The Postal Service is testing a feature that aims to grow Informed Delivery by providing shippers with new marketing opportunities.
During the test, companies that ship products with USPS will be able to provide recipients who are Informed Delivery customers with digital content related to the package.
When the customer opens their Informed Delivery daily digest email or dashboard, they’ll see the package tracking number as usual. They’ll also be able to see an image and click on a link to access content related to the company’s brand or the contents of the package.
“For years, Informed Delivery has allowed mailers to add interactive content to the notices that subscribers receive. Now, through this test, shippers can use Informed Delivery to create innovative marketing campaigns around the packages they send,” said Bob Dixon, product technology innovation director at USPS headquarters in Washington, DC.
The new feature will allow businesses that send both letters and packages to create Informed Delivery marketing campaigns around all their outgoing products, Dixon said. Consumers will also benefit because of the enhanced digital experience offered by the package shipper.
One participant in the test is a national property and casualty insurance company that sends Bluetooth devices to customers to install in their vehicles for use with a mobile application.
In addition to package tracking information, the company’s customers who subscribe to Informed Delivery will receive an image and a link to an instructional video on how to activate and use the device.
The new package campaign feature comes in response to requests from business customers, Dixon said.
“After we added package tracking to Informed Delivery, there has been growing interest from mailers for the ability to run interactive campaigns connected to their packages and parcels,” he said.
If the test is successful, the package campaign feature will be rolled out nationally to all shippers.
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