companies devoting significant portions of their budgets to one of the oldest forms of print marketing out there?

The answer is simple: Direct mail is highly effective.

When you look at the research, study after study proves that there’s something unique about direct mail marketing that’s great for getting recipients to engage and take action.

For example, in a study by Lob of 250 business professionals from North American companies with more than 1,000 employees, 74% said their firms use direct mail because it delivers the best response rates, conversion rates and return on investment (ROI) of any marketing medium.

SG360 saw a similar finding in their poll of 427 B2C marketing leaders and 1,257 multigenerational consumers: 76% of marketers said direct mail trumped all other channels in terms of conversion rates. Even the Association of National Advertisers, in 2022, found direct mail to have the highest ROI, at 43%, compared to email’s 32%; nearly 82% of surveyed marketing professionals also said they planned to increase their use of direct mail.

But why?

What makes direct mail such a good tool for target audience activation? Let’s take a look at some of its unique qualities.

• It’s a less saturated channel. Have you looked at your email inbox lately? How many messages have you read compared to the number you’ve ignored? In today’s digital age, spam is the new junk mail, and mail-mail has shifted course to become something people pay more attention to.
• It’s tangible. Physical mail creates a sensory experience that digital can’t replicate. In 2015, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General partnered with the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University Fox School of Business to study the neuropsychology of direct mail versus digital advertisements. Using scientific measurements, including examining participants’ brain waves, they found:
  • Compared to email, subjects spent more time engaging with physical ads and were later able to recall them more quickly and confidently.
  • Print ads generated a stronger and longer-lasting emotional response than email ads.
  • Researchers at Canada Post came to a similar finding, when they uncovered that study participants asked to examine print and digital ads were able to recall brand names from the printed pieces much more frequently; 75% were able to remember the print ads, while only 44% could do so for digital.  
• It feels personal. Compared to receiving an email—and especially compared to scrolling past a digital display ad—receiving a piece of physical mail customized with your name feels downright friendly and familiar. Similarly, people tend to trust direct mail more than digital media. According to Vericast, nearly two-thirds of recipients consider direct mail trustworthy; this increases to 67% when you compare it to digital’s privacy concerns.
• It’s less fleeting. The typical email lifespan is around two seconds. For direct mail, it’s 17 days. That’s a lot of time for a mail piece to sit on your counter and beg to be glimpsed at—which equals more impressions. On average, every piece of mail is looked at 4.2 times.  
• It complements other methods. Omnichannel marketing—that is, reaching targets through a combination of channels that work together in synergy—is a hot topic in modern marketing circles and is increasingly becoming the industry standard. Direct mail is the perfect complement to an omnichannel strategy and has been shown to enhance the performance of digital channels like email and social media. Three-quarters of Lob’s surveyed marketing pros regularly combine direct mail and email, while research from the marketing group GoInspire has shown that combining the two generates significantly greater ROI than email alone.

Let’s get personal.

Finally, let’s discuss another thing that makes modern direct mail a whole different ball game than the mailers of old: variable data.

With the help of technology, today’s direct mail can be personalized to an unprecedented degree. Variable data printing allows marketers to customize each mail piece with the recipient’s name, preferences and other personal details. This captures attention and fosters a sense of connection and personal investment in your brand.

In a world where consumers are bombarded with generic advertising, the personal touch of direct mail can make a world of difference. It can truly set your brand apart in the eyes of your audience, making them feel valued and understood.

The gist

Despite being an age-old marketing tool, direct mail has evolved with the times to remain a powerful and effective medium. Its unique qualities, like tangibility, novelty and personalization, make it a compelling choice for marketers. In an increasingly digital world, direct mail stands out, offering a personal and memorable connection that can significantly boost engagement and ROI. As you plan your next marketing strategy, remember to put direct mail at the top of your toolbox. 

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