What Are Realistic Direct Mail Delivery Expectations

Key Takeaways

Pieces of mail from the same direct mail campaign can be delivered on different days.
While service standards and expected delivery timelines are able to assist with planning, mailers shouldn’t assume that every piece of mail will arrive on a specific date unless using a service with a delivery guarantee. Plan your campaign around a delivery window of dates.
Variables like mail class, destination, entry point, transportation, weekends and holidays, and more can all affect delivery timing.
While mail-processing visibility can help show how your campaign is moving through the USPS network, processing scans don’t necessarily confirm that your mail piece has been delivered.

Introduction

After all this work planning, you finally can launch your campaign! You mail 50,000 pieces of mail on Monday and are expecting the mail to all arrive on Thursday. Does that mean that every piece of mail will actually arrive on Thursday? Not necessarily. Depending on several factors, your mail could arrive earlier that others, while other pieces could arrive later. Understanding what direct mail delivery expectations you should have regarding your mail piece’s delivery can help you to better plan offers, coordinate follow-up marketing, and avoid assuming that something has gone wrong just because your mail might not all arrive on the same day.

Don’t Expect Every Mail Piece to Arrive on the Same Day

Your mail might not all arrive on the same day, no matter how hard you try to coordinate it. Even if you mail from the same location, they were handed off to the USPS together, they have the same mail class, and all have the same general design, they aren’t all traveling to the exact same place. A mail piece that is traveling to a nearby city and another that is traveling across the country might move through different parts of the USPS network and could arrive on different days.

Plan Around a Delivery Window

Rather than having direct mail delivery expectations that your mail will arrive on the same day, change your thinking to your mail having a general window in which it could arrive. Unless you’re able to get a delivery commitment that your mail will arrive on a certain day, there are so many variables that can push your mail’s arrival date. If you’re coordinating a sale, event, fundraiser, or limited time offer that has a deadline, take extra care to ensure that your recipient will receive the mail piece with enough time to respond.

Your Chosen Mail Class Affects Delivery

The USPS offers different mail classes that have different direct mail delivery expectations and service standards. A campaign that is mailed using USPS Marketing Mail might need to be planned differently than First-Class Mail, due to the two classes having a different standard for delivery.

Where Your Mail Enters USPS Matters

Imagine you’re planning to mail a nationwide campaign, and you print your mail in Florida. You could either hand off your mail to the USPS in Florida all at one time, or you could transport batches of mail closer to where they’re being mailed to, and then giving your mail to the USPS there, in a process known as drop shipping mail. Both options don’t have the same journey through the USPS network.

Mail that is drop shipped to a closer location before entering the USPS network could qualify for a cheaper postage or decrease the distance that the USPS needs to transport it through its network, which could be reasons why a mailer might consider drop shipping. However, drop shipping doesn’t guarantee that an individual piece of mail will arrive by a chosen date.

Geography Plays a Role When Mail Arrives

If you’re planning a direct mail campaign that has all its mail being delivered within one city, that might have a different delivery window when compared to a direct mail campaign that is mailing across the country. One of the reasons why is due to the transportation time, USPS processing, weather, and more. Consider this when mailing.

Consider Holidays and USPS Operations

Postal holidays, heavy mailing periods, transportation roadblocks due to weather, and other operational conditions can influence how long your mail takes to arrive.

When Should I Start Worrying That My Mail Hasn’t Arrived?

Before starting to panic that your mail got lost somewhere en route to its destination, consider these variables:

Chosen mail class
When USPS accepted your mail
Expected timeframe and service standard
Target destination
Mail’s entry point
Whether any mail has started to arrive
USPS visibility information that is available to view
Any bad weather/storms

One recipient or mailing area not receiving their mail when another recipient or mailing area has necessarily direct evidence that your campaign has been delayed for any particular reason.

Can I Track Whether My Mail Has Started to Arrive?

USPS mail-processing visibility can help mailers understand how different portions of their mail are progressing through the USPS network. However, remember for your direct mail delivery expectations that mail-processing visibility shouldn’t be automatically treated as confirmation of final delivery.

Will Every Piece of Mail Arrive?

Know for your direct mail delivery expectations that not every piece of mail will necessarily arrive at its intended destination. There are several reasons that this could happen, including:

Outdated, incorrect, incomplete addresses
Recipient moved without providing the USPS with an updated mailing address
Other undeliverable circumstances

Don’t Judge Your Campaign Too Early

Don’t immediately come to a conclusion about your campaign’s performance based on data that is reported very early into your campaign. Due to your campaign having a delivery window, data could be slowly trickling in. Give enough time for both delivery and recipient response before treating your campaign’s result as final.

Plan Backward from When You Want Responses

If your offer has a deadline attached to it, determine when your recipient should receive your mail piece, so they can have enough time to consider and respond to it. Then, work backward from that desired arrival window when you plan the rest of your campaign.

Can Lettershops Help Estimate Delivery Timing?

If you have any questions regarding any part of the delivery process or where your direct mail delivery expectations should be, your lettershop or other mail-service provider can help in estimating delivery expectations based on your mail class, entry point, destination, postal preparation, and planned mailing date. However, what delivery dates end up being can still vary once the mail has entered the USPS network.

FAQ

Q: Will every piece from my direct mail campaign arrive on the same day?
- A: Probably not. There are several variables that go into when mail will arrive, such as mail class, destination, entry point, holidays and weekends, USPS processing, transportation requirements, and many other factors.
Q: Does mail that is traveling far away always arrive later?
- A: Not necessarily. Destination and distance needed to travel can have an impact on how your mail moves through the postal network, but USPS processing, entry point, transportation, and other factors can influence timing.
Q: How do I know if my direct mail campaign has been delayed?
- A: Consider the USPS acceptance date, the expected time frame for delivery, destination, mail class, weather, and other mail processing visibility before assuming that your mail pieces have been delayed.
Q: Should I calculate campaign results as soon as responses start to arrive?
- A: No. You should give your mail enough time to reach recipients that could receive your mail after the first responses start to come back before treating your results as finalized.
Q: Can USPS Informed Visibility confirm whether my direct mail has been delivered?
- A: While mail-processing visibility can help to provide information regarding how mail is progressing through USPS operations, it shouldn’t be treated as confirmation that one of your mail piece’s recipients has received your mail piece.

Conclusion

Having realistic direct mail delivery expectations regarding your campaign’s delivery to its recipient means working around a delivery window rather than a specific single day for delivery. There are various variables that can impact when your mail piece will be delivered, such as the chosen mail class, destination, USPS entry point, transportation, holidays and weekends, weather, and much more. By building enough time into your campaign to allow for varied delivery dates, using available mail-visibility information, and allowing enough time for your recipients to respond, you can make a better determination of when your campaign has run its course, and is ready to be analyzed.

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