Postal Tracking Intelligent Mail Barcodes

One of the more interesting features of the current offering from the USPS is the ability to track deliver dates on mail. If you are like me, you currently do so by seeding yourself and your staff in the mailing and then "know" that folks got the mail because you got yours. While that does give you a pretty good idea of the general arrival of the piece and may allow you to send follow up communications shortly after the arrival of the mail, you are aiming at a middle of the road delivery date and are assuming that the mail arrived.

That is going to change by May of 2011 as the implementation of this new feature becomes the standard for the USPS. This provides a new service to fundraisers, you know that the message was delivered and when it arrived on a single address level. Thus, if I send out mail to 10,000 people all over the country, I know that they won't all arrive on the same day but with this tracking capability, I know what day they are delivered to each and every one of the 10,000 addresses.

Ok, now what? I can now really target my communications to follow up on the mail message. I can set triggered emails to go out based upon the arrival of that mail - that day, the next day, a week later - whatever time frame fits your program.

Have a phone program doing precall pieces - how great would it be to be able to time it so that your call arrives a preset number of days after the mail is delivered?

Want to increase the number of pieces that are opened? Try an email that provides a WIFM (what's in it for me) based upon an action taken from the mailing. ie the email arrives the same day as the mailing and requests that they go to the bit.ly that is contained in the letter and enter the code word from the email in order to be entered into a drawing for an organizationally branded ipad.

Have cell numbers and a text outreach tool? How about being able to text your supporters and tell them to look out for a letter from you today - on the day that letter is going to arrive!

No matter what the cross market combination, this new option will quietly herald an additional set of options for marketing that can change how we utilize direct mail.