The Postal Service and the mailing and shipping industry are bridging physical and digital marketing channels to meet consumer needs, Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan told business leaders May 6.
“New combinations of physical and digital are proving to be a growth opportunity for our industry,” Brennan said. “Organizations see significant increases in sales that can be attributed directly to an integrated advertising campaign.”
The Postmaster General spoke at the National Postal Forum, an annual gathering of more 4,000 professionals from the mailing and shipping industry who are meeting in Indianapolis from May 5-8.
Brennan described innovations transforming the capabilities of mail by adding a digital dimension to the consumer experience. One example is Informed Delivery, which allows residential customers to see a mobile preview of their mail and provides businesses with a new way to engage consumers and extract more value from their investment in mail.
More than 2,000 businesses use Informed Delivery to entice consumers to visit a company website or to use a coupon or application. “This is a powerful offering that moves the mail recipient closer to making the purchase,” Brennan said.
The Postal Service wants to grow the number of Informed Delivery registered users — currently more than 16.4 million — to 40 million by the end of 2020. “We will also expand our Informed Delivery offering by including package integration. This will provide a powerful new means of engaging for both package senders and recipients,” she said.
Describing the Postal Service information and technology infrastructure as a platform of products and applications to power growth and business opportunities, Brennan highlighted industry use of real-time data to provide business insights and enhance customer value.
“Whether it is information that improves efficiency in payments, returns, processing or that improves visibility into letters, packages and transportation, the Postal Service Informed Platform offers a data-driven, customer-centric approach for our industry,” Brennan said.
The Postmaster General also described the organization’s commitment to helping the nation’s businesses differentiate their offerings through the delivery experience, and to speed the pace of innovations bridging physical and digital channels to spur greater return on mail and package delivery investment.
“We leverage our information infrastructure to empower our business customers with the right data, at the right time so they can reach the right consumers, and so that those consumers can make the most informed purchasing decisions,” she said.