Has your company participated in the USPS Informed Delivery Promotion in the past? If not, definitely consider it for 2022. Running August through September, mailings that participate in the Informed Delivery Promotion receive a 4% postage discount!
To put it in perspective, if you mail 1 million packages at Marketing Mail rates, postage could be a whopping $250,000 at current postal rates. A 4% discount equals approximately $10,000 which equals free postage for 40,000 pieces! In addition, rates are increasing on July 10th.
1,000,000 packages = $250,000 in postage
4% discount = $10,000 in savings!
Note: discounts will vary based on the postal tiers in each mailing.
The cost and time to set up an Informed Delivery campaign are minimal.
- No cost to participate from the USPS.
- You provide a small Ride-along ad image which links to a website or landing page with information on the offer.
- Your mailing service provider may charge a small fee to set up the campaign in the USPS Business Customer Gateway.
The following items are needed for each Informed Delivery campaign:
Ride-along image – a small color ad that appears below the image of the mail piece.
URL – takes consumers to a website, a landing page for the offer, or a pass-through landing page to capture responses. It is linked to the Ride-along image.
Representative image of the mail piece – optional for letters but required for flats. This color image must closely resemble the front or back of the mailer and replaces the grayscale scanned image of the package.
You or your mail service provider will set up the campaign in the USPS Business Customer Gateway (BCG). For the promotion period of August to December the images and URL’s must be approved by the USPS before mailing. The USPS also provides a proof of the campaign for approval before mailing.
Specifications to be aware of when creating the URL’s and images
Ride-along Ad –
- Must be sized to at least one maximum dimension: 300px width or 200px height
- Save as a JPEG (.jpg) file
- Image color must be RGB (not CMYK)
- File cannot exceed 200KB in size
- Call to Action (CTA) area must be at least 20% of the image area, and stand out in the image
- Cannot encourage online bill payment or elimination of mail
URL –
- Must start with https
- Must lead directly to a landing page associated with the physical mail piece.
Representative Image – required for flats, optional for letters –
- Must closely replicate the mail piece
- Must be sized to at least one maximum dimension: 780px width or 500px height
- Save as a JPEG (.jpg) file
- Image color must be RGB (not CMYK)
- File cannot exceed 200KB in size
- If the image has a light-colored background, add a border
After the mailing has arrived in-home, summary and detailed reports providing the number of Informed Delivery emails sent, opened and click throughs can be downloaded from the BCG.
An Informed Delivery Promotion earns mailers a 4% discount on postage. Registration for the promotion begins on June 15. The promotion period runs for 5 months from August 1 through December 31, 2022. Eligible mail includes First-Class letters, postcards and flats, as well as Marketing Mail and Nonprofit Mail automation letters and flats. For more information on Informed Delivery and the Promotion download J&Q’s white paper on Informed Delivery. Or contact sales by email at jqinfo@j-quin.com.
Don’t miss out on postage savings, while adding a new online dimension to your direct mail!
Kay Wilt
ssmolke
Quintessentials Blog 