Postalytics

Direct Mail Automation

How does Postalytics pricing work?

Postalytics bills your credit card for subscriptions (depending on your plan) and per piece fees (either when you launch a campaign or when you buy Direct Mail Credits). Our per piece rates are all inclusive — printing, postage, handling, tracking, etc. Check out our U.S. Pricing page or Canada Pricing page for full details.

If you’re planning to send more than 25,000 pieces of mail, even in small batches or one at a time, you qualify for further discounts. Contact us to talk with a representative on how you can save, even.

Postalytics created a new way to purchase direct mail at bulk but send out mail in small quantities. Direct Mail Credits work like stamps. For each credit you purchase, you can send 1 piece of mail.  The great thing is that you can purchase at rates that you’d typically see if you were sending a very large campaign, but divide the use of those credits over as many campaigns as you choose, for up to a full year.

If your organization is qualified to send mail in the U.S. using the USPS Nonprofit Marketing Mail rates, you can configure your permit in Postalytics and send certain types of campaigns using nonprofit specific rates. Please contact us to get more details.

Additionally, if your organization maintains a postage permit with either Canada Post or the USPS, and you’d like to continue to pay for postage via that permit, we have special “Self Funded” pricing for you. Again, please contact us to get more details.

What are the specs for the printed pieces Postalytics produces?

U.S. Specifications

4” x 6” Color Postcard

  • 100# – 120# gloss cover, UV coated
  • Full Bleed

6” x 9” Color Postcard

  • 100# – 120# gloss cover, UV coated
  • Full Bleed

6” x 11” Color Postcard

  • 100# – 120# gloss cover, UV coated
  • Full Bleed

8.5” x 11” Color Letter

  • 70# text/89gsm paper (compare with others 60#, this is heavier and higher quality)
  • #10 2-window outer envelope or Custom Envelope option – #10 single window
  • Extra Pages – print up to 6 extra sheets. Choice of 1 side or 2 sided (for up to 12 total pages)

9″ x 12″ and 6″ x 18″ Bifold Self Mailers

  • Basis Weight: 80# Cover with Gloss
  • GSM: 218
  • Full Bleed, 1 Side UV Gloss
  • Adhesive: Stain resistant, low tack, clear fugitive glue

8.5” x 14” Color Letter 

  • 70# text/89gsm paper (compare with others 60#, this is heavier and higher quality)
  • #10 2-window outer envelope or Custom Envelope option – #10 single window
  • Extra Pages – print up to 4 extra sheets. Choice of 1 side or 2 sided (for up to 8 total pages)

Canada Specifications:

Learn More About Our Canada Direct Mail Automation Features

4” x 6” Color Postcard (101.6mm x 152.4mm)

  • 12pt Gloss FSC Cardstock (30% recycled content)
  • Full Bleed

6” x 9” Color Postcard (152.4mm x 228.6mm)

  • 12pt Gloss FSC Cardstock (30% recycled content)
  • Full Bleed

6” x 11” Color Postcard (152.4mm x 279.4mm)

  • 12pt Gloss FSC Cardstock (30% recycled content)
  • Full Bleed

8.5” x 11” Color Letter (215.9mm x 279.4mm)

  • 60# FSC paper (30% recycled content)
  • #10 2-window outer envelope (4 1/8 x 9 1/2 Artlined Security Tint)
  • Extra Pages – print up to 6 extra pages. Choice of 1 side or 2 sided (for up to 12 total pages)

Does Postalytics deliver to addresses outside the U.S. and Canada?

Currently, Postalytics is able to print and mail in the U.S. and Canada. We’ll be adding additional countries in the future. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the announcement for your country, contact our sales team. If you are outside of the U.S. or Canada, and want to send to either or both countries, Postalytics is for you. You can create, manage and track direct mail campaigns from any web browser, anywhere.

How long does it take to print, sort, deliver and mail my campaign?

Postalytics print partners use USPS First Class, Standard/Marketing Mail and Nonprofit Class mail in the U.S. and Canada Post Personalized Mail™ in Canada. They operate print/mail facilities Monday – Friday, outside of planned holidays (see below). Our print partners will process the mail and drop it into the postal stream within 2 business days of receiving the campaign (weekends, holidays and daily cutoff times impact the timing).

In the U.S., it generally takes 6-8 business days for the mail to be processed and delivered via First Class, and 9-21 business days for Standard Class. In Canada, it generally takes 6-8 business days for the mail to be processed and delivered. It can take longer to deliver to remote, rural addresses.

The postal organizations do experience delays at times, particularly around the holidays. In the U.S. these delays impact Standard/Marketing/Nonprofit Class more than First Class delivery. Check your campaign dashboard for the exact status of your mailpieces.

See Campaign Dashboard Terms and Definitions

Why does my dashboard indicate “Mailpiece Created” for several days?

“Created” is a confirmation status code that your data has been properly captured, run through the USPS CASS and NCOA processes and will be turned into a printed mailpiece. This status code can remain on your mailpieces for several days, as the first scan we receive from the USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode system – “USPS received” (see below) for delivery tracking can often occur 3-4 business days after campaign submission (and often not at all for Standard Class Mail).

“USPS received” means that the mailpiece has been received and scanned at a regional USPS hub. The hand-off from the print provider can happen days before this scan is received.

Do not worry if your campaign seems “stuck” in the Mailpiece Created status. Often, we see “USPS received”, In Transit”, “In Local Area” and “Processed For Delivery” scans occur in rapid succession (18-48 hours).

What are the planned U.S. printing/mailing holidays?

Our U.S. printer/mailer partners and/or the USPS do not conduct business on the following holidays:

New Year’s Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
President Day
Good Friday
Memorial Day
Juneteenth National Independence Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving Day
Day after Thanksgiving
Christmas Day
Christmas Eve
New Year’s Eve

Generally there are USPS slowdowns that occur between Thanksgiving and New Year Day each year, due to very high spikes in mailing activity. You can prepare for them by following our guide to holiday season direct mail delivery.

What are the planned Canadian printing/mailing holidays?

Our Canadian printer/mailer partners and/or Canada Post do not conduct business on the following holidays:

New Years Day
Good Friday
Easter Monday
Victoria Day
Patriots’ National Day (Quebec only)
Quebec’s National Holiday (Quebec only)
Canada Day
Civic Holiday (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Newfoundland & Labrador)
Natal Day (Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia)
New Brunswick Day (New Brunswick)
British Columbia Day (British Columbia)
Heritage Day (Alberta)
Discovery Day (Yukon)
Labour Day
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Thanksgiving Day
Remembrance Day
Christmas Day (Dec 23rd-24th in 2021)
Boxing Day (Dec 27th in 2021)

How does mail delivery tracking work?

In the U.S., each Postalytics mailpiece receives a unique USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode. As the mail travels through the USPS system, the mailpieces are scanned at various stages. We pass this along to you at a summary and detail level in your Campaign Dashboard. If your data originated from your CRM or Marketing Automation system, it can sync statuses back to your contact records as well.

Canada does not yet offer mailpiece tracking, and so the last production event passed along to the Campaign Dashboard is “Mailed”.

Learn More About Postalytics Campaign Dashboards

What happens when a contact gets a “Return To Sender” or “Forwarded” scan from the USPS?

The Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) scans are captured during the delivery process. If a mailer receives a Return To Sender or Forwarded scan, Postalytics will update the source list and mark those addresses as Invalid. Subsequent sends to that list will not mail to these addresses.

How do Postalytics QR’s and pURLs track online activity?

Postalytics uses Personalized QR Codes and URLs (pURLs) in a new patented way to track the online response of your recipients across any modern landing page, web page or e-commerce platform.

Set up Postalytics pURLs in 5 Easy Steps;

Direct mailers have long used Personalized URLs to track online response, but previously required specialty software with proprietary landing pages.

Postalytics QRs & pURLs use a Tracking Code (a snippet of JavaScript that works like Google Analytics) that gets dropped into your landing pages or Content Management System. When you set up your campaign, just identify the URL that you want to direct your users to when they enter or scan (via QR code) their pURL.  You can also identify a conversion event or “Goal URL”. Postalytics tracking takes over from there, giving you deep insights into the online behavior of your direct mail audience, and providing proper attribution to your traffic.

Can I Personalize Landing Pages Like Traditional pURLs?

Absolutely. Postalytics has easy to use Landing Page Personalization tools, that can insert Variable Data merge tags and Variable Logic dynamic content into your landing pages, using the data from your direct mail list.

Learn How To Use Landing Page Personalization

The most common uses include personalized greetings, pre-filled forms, and dynamic content (images, text, links/CTA buttons) that speak to each campaign persona uniquely.

Our Pop-up Personalization Manager, Chrome Extension and WordPress plugin all generate the appropriate HTML in snippets that are copied to your clipboard. It takes a little HTML knowledge to drop the Variable Data or Logic in.

Savvy direct mailers use these tools to replicate the personalization from the mailpiece to the landing page. Multi-channel marketing studies have shown that consistent experiences across offline and online channels increases response rates, and pre-filled forms that require less effort are filled out more often.

What are Smart Send Campaigns?

Smart Sends are broadcast, or batch mailings that are based upon a list. Lists consist of 1 to an unlimited number of contacts with valid addresses. Smart Send Campaigns are built using a simple wizard. You’ll be prompted to choose a list, a template, choose online tracking options (if your template has a pURL or QR Code). After you complete the wizard, your campaign will be ready to send to the printer on the date & time you selected.

What are Triggered Drip Campaigns?

Triggered Drip Campaigns send individual mailpieces when Postalytics is “triggered” by a Marketing Automation or CRM platform. To build a Triggered Drip, just walk through the wizard. Instead of choosing a list, you’ll generate what is called a “Webhook” at the end of the wizard. The Webhook for each campaign is a URL that can be programmatically called by other software, like your Marketing Automation or CRM system. See our Pricing page FAQ’s to learn how Direct Mail Credits work.

What are Automated File Campaigns?

Automated File Campaigns are ongoing campaigns that enable a fast, easy way to send direct mail to new lists of recipients without having to generate a new campaign each time. You can drag and drop a mailing list (or push through automated means) into the campaign once it is created and let Postalytics process and send it out automatically.

How do the Dashboards work?

Your home page contains a dashboard that rolls up all of your campaigns, so you can analyze the impact of all of the mailings you done through Postalytics. You can drill down into individual campaigns, each of which has it’s own dashboard. The Campaign Dashboards provide summary and detailed analysis (to the individual recipient) of everything that’s happened in the campaign – the delivery events, the online response, conversions, which pages have been visited and more. The charts and the details of the Dashboard can be downloaded for offline report preparation.

How long is my campaign data available?

Campaign data is available in your Campaign Dashboard for 365 days after the last mailpiece was created. After one year the campaign will be archived. You’ll still be able to see campaign level delivery and response metrics, such as how many mailers were delivered, returned to sender, pURLs opened, etc, but you’ll no longer be able to view or export the details of the recipients in each of the statuses.

Can a campaign involve more than one touch?

You got it. With Postalytics Smart Sends, you can “Add a Mail Drop” to an existing campaign. This will let you send to the same list, or a segment of the original list, and incorporate the metrics into a single dashboard.

How can I send to a segment of my original list?

If your original campaign includes online tracking, you can target recipients based on their online behavior. When you “Add a Mail Drop” to an existing campaign (sent or scheduled) you can select to send only to those who have not responded online, responded online but not reached the goal URL, or to those who did reach the goal URL. Imagine scheduling an automated thank you letter or postcard to go out for everyone who registers for an event or places an order.

Can I reuse my campaign assets, templates and lists?

Yes, Postalytics is designed to make it easy to use your assets in as many campaigns as you’d like. Your images are stored in an Asset Manager, that you can set up and manage with folders to keep things organized. Your templates and lists are stored in libraries. You can reuse them in as many campaigns as you’d like. We even offer a template copy function, so you can take a snapshot of a template you’ve created, make some modifications, and put it to use.

Can I get a sample postcard or letter?

Absolutely. Create a free account and choose “Send Me Samples“. You’ll walk through a simple wizard that will construct your first Smart Send campaign. You can also upload a list and set up a full Smart Send. You can test everything from the direct mail editor to the delivery tracking, and even test the online response by including a pURL and landing page.

How do you keep the address area protected?

The Postalytics Direct Mail Editor automatically reserves space for the recipient address and the return address that you specify. We won’t let you place content on those spaces, so you don’t have to worry about problems that can happen when producing creative manually.

I want to do most of my creative offline. Can I still use Postalytics?

Of course! Many designers are comfortable in offline design tools, we make it easy to continue to use them. Just choose “Build Offline” when you create a template, upload your creative and go. You can still overlay Postalytics personalization and tracking variables on the creative before your proof is submitted. Be sure to use the Postalytics Style Guide to ensure your work fits the Direct Mail Editor specs. All the images you upload are stored in the Asset Manager for re-use.

Can I cancel a mailing after it’s been sent?

Postalytics campaigns work just like email, they are all automated. Once the scheduled date/time that you chose has arrived, the mailing is finalized. You can edit/delete a campaign prior to the scheduled send date.

What Are the Minimum Contact List Requirements?

When you import a list (from any source) into Postalytics, we’ll check each record to make sure that it has the minimum necessary fields for proper mailing, we’ll also set aside invalid contact list records. The minimum fields are:

  • First Name (20 characters, alpha numeric) and Last Name (20 characters, alpha numeric) AND/OR
  • Company (40 characters, alpha numeric)

You may have either First Name and Last Name or Company Name or both. They will be printed on two separate lines above the rest of the address.

  • Address 1 (64 characters, alpha numeric)
  • City (200 characters, alpha numeric)
  • State (2 letter state short-name code “MA” or valid full state name “Massachusetts”)
  • Zip code (5 digit numeric “02370” or 5 dash 4 digit numeric “02370-1234”

You may also include an Address 2 field on records that require it (64 characters, alpha numeric). Learn more about Contact Lists here.

Can I Personalize My Direct Mail?

Postalytics has many ways to personalize your direct mail postcards and letters. The direct mail editor can add “Variable Data” tokens onto any direct mail piece, along with “Variable Logic” expressions, “Variable Images” and “Variable Return Addresses”. Each of these powerful tools use data from your list or CRM to generate personalized content on each mailpiece. Learn more about Variable Data, Variable Logic,  Variable Images and Variable Return Addresses in our help documentation.

Can I Personalize the Background Image?

YES! Simply use the Postalytics Style Guide to build a background image of the proper dimension, upload it to the Asset Manager, and then use those images in a Variable Logic Block (that will fill the side of the postcard you are working on). See the Variable Logic help article for more details.