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According to the USPS website, mailers and the Postal Service™ will gain end-to-end visibility into the mailstream through the use of the suite of Intelligent Mail barcodes and by submitting electronic documentation, which will create actionable information about mail for marketing, financial and operational environments. So, what does this mean for your business mailings? You will be able to track your mail using the Intelligent Mail Barcode to track your mail pieces and USPS can use the same barcode to sort your mail pieces.

If you outsource your printing and mailing, the outsourcer will take care of this barcoding for you but it is important for businesses to know what information that barcode provides. Let’s look at this example below.

There are 4 types of bars within the barcode: Ascender, Full, Tracker, and Descender. Each of these types of bard is assigned a letter- A, F, T, and D. Those letters are used as the tracking sequence and can be entered on the USPS decoder site and can track the Service Type ID, Delivery Point, Mailer ID, and Serial Number.

What does all of this mean for businesses? Really, it’s just a means for USPS to provide expanded tracking. So, suppose an invoice never reaches your customer. You can actually track the mail piece and see if it was delivered to the correct destination. The Intelligent Mail Barcode is an innovative service from USPS and one that you want to make sure your print and mail outsourcing company uses.

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A personal URL, or PURL as it is often referred to, is quickly becoming a useful marketing tool. So, what is a PURL? Instead of pointing directly to the location of an Internet resource, a PURL points to an intermediate resolution service. The resolution service associates the PURL with the actual URL and returns that URL to the client, which can then complete the transaction in the normal fashion (Source). Functionally, a PURL is the same as a URL. PURLs can be used for lead generation efforts and to gather data.

The question becomes “how do you let people know about your PURL and get them to go to it?” One solution is through direct mail. You can use direct mail as a way to get the PURL out to your customers or potential customers. Or, you can use direct mail to follow-up with people that visit the PURL but didn’t respond or complete the call to action.

I’ve mentioned in the blog before (The Future of Direct Mail and Four Ways to Get Your Customers’ Attention) the importance of integrating marketing mediums to most effectively reach customers and potential customers and I think this is another great example of how and why to do this.

Staying relevant and up front in your customers’ minds is key. If you send them a direct mail piece, they go to your PURL, then you follow-up with another direct mail piece, they will remember that campaign.

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Many advertisers and marketers had plans and budgets that did not come under careful scrutiny until the recent economic conditions caused for everything to come under careful scrutiny. Now, every penny must be justified in order to stay on the budget. But, how effectively can the results of some forms of media be recorded? Certain kinds, like direct mail and e-mail campaigns, can be monitored more closely while other forms, like television and billboards, are a little more difficult to get hard data to back their effectiveness. For example, say a large restaurant chain runs a television commercial and a direct mail piece at the same time. If the direct mail piece is a plastic card mailer with a magnetic strip, when the customer brings that mailer in to redeem his or her offer, it can be scanned and the customer that redeemed that offer can be recorded. Sure, the restaurant might notice more people coming in and assume it’s because of a television commercial, but how can you really track that campaign with hard numbers?

Most marketers and advertisers know the importance of tracking results in this economic climate. It starts from the beginning with a plan and objectives that are easily tracked. In a recent article on PR Urgent, the author says, “Planning goals and objectives that are measurable at the beginning of campaigns and carefully monitoring outcomes can make it very easy to measure results against the initial investment. This is thinking that makes the corporate accountants happy and helps advertising and marketing professionals show real value for their organization. Careful spending and keeping your brand and corporate messages in front of clients and potential clients is important during any economic season.”

I couldn’t agree more. Choosing easily tracked mediums, like direct mail, is one way to show the value of these marketing campaigns and how they help toward keeping your brand in front of potential customers and get those customers to respond to your call to action.

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Plastic card mailers are sure to get the attention of recipients at any size, but there are many sizes and shapes, each with their own benefits. The “standard” sized plastic card mailer is 4” x 6”, the same size as a traditional postcard. These mailers are noticeable compared to other direct mail pieces, but a 5.5” x 8.5” sized card mailer is even more noticeable.

Another benefit of using a larger plastic card mailer is that there is more real estate to print additional information that might not all fit on a standard sized card mailer. Plus, if you’re using a removable credit card-sized card as a gift card or loyalty card, a 5.5” x 8.5” card mailer allows you to have the ability to fit 2 of those removable credit card-sized cards on your mail piece. Businesses that cater to an elderly clientele might also consider a larger piece simply because the print on these pieces can be larger.

There are also other sizes, such as a 3.75” x 7.875” card mailer. One way that I have seen this piece used is for businesses that want to mail or hand out card carriers with a credit card sized punch out card and two key tags. The example I am thinking of was a car dealership that uses this size piece for membership into their lost keys program which included a membership card and two key tags to place on your 2 sets of keys in case they are lost.

Within the standard sized 4” x 6” plastic card mailer there are also variations. Businesses can have one credit card-sized punch out card, up to 3 key tags, or up to 2 circle punch outs. By varying in what you send out on a 4” x 6” card mailer, you can surprise your potential customers and grab their attention.

At any size or shape, plastic card mailers are an extremely affective direct mail piece.

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