November 2015 – The Informed delivery APP is an exciting new program successfully piloted in Northern Virginia by the Postal Service and is now being tested in the New York City area during the fall of 2015. This offering allows the subscriber to receive an email each morning with the digital images of the covers of that day’s physical mailbox contents. This has enormous potential for the mailing industry as this brings the physical content of mail onto the same screen as the user’s digital content — enhancing the value of mail while leveraging the rapid adoption of digital and mobile technology by consumers.

As society has become a device-oriented culture with laptops, tablets, smartphones and even watches providing digital and mobile experiences in every aspect of our lives, this initiative offers the mailing industry the opportunity to play a bigger role in that digital future as mail serves as a powerful complement to digital marketing campaigns and plays a more prominent role in multi-channel marketing effects.

With the extension of the physical experience of mail into a digital experience, mail delivers a much greater value for both the sender and receiver. With technologies like augmented reality and QR codes, a piece of mail can launch a website, video or an interactive experience which provides marketers with an even more powerful tool to spark product or service discovery and encourage even higher response rates.

During the Northern Virginia pilot the consumer response rate to direct mailings spiked, underscoring research that suggests marketing campaigns are more effective when email and direct mail are used together. Ninety-three percent of users in Northern Virginia opened their email alerts within two hours, and eighty-six percent said they would recommend the service to friends. Developing this application is part of the Postal Service’s broader efforts to use technology to spark innovation and profitability.

See article from DM News: Postal Service Debuts Digital Mail in New York