When you ship a single item, often you might opt for a tracking service, whether it’s provided by the U.S. Postal Service or a commercial shipping company like UPS or FedEx. It can be pricey, but for a single, high-priority letter or package, it’s worth it.
But what about bulk mail tracking? For many businesses, it may not be feasible to incur the cost of guaranteed tracking on every single item in, for example, a 10,000-piece mailing. Yet, sometimes you’d like a little extra peace of mind that your mailing was executed and processed correctly, and in a timely manner.
Or, you might just like to have some information on the timing of your mailing’s flow through the postal processing system. Such information can be a valuable planning tool if you’re going to be doing repeated mailings.
Fortunately, we can do that. When Mellady Direct Marketing handles your mailing direct mail company, you have the option to choose IMb Tracing™, which tracks your mail pieces as they are sorted by the Postal Service’s high-speed sorting equipment. The service is available for a relatively nominal charge, which varies depending on the quantity and specifications of your mailing.
How it works: When the Postal Service processes IMb™barcoded mail on its high-speed equipment, a scan record is created that shows when and where — and at which operation level — that piece was scanned.
You’ll then have access to online reporting software that provides your tracking results, so you can see how your mailing flowed through the Postal Service’s delivery system. This information is not only useful for gaining that “peace of mind” about the proper handling of your mailing, but also for planning future mailings, as the tracking data may help determine the optimum ways to adjust the timing and other aspects of future mailings.
Many mail pieces will be scanned multiple times as they move from one processing location to another, so it’s possible to get a feel for how long it took for mail pieces to go from point to point on their way to their ultimate destinations.
However, it’s important to remember that not every piece of mail is scanned, and not every piece of mail is scanned at every possible way point as it progresses toward delivery.
So, it would be highly unusual for IMb Tracing™to successfully track 100 percent of the pieces in a large mailing. On a mass mailing, IMb Tracing™ is more about gaining a general sense of your results as opposed to guaranteed tracking of every single item, which would not be cost-effective on such a large scale.
Typically, 60 to 80 percent of mail pieces are scanned – so it’s important to maintain realistic expectations. However, one of our clients recently obtained data confirming a 94.8 percent delivery rate on a 9,915-piece mailing.
That’s exceptional, of course, but it illustrates how useful IMb Tracing™ can be.
To learn more about how IMb Tracing™ can help you monitor your mailing and direct mail marketing, connect with us about direct mail campaigns online or call us today at (661) 298-9190.
