I’m a big advocate for USPS Mailing Promotions. Not only do they encourage all of us to be more effective marketers, but they also help us take better control of postage costs. And after the postage rate increase earlier this month, who isn’t looking for more ways to control postage spend?
Why Use Mailing Promotions?
The two promotions used most by our clients are the Tactile, Sensory and Interactive (TSI) Promotion and the Informed Delivery (ID) Promotion. The TSI promotion comes to a close on July 31, but the ID promotion launches on August 1, providing a seamless transition for those wanting to continue to receive the 4% postage discount available to users of both.
People sometimes ask me why the Postal Service offers mailing promotions―essentially, what’s in it for them? My answer is that the Postal Service needs strong mail volumes to support its business, and a good way to maintain, if not grow, those volumes is to incent marketers to try techniques that have been proven to enhance the already robust results of direct mail marketing.
The TSI promotion leverages the physicality of mail to make pieces stand out in the mailbox and get noticed and remembered by recipients. We have clients who tried techniques like emboss patterns, tactile varnishes, or unique mailpiece shapes to earn the TSI promotional postage discounts and have continued to use those formats outside the promotion period because they drove better response and return for their marketing campaigns.
Likewise, the ID promotion encourages marketers to try Informed Delivery, which creates additional touches with the mailpiece recipient and leverages the mailpiece to launch digital engagement with prospects and customers. I like to refer to it as mail’s built-in digital overlay. And as we’ve seen with the TSI promotion, many of our clients try Informed Delivery during the promotion, and then continue creating ID campaigns outside of the mailing promotion because of the positive results.
What’s New with Informed Delivery in 2022?
Informed Delivery now has 49 million subscribers―more than 27% of eligible delivery points. The open rate for the email digest of what’s coming in a subscriber’s mailbox that day exceeded 70% in the second quarter of this year. For subscribers, a new feature was added in July that allows them to schedule and receive reminders via email for important mailpieces, so they get additional notifications for offers of interest to them.
For marketers, the Postal Service has enabled a process referred to as “URL Tracking,” which feeds unique information to the marketer when the recipient clicks through to the landing page associated with the ID campaign, so they can create a more personalize digital experience for the recipient.
IWCO Direct Makes Participating in USPS Mailing Promotions Easy!
Intrigued? Let us help you take advantage of mailing promotions, not just for a postage advantage, but for long term improvement in the performance of your marketing program. Reach out to your IWCO Direct account team to learn more about how we can make participating in USPS Mailing Promotions easy. With the ID promotion launching August 1 and running through the end of the year, there’s never been a better time to get started.
