To all of us at SnailWorks, few things are more exciting than mail tracking! What? You don’t think it’s exciting? Well, the person you’re mailing to may just disagree.
There are a lot of ways to build communication around a mail piece. Informed Delivery lets prospects know it’s going to be in their mailbox that day. A triggered email can give another impression and another chance to respond. You can trigger social media, IP targeting, telemarketing – all things to boost response. Mail tracking enables you to perfectly time these channels which can be great to get folks to care more about your mail and make them more likely to respond. You may need all these additional channels because they don’t know anything is coming – they didn’t ask for anything – so you need to try to make them care. And, to respond.
But a lot of the mail we track is something people are waiting for – they’re anxious to receive:
- Ballots
- Gift cards
- Checks
- Merchandise – stuff they ordered
- Magazines
This, for consumers, is the fun side of mail – getting the stuff they wanted or asked for in their mailbox. This is the reason they check their Informed Delivery, the reason they go to their mailbox – maybe there’s something good in there! I’m sorry, but they probably are not looking for your year-end appeal.
If you are fortunate enough to be mailing something they are looking forward to, you can use mail tracking to let them know it’s coming. Best of all, you can let them track it themselves.
There are a variety of scenarios where we do this kind of tracking:
- When mailing out vote-by-mail ballots, some jurisdictions will email or text a unique URL to their voters. The voter can click on the URL and see the tracking for just their piece of mail, and see when it was mailed, where it is in the mail stream, and when they can expect it. They can use the same URL to watch their ballot travel back to the election office. It’s a great tool for adding peace of mind and credibility to the vote-by-mail process.
- We have some clients fulfilling small items – gift cards, seed packets, underwear (yes, underwear), requested brochures, and more. Just as they may get a link to their tracking as they would for a package, we give them a link where they can track their order – without needing to make it a package. It’s a big shipping cost saver.
- Sending a nice back-end or front-end premium? Let them know it’s coming as soon as you mail it.
- Mailing periodicals to subscribers? Let them track it as it travels to them – maybe tell them the highlights of the issue they can expect.
Consumer experience is enhanced in each of these examples when you create a sense of anticipation and build customer engagement by allowing your customers and prospects to join you in tracking their mail. Of course, you need an email address or phone number for sending this information (and appropriate permissions), but where you have those, this is a great way to add to customer satisfaction and appreciation.
The process is pretty simple. You create a mail tracking job, and we can provide a unique URL for each piece and create the landing page where they will go see their tracking. So, if you’re sending out something fun, double the fun by building anticipation and excitement. Want to learn more? Contact us!