USPS Informed Delivery for Business Mailers

Informed Delivery started as a consumer convenience — a morning email showing grayscale previews of incoming mail and tracking for packages. But with over 60 million users in 2026, it has quietly become one of the most underused marketing channels available to business mailers. For the cost of setting up a campaign (which is free), you can supplement your physical mailpiece with a full-color digital image and clickable link that reaches the customer before they even open their mailbox.

How the System Works

Every morning between 7 and 9 AM local time, Informed Delivery users receive a digest showing what's arriving that day. For letter-sized mail, they see scanned grayscale images of the front of each piece. For packages, they see tracking information with delivery estimates. Users access this through email, the USPS mobile app, or the USPS.com dashboard.

For most businesses sending standard mail, this preview is a generic grayscale scan — functional but unremarkable. The opportunity lies in replacing that default scan with something better.

Interactive Campaigns

As a business mailer, you can enhance your mail preview in the Informed Delivery digest in two significant ways. First, you can swap the grayscale scan for a full-color representative image of your mailpiece or a custom marketing image. Second, you can add a ride-along image — a clickable banner that appears below your mail preview and links to any URL you choose.

Together, these create a digital companion for your physical mail that arrives earlier, looks better, and drives immediate action. A direct mail piece offering 20 percent off becomes a grayscale image in the digest for most recipients, but an Informed Delivery campaign turns it into a vibrant digital ad with a one-click link to your online store. The physical mail reinforces the offer when it arrives hours later.

Campaign setup goes through USPS's Mailer Campaign Portal. You upload your representative image (recommended size is 200 by 300 pixels), your ride-along banner image (recommended 600 by 200 pixels), and the destination URLs. You link the campaign to your mailing using the Serial number or Intelligent Mail barcode data, and USPS matches the digital content to the physical pieces as they process through the mail stream.

Why This Channel Works

Informed Delivery campaigns consistently show open rates between 65 and 80 percent, dramatically higher than email marketing averages of 20 to 25 percent. The reason is simple: people check their Informed Delivery digest because they want to know what mail is coming, not because they want marketing. Your campaign content rides along with information the user actively seeks out.

Click-through rates for ride-along images typically range from 5 to 10 percent, also well above typical digital ad benchmarks. And because the campaign ties to a physical mailpiece that arrives the same day, the multi-touch effect — seeing the offer digitally, then holding it physically — drives higher conversion rates than either channel alone.

For direct mail marketers, this is essentially a free digital amplification of mail you're already sending. You pay nothing extra for the Informed Delivery placement beyond your existing postage costs. The campaign setup takes minimal effort once you understand the portal, and results are trackable through USPS's campaign analytics.

Campaign Types and Use Cases

Product launches and promotional offers are the most straightforward application. A retailer sending a catalog or promotional postcard adds a ride-along image with a coupon code linking to their website. The recipient sees the offer in their morning email, clicks through to browse, and gets reinforced when the physical piece arrives later.

Event-based mailings work particularly well. Nonprofits sending fundraising appeals add a "Donate Now" ride-along linking to their online giving page. The immediacy of the digital preview generates online donations before the physical letter even arrives, with the letter driving additional contributions from people who prefer writing checks.

Subscription and membership renewals benefit from the urgency factor. A ride-along image showing "Your membership expires in 7 days — renew now" with a direct link to the renewal page catches attention in a way that the physical letter alone might not if it sits unopened for days.

Eligibility and Requirements

Informed Delivery campaigns are available to anyone sending mail with Intelligent Mail barcodes, which is standard for commercial mailings. Both Marketing Mail (formerly Standard Mail) and First-Class Mail qualify. Package shippers aren't left out either — while the package notification format is different from letter mail, you can still enhance it with representative images.

To set up your first campaign, you need a Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) account and access to the USPS Mailer Campaign Portal at informeddelivery.usps.com. Campaign image specifications are straightforward: JPEG or PNG format, with representative images at 200 by 300 pixels and ride-along images at 600 by 200 pixels. Both should use RGB color and be under 200KB.

Measuring Results

USPS provides campaign-level analytics including total impressions (how many users saw your campaign), click-through count and rate on the ride-along image, and open rate for the daily digest containing your piece. These metrics let you calculate a rough cost per impression and cost per click, which for most campaigns comes out to fractions of a cent — significantly cheaper than comparable digital advertising.

For more detailed conversion tracking, append UTM parameters to your ride-along URL. This lets Google Analytics or your analytics platform attribute website visits, sign-ups, and purchases directly to the Informed Delivery campaign. Comparing response rates for Informed Delivery-enhanced mailings against non-enhanced mailings gives you a clear picture of the incremental value.

Getting Started

If you already send commercial mail with Intelligent Mail barcodes, you're most of the way there. Set up your Mailer Campaign Portal account, create your first test campaign with a small mailing, and track the results. Most businesses see enough lift in the first campaign to justify making Informed Delivery campaigns standard for all their mailings going forward.