In partnership with a portion of our client base, Donlon Agency is piloting a new opportunity to create an additional touchpoint for direct mail campaigns.
Since 2014, U.S.P.S. has been slowly rolling out a product called “Informed Delivery.” This is a service where consumers can digitally preview their mail and manage packages scheduled to arrive soon via email notification, online dashboard, or mobile app. Users also have the ability to interact with digital content provided by business mailers (e.g., special offers, related links) directly from Informed Delivery. As of January 2019, there were 14.9 million users registered for the service. Register here if you’re interested – it’s a free service.
For nonprofits, this allows an opportunity to interact with donors digitally the day the mail piece hits their mailbox. In the screenshot above, you can see that there is a photograph of the Outer Envelope of the mailing, accompanied by branded graphics pointing a donor directly to the organization website to give right away. With email open rates of 62%, this is an exciting way to engage with those who are already invested in the mission to take action immediately.
How does this work? We use the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) number ranges for all mail pieces to target donors who are signed up for Informed Delivery. We target the ads to run in tandem with targeted in-home date ranges. As more users register, we will be able to provide a better multi-channel approach for direct mail efforts.
Another benefit is that as donor behavior shifts to a very mobile online world, the ads will run on desktop as well as mobile app platforms.
This service is yet another way to more fully build out an omni-channel approach to critical fundraising efforts.
