Publishers can “Hack” the USPS and get a FREE digital ad - Updated

Here’s how to get a free digital ad, courtesy of the US Post Office.

There’s a fairly new service that’s provided by the USPS (its been around for a couple years now) which allows recipients to preview the mail that has been delivered to their mailbox each day.?It’s called Informed Delivery and over 16,000,000 people across the US have already signed up and it’s likely that this includes some of your subscribers/members.

The way this service works is that when a mail piece is processed by the USPS, they scan it and email the image to the recipient who has previously signed up.??Publication size pieces are too large to be scanned by the USPS processing machinery, so a publisher can participate in the service by uploading an image of the issue cover prior to it mailing.?The USPS also allows the publisher to upload a secondary image and this image can include a URL that links the recipient to the publication website, membership renewal site, an annual meeting registration site, or anywhere.???This is your Free digital ad.

When your issue is delivered, the recipient receives an email from the USPS containing the image of your publication and the secondary image containing the URL which leads them to your site. This can be repeated for each issue.

Advantages include:

·????????Offers high email open rate – more than 2x that of the industry average

·????????Generates multiple impressions from a single mail piece (digital and physical)

·????????Drives reader response with interactive content

·????????Ability to reach subscribers digitally by merely knowing their physical address

·????????Provides additional data insights

Well, this really isn’t a “hack” as the USPS encourages organizations to sign up for this service.

I have additional information about this and am happy to forward it to anyone who PM’s me.

10/5/23 Update - The USPS reports that over 52 Million customers use Informed Delivery