What is Bulk Mail Tracking and How to Use It to Improve Your Shipping Processes?
Can you track your bulk direct mailers? If you use direct mail marketing and send commercial mailers, it is a constant worry whether you can track them!
Luckily, you can!
USPS allows for bulk mail tracking via Informed Visibility and other methods. You can use these solutions to check where your mailers are in the postal network and how long they will take to arrive!
This information lets you stay updated and follow up with your recipients promptly. Also, you can plan your upcoming marketing programs accordingly to align everything well and improve your mail response ratios.
But what is bulk mail tracking, and how to use it?
Keep reading below to learn all about it!
What Does USPS Bulk Mail Tracking Mean?
Bulk tracking for direct mail means monitoring where your items are in the mail stream. The Post Office scans the mailers at every facility they pass through to inform you about their whereabouts. Hence, you can view your campaign’s status as your mail moves from points A to B.
Though tracking individual items is simple, USPS bulk mail tracking is tricky. The Post Office needs more resources to scan every barcode, making it hard to locate your mailers.
But you can now use many ways to track USPS Marketing or Standard Mail, which many refer to as—bulk mail. Please remember that the postal system processes all mailer types differently because it has different equipment to scan them. Hence, you might only get tracking information for some items.
Another thing to note is that all postal outlets have different sorting machines. If your items pass through one that doesn’t have the necessary bulk mail tracking equipment, you might not get any data for them.
However, you can get the last scanned data to understand where your mail is. Sending time-sensitive documents like letters, invoices, and statements is essential.
You may ask—How to track USPS bulk mailing and get accurate tracking details?
Though it is hard, you have some options to track bulk mail, and they are
How to Track USPS Bulk Mailing?
Commercial mailers can use bulk mail reporting to check tracking updates. But they only get the last scanned details, not where every item is in the postal infrastructure.
You may not receive details between two scanning points, delaying your overall plans. Also, getting real-time updates when your mail arrives at the recipients’ doorsteps is a task!
Yet, you can overcome this challenge by using Intelligent Mail Barcodes (IMBs). These codes help USPS route your mailings and complete deliveries on time. But they also allow you to track your items and get accurate details on their progress.
Please inquire with your postal representative if there are other ways to complete bulk mail tracking based on your contract, volume, delivery destination, and other factors.
Or you can use PostGrid’s direct mail API to send on-demand and bulk mail, eliminating your manual effort. We help you prepare and ship your postcards, letters, invoices, newsletters, flyers, and other mailers in any volume. And you don’t need to complete any formalities or paperwork.
The best part is you get USPS bulk mailing tracking capabilities on your computer by logging into your PostGrid account. Get a demo now to learn more!
Also Read: Priority Mail Open and Distribute (PMOD)Informed Visibility and Business Customer Gateway: Why Should You Know About Them?
Businesses can use USPS’s free tracking system by signing up for “Informed Visibility.” It works for all First-Class Mail and Marketing Mail items, helping you track them from their origins to their destinations. Also, you can use it for Business Reply Mail (BRM), wherein your recipients write back to you using your prepaid envelopes.
So, how does it work?
You can sign up with the Post Office by visiting its website, adding barcodes to all mailers you wish to track, and getting the results! It only takes a few steps to set up, and you can enjoy the benefits of Informed Visibility for every campaign.
Informed Visibility simplifies USPS bulk mail tracking and encourages more businesses to send mailers in large volumes. They can become a part of the Postal Business Customer Gateway (BCG) system to take advantage of commercial shipping, like mailing documentation, APIs, tracking data, and more!
You can also
- Sign up for incentives and promotions.
- Access exclusive features and offers only available for commercial shippers that meet specific volume requirements.
- Connect to the USPS central mailing hub and online tools for bulk mail tracking and monitoring.
Here are the steps of how Informed Visibility works:
- The Post Office scans your direct mail piece and enters it into its tracking system. Then, you can see the item within the Informed Visibility tool, which shows you whenever it reaches a different stage in the USPS delivery network.
- Whenever an item reaches its addressed destination, the postal carrier scans it before delivery. It informs the sender that they delivered the mailpiece to the recipient, facilitating bulk mail tracking for your business!
- Senders can conduct multichannel campaigns, like social media ads and email marketing, to target their customers using this near-real-time tracking data. It allows them to reinstate their messages and maximize the impact of their mailings.
You can track and monitor when your bulk mailers are en route or in the sorting and delivery stages. Also, Informed Visibility lets you record all campaign details, including their names, ZIP code destinations, delivery progress, and more!
Also Read: Best Direct Mail Marketing CompaniesSend Bulk Mail With PostGrid!
PostGrid’s direct mail services are the most affordable and speediest way to send bulk mailers. You can integrate our API into your CRM system or website to auto-fetch customer data and send personalized mail.
Or download our automation software to upload your files and contacts to your device and send mailers.
You may also use our online dashboard to ship items and complete bulk mail tracking on any device you want! It is quick, simple, and easy, helping you save effort and time.
PostGrid simplifies bulk mailing with its advanced features, like
- Automatic importing: You can connect PostGrid with your QuickBooks, HubSpot, Salesforce, and other accounts to automate data importing and mailing. It enables you to gather customer information to accurately draft your mailers and ship mailers to the correct recipients.
- Use Certified Mail: Send large-volume mailers with the Certified Mail option for real-time bulk mail tracking updates and the recipient’s signature. It helps you store mailing and delivery proofs for documents with sensitive and confidential information.
- Send all mail types: PostGrid lets you send everything, from rebates and invoices to legal documents and marketing postcards. You can also use our professionally-built templates to draft and customize your items according to your needs.
- Best-in-Class Rates: Shipping in large volumes can threaten your budget. But PostGrid resolves this issue by offering competitive prices for on-demand and bulk mailings. Thus, you can send anything in any number nationally and internationally without worrying about burning a hole in your pockets. Also, you can get bulk mail tracking information for your campaigns right on your dashboard.
Also Read: What is USPS PMOD Mail?Conclusion
Businesses must have the necessary tools and resources to mail their customers, partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders in any volume. But they need to figure out tracking, which is often hard to conduct!
Thus, they can opt for PostGrid’s automated direct mail solutions to create, print, and ship one or a million items hassle-free.
Sign up for more details on bulk mail tracking and how PostGrid simplifies the process for your business!
Also Read: What Does Out For Delivery Mean In USPS
