The use of technology is a proven force in the marketing landscape for today’s marketing professionals. This USPS promotion will encourage mailers to integrate direct mail with advances in technology. This can be a really fun direct mail piece for your customer and prospects to receive.
To participate in the promotion, the mail piece must incorporate any of the following technologies: NFC technology, Video in Print (ViP), Beacon technology, an “enhanced’ augmented reality, virtual reality and Digital to Direct Mail. These technologies will allow the recipient to engage in an interactive experience using the mail piece with mobile devices. The mail piece must use at least one form of the approved emerging or advanced technologies referenced above in order to receive the promotion discount.
Promotion dates: March 1 – August 31, 2017. During this time, if you participate in the promotion you will get a 2% postage discount at the time of mailing. The classes of mail eligible for the promotion are Presorted First class, Standard and Nonprofit, letters, cards and flats.
Pre-Approval Process: The Program Office requires that ALL mail pieces using any of the technologies listed should be sent for review via email to emergingtechpromo@usps.gov no later than one week prior to the mailing. Prototypes, mock-ups, previously used mail pieces can be submitted as the representation of the final mail piece to see if the proposed concept would meet the requirements.
Mail piece Content Requirements: The mail piece must contain text near the logo, icon, or image, that provides instructions to the consumer to use the technology. The location of the directional copy must be prominently displayed to ensure the customer sees it. This copy must be present on any page where the technology is. Some examples are (but are not limited to): Scan here to play an interactive game/experience, Scan the logo, image, icon, etc., for an interactive experience, Download our app & scan this page to see your mail piece come to life, Tap here with your NFC enabled phone. If the directional copy does not meet the requirements listed above for legibility and proper placement, it will not qualify.
Website Requirements: The destination page(s) must contain information relevant to the content of the marketing message included in the mail piece. A mobile optimized experience must be specifically designed for optimum performance when viewed on mobile devices. Activating the technology, must lead to a complete mobile optimized experience regardless of the platform being used. There are several commonly used techniques in developing mobile experiences to bridge the differences between a full sized monitor and a mobile display. Participants must use these or similar techniques to qualify for the promotion. Such as screen size and resolution is adjusted so that users do not have to scroll horizontally, compressed by pinching or swiping the screen, page sizes are compressed to enable faster downloading, outbound links take users only to mobile optimized pages, device detection directs mobile users to appropriately formatted content, use menu options as opposed to free-text entry whenever possible.
Want to know more? Check out all the requirements and information at: https://ribbs.usps.gov/mailingpromotions/documents/tech_guides/2017EmergingandAdvancedTechnologyPromotionProgReq.pdf
The USPS has another really cool promotion this year. Check out the information, click here.
These options are a really cool way to enhance your next direct mail project and save money on the postage. Need help? Contact us today. We are glad to help!