Informed Delivery
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As USPS’ Mail Service Provider of the year, Lob works in lockstep with the postal service to bring you solutions to optimize your direct mail performance.
Informed Delivery by USPS enhances the mail experience by providing subscribers a daily email with a digital preview of incoming mail.
The preview may be a representative image or an actual scan of the mailpiece. The email includes a "ride-along" image: a small, full-color, interactive image that redirects to a target URL. This supplemental content is meant to enhance the customer call-to-action and reinforce the messaging and objective of the mailpiece.
You can review the USPS's 2024 Informed Delivery Guidebook here.
Access to this feature is exclusive to Enterprise plan customers, and by request only. Upgrade to the appropriate Print & Mail Edition to gain access.
Direct mail helps your brand increase awareness, connect with potential customers, and drive conversions. However, combining this marketing method with digital technologies can lead to even more successful results. Using Informed Delivery is one of the best ways to do this.
While there is no guarantee everyone in your audience has opted into the Informed Delivery program, the list continues to grow. Per USPS, as of March of this year, the Informed Delivery user base has grown to 62.4M active users!
Increased Customer Engagement: Integrates physical mail with digital campaigns.
Additional Digital Footprint: Extends marketing reach at no additional cost.
Attribution Data: Provides additional insights into mail campaign performance.
Cost Savings: 3-4% postage discount for approved campaigns during the USPS promotional period, August 1-December 31, 2024. Reach out to your Account Manager to learn more.
This process is necessary regardless of how a user will execute the campaign.
Log into the Lob Dashboard; navigate to Billing > Promotions. Click on "Create an Informed Delivery Promotion."
Indicate the Promotion Name
Input the Promotion URL
Upload your Ride-along image
Ride-along image specifications: Must be full color, JPG, 200x300px, max file size of 200KB.
Click "Create an Informed Delivery Promotion" to send your promotion application to USPS for approval.
You will receive an email notification once your promotion is approved. (Please allow for 3-5 days approval time.)
Once approved, you can send an Informed Delivery campaign with postcards, letters, self-mailers, and checks.
Use the Lob API to POST informed_delivery_campaign and get a campaign_id.
Include required fields: Ride-Along Image, URL, Campaign Size.
Ride-along image specifications: Must be full color, JPG, 200x300px, max file size of 200KB.
Optionally, include
Brand Name: If you do not pass a brand name, it will auto-populate in the Informed Delivery email as the Company name in Lob's system.
Representative image: A sample image of your mailpiece. This photo should represent all mailers in the Informed Delivery Campaign, and will be sent to all Informed Delivery subscribers; avoid using any PII. Campaigns with no representative image will display a USPS scan of the mailpiece.
Representative image specifications: JPG, 500x780px, max file size of 200KB.
On successful POST, receive a campaign_id and validation if it qualifies for an existing promotion.
Once validated, send your mail as usual, including theinformed_delivery_campaign_id in your submission.
Begin your campaign setup as usual in Lob Campaigns.
When prompted, select the option to use Informed Delivery.
Choose from available approved Informed Delivery Promotions (Procured in Step 1).
Fill out required information:
Promotional URL
Upload the Ride-Along Image
Ride-along image specifications: JPG, 500x780px, max file size of 200KB.
Optionally, input:
Brand Name: This populates in the Informed Delivery email sent to the end user; if you do not update this field, it will default to your company name in the Lob database.
Representative image: Upload a sample image of your mailpiece. This photo should represent all mailers in the Informed Delivery campaign, and will be sent to all Informed Delivery subscribers; avoid using any PII. Campaigns with no representative image will display a USPS scan of the mailpiece.
Representative image specifications: JPG, 500x780px, max file size of 200KB.
Please look over the uploaded images and make sure all information is correct.
Click "Next Step" to proceed with the Campaigns worklflow.
Click "Place Order" as you normally would to finalize the campaign.
Engagement metrics for Informed Delivery campaigns will be visible in the Mail Analytics in the dashboard, under the Engagement tab. Learn more about Mail Analytics here. Below is a breakdown of the engagement metrics:
Metric
Description
Mail Pieces
Total number of mail pieces sent as part of your Informed Delivery Campaign.
Emails
The number of recipients signed up for Informed Delivery who received an Informed Delivery email.
Emails Opened
The number of emails that were opened. Note: This number can exceed 100% as multiple people within the same household may receive and open their Informed Delivery email.
Click Through
The total number of times the link in your Informed Delivery campaign was clicked.
Note your image must be in full-color; the USPS has provided more helpful guidelines here: https://www.usps.com/business/pdf/informed-delivery-campaign-elements-guide.pdf
Reach out to your Account Manager today!
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