Digitizing physical mail has become a common desire for residential consumers and businesses of all sizes. We live in a digital-first world where we expect information to be available quickly, from anywhere, at all times.
Of course, the USPS is well aware of this, and that’s why they introduced a service called Informed Delivery back in 2015 in order to keep up with the times. It provides residential consumers and some eligible small businesses with a digital preview of their mail before it actually arrives in their mailbox. But how can organizations of all types and sizes attain the benefits of Informed Delivery?
Before we answer that question, here’s a quick overview of Informed Delivery in case you’re unfamiliar with how it works.
What is Informed Delivery?
Informed Delivery is a free, optional service offered by the USPS that allows residential consumers and eligible small businesses to receive a digital preview of their letter-size mail pieces and manage packages scheduled to arrive soon.
Here’s how it works: When the mail piece is being processed by the USPS, the address side of the envelope is imaged by automated equipment. The recipient can choose to receive notifications and view the grayscale images of their items via email, the online dashboard, or the USPS app.
The USPS has also said they’re currently working on a separate dedicated mobile app that will make the viewing experience more pleasant and will give users the ability to customize the interface and the timing of notifications. The release date of this app is unknown at the time of writing this.
As mentioned, signing up for informed delivery is free, and it’s very easy to do. However, in order to sign up, whether you’re a residential consumer or small business, your address must be eligible. The USPS says Informed Delivery is available for most residential addresses, though it seems to be unknown what percentage of small businesses are eligible. You’ll also be asked to verify your identity during the signup process.
To check if you’re address is eligible and proceed with the signup process, click here!
Overall, it’s a pretty simple service, and, as of April 2024, over 60 million people have registered. The USPS claims that number is growing by about 14 percent each year. Beside the fact that it’s just kind of fun to preview your mail digitally before it arrives, it’s helpful to know what’s coming, especially if you’re away from home and not able to check your mailbox.
Is Informed Delivery available for businesses?
In short, yes and no. As stated before, only small businesses with an eligible address are able to sign up for the service as of now. While it’s unknown what percentage of small businesses this includes, the USPS has stated more than 30,000 small businesses were enrolled as of December 2023, and the service was just opened to small businesses for the first time at the start of 2023.
Though, even with the possibility of expanding the service to more businesses, there are some other limiting factors to consider. For example, the service is not optimal for many other types of organizations, such as property managers or universities, since it can’t give each individual recipient at the same location access to only their mail.
Thankfully, there are other solutions that give organizations more power to manage their inbound mail. But before we explore this option, we must take one more detour, because when you’re searching for an answer to this question, you’ll likely stumble across the USPS webpage with the heading Informed Delivery for Business Mailers.
This, unfortunately, does not refer to a version of Informed Delivery that’s made for businesses receiving mail. Instead, it actually refers to a service for businesses that are sending mail. Here’s what we mean.
What is Informed Delivery for Business Mailers?
Informed Delivery for business mailers allows businesses sending advertising mail to create supplemental digital content for Informed Delivery users to see and interact with. When a business mailer participates, recipients are shown custom, clickable images in color in addition to the standard grayscale image of the envelope captured by the USPS. This gives businesses the ability to direct viewers to their website or any other digital asset.
As you can imagine, this is very appealing to advertisers, as it allows for a more rich and engaging impression, more brand awareness, and a possibility to increase ROI by embedding a link right in the digital preview. Businesses can also see statistics about email opens and click-throughs via a web portal. The USPS says the average Informed Delivery Daily Digest email open rate is 63.9 percent, way above the industry average.
But, long story short, it’s not what you’re looking for if you’re an organization trying to receive a digital preview of your incoming mail. So, what do you do if you want the benefits of USPS Informed Delivery for your organization but you’re ineligible, or it just doesn’t have all the functionality you need?
Give your internal recipients a virtual mailbox
Fortunately, there are other solutions on the market that give businesses the power of Informed Delivery.
The best part about Informed Delivery is that it allows recipients to preview their mail from anywhere, at any time. Our very own solution, Received Digital, does exactly that and more. With Received Digital, your organization’s mailroom is able to snap pictures of incoming mail and packages, automatically notify recipients, and recipients are able to preview and action their items from their very own virtual mailbox.
Unlike the USPS Informed Delivery service, recipients are not limited to just a preview of the front of the envelope. Instead, the mailroom can actually allow recipients to make requests about how they would like their items actioned. For example, recipients can request items to be recycled, shred, opened and scanned, delivered, mailed, forwarded, or prepared for pickup.
In addition to standard email notifications, recipients can also receive SMS notifications for a more immediate, attention-grabbing notice that they’ve received something. All of this amounts to faster response times and more efficient handling.
It all takes place via a secure, web-based application, and no special equipment is required—you can use any tablet or mobile device with a camera. Simply put, Received Digital is mailroom management software built for the modern day. You can learn more about how Received Digital works here, or request a full demo from one of our experts!
Interested in exploring the market for more solutions that give employees a virtual mailbox? We’ve written an entire article about the topic titled A Complete Guide to Mailroom Management Software where we break down the marketplace for software that helps you receive, track, and distribute inbound mail. We believe it’s the most helpful place to start!
