A-lot of us tend to overlook snail mail these days considering how technology-oriented we are these days. Our notifications come to our phones, directly to our desktops, to our emails. Letters and physical mail is generally reserved for online shopping these days – and the USPS seems to be extremely aware of all of this. As such they have started working on a real mail notification platform which will allow customers to use a mobile device to see what’s coming to their mailbox.
That on it’s own is pretty cool – and I can see this coming to great use with actual “spam filtering” for physical mail. Imagine you get a notification about what’s being sent to you as the USPS office takes it in. You mark it as spam, the post office sorts it accordingly, and the mailman doesn’t have to lug extra weight around. The original sender gets notified – and they now stop throwing money away printing & mailing things that just get thrown out.
USPS has decided to take it even further however. They want to engage mail recipients. Imagine digital marketing & direct mail working hand in hand – with unique notifications that entice you to open the direct mail campaign that’s been sent. In a keynote speech earlier this week at the National Postal Forum—the annual mailing industry trade show—Megan Brennan, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer of the Postal Service, revealed the project – known as real mail notification – which is currently being piloted in Northern Virginia and enables consumers to use a mobile device to see what’s arriving in their physical mailbox.
“We’re building this platform to bring physical content onto the same screen as the user’s digital content, the potential is enormous for this industry – because it will create a daily bridge from your mailed content to your digital ecosystem.”
In her keynote address, Brennan said that the current pilot test generated a high level of digital engagement, with nine out of 10 people who participated in the pilot checking to see what’s in their mail every day. The pilot test will be expanded to New York City later this year – and I’ll definitely be looking forward to that.