2020 and the Future of Informed Delivery®
This article appeared in the April 2020 issue of NPOA Magazine.
2020 is shaping up to be another exciting year for Informed Delivery®! Based off data shared by the USPS® in late 2019, the number of Informed Delivery users continue to rise. This is good news for the future of ID and an encouraging sign for mailers to leverage its capabilities. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into some of the stats shared by the USPS and what they mean for your business.
Informed Delivery by the Numbers
Back in October 2019, the USPS announced statistics around the growth and success of Informed Delivery® at the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) Fall meeting. According to the USPS, as of late October 2019 Informed Delivery now has 20.8 million registered users, approximately 75% of which receive the daily email. They also shared that Informed Delivery has been used for 25,698 marketing campaigns involving 4,635 distinct brands. Overall, almost half of customers are aware of Informed Delivery, and half of those who are aware claim they’ve signed up for notifications – the USPS website and email being the most utilized methods of access.
In terms of saturation statistics, as of October the saturation was at 12.6% for eligible addresses and continues to climb steadily. In addition to increasing saturation stats, Informed Delivery has a high conversion rate of interactive advertisements that often result in a purchase or planned purchase. An impressive 68% of people reported to have purchased form a website after clicking through on an interactive ad.
Why this Matters
The numbers shared by the USPS are important because the higher the Informed Delivery rate becomes, the more valuable the Informed Delivery tool is considered for mass marketing purposes. Now is the time to evaluate how your business utilizes ID and see where there might be room for improvement. One great idea is to take full advantage of the addressing component of ID scans. When a scan shows up in a user’s feed, the recipient address isn’t allowed to be shown. Some companies such as Valpak have started utilizing this part of the replacement image by incorporating relevant marketing messaging.
Other things to consider are the vibrancy of the replacement image and making use of pertinent ride-alongs such as coupons. Even small enhancements could have a big effect on the success of your Informed Delivery piece’s appearance in a user’s feed.
What Lies Ahead
As far as the future of Informed Delivery is concerned, it is likely it will continue to see growth. Overall, the data shared by the USPS show positive signs that Informed Delivery is an effective platform. However, it is important to note though that Informed Delivery for flats still needs improvement, and USPS officials have stated they are working with Informed Delivery to use flats data more efficiently to determine delivery. Until greater efficiency is achieved, Informed Delivery remains a better platform for letters than flats.
Informed Delivery continues to be a powerful tool for mailers, and it is more important than ever to utilize it. As evidence that the USPS understands this importance, they have decided to extend their Informed Delivery promotion into 2020. Pending the Postal Regulatory Committee’s approval, registration will begin on July 15th and the promotion period will take place from Sept. 1st – Nov. 30th.
A Trusted Industry Leader
At BCC Software, we make it easy for you to participate in Informed Delivery. We offer a variety of software products that make it easy to populate campaign info directly into Mail.dat® files and upload that data in PostalOne!®. Additionally, at BCC Software we take industry involvement seriously. With executive members on boards such as MTAC, we are active industry advocates for our customers.
