Why Most Businesses Don’t Track Direct Mail Delivery—And Why They Should

By Lee Garvey

The $10 postcard sits in your customer’s mailbox while your sales team calls their number. Your carefully crafted email waits unopened in their inbox. Three channels of communication, perfectly timed for maximum impact—except for one problem: you have no idea if that postcard even arrived.

For most businesses sending direct mail, delivery tracking remains a black box. While digital marketing offers instant analytics and confirmation, physical mail often disappears into the void between your office and your customer’s hands, leaving you to wonder: Did it arrive? When? And is your follow-up perfectly timed or embarrassingly premature?

It’s a blind spot costing businesses both money and opportunities, according to Lee Garvey, founder and CEO of Click2Mail.

“The Postal Service has made it really, really, really hard for a small business to understand tracking and bar codes and things like that,” explains Lee. “Any company that is large enough is probably using a third-party provider. Small companies are out in the dark—they just don’t know.”

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The Invisible Journey of Your Direct Mail

When businesses send direct mail without proper tracking, several critical issues emerge:

• Timing uncertainty: You can’t coordinate multi-channel marketing efforts because you don’t know when your mail piece arrives
• Follow-up inefficiency: Sales teams can’t optimize their call timing without delivery confirmation
• Wasted resources: Without tracking, businesses often overpay for priority services just to get basic visibility
• Lost opportunities: The crucial window for timely follow-up passes while you wait, wondering if your mail reached its destination

“They send a priority mail and they think that’s the only kind of mail that gets tracking,” notes Lee. “And consequently, they’re paying $10 for a mail piece that they could send for 65 cents with us.”

This lack of visibility creates a significant competitive disadvantage for businesses that can’t afford enterprise-level mail solutions but need the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns.

The Multi-Channel Marketing Advantage

Today’s most successful marketing strategies don’t rely on a single communication channel. Instead, they coordinate messages across multiple touchpoints to create a coherent, reinforcing customer experience. Mail tracking is the missing piece that allows direct mail to fully integrate into this approach.

“You’re trying to touch people through various channels, and you want to do it at the same time,” says Lee. “So you want them to get a phone call or an email at the same time that something arrives in the mailbox.”

This level of coordination can transform ordinary marketing campaigns into exceptional customer experiences.

The Real-World Impact of Mail Tracking

Consider these scenarios that demonstrate the practical value of mail tracking:

1. Strategic follow-up timing: A financial advisor sends a brochure about retirement planning. With tracking, they know exactly when to call to discuss the materials when they’re fresh in the prospect’s mind.
2. Enhanced customer experience: An online retailer sends a thank-you card after a purchase. Mail tracking lets them time an email asking for a review to arrive the day after the card, creating a cohesive customer journey.
3. Budget optimization: Instead of paying premium rates for Priority Mail just to get tracking, businesses can use standard mail with tracking services, potentially saving thousands of dollars annually.

Some innovative companies are already leveraging this approach. “We had one company that sent a postcard telling the recipient that the link to their online catalog was in my email,” says Carly Brown, Click2Mail’s customer support manager. “The postcard says to check my spam folder for that link.”

Without mail tracking, this level of coordination would be impossible.

4 Reasons Why Most Businesses Still Don’t Track Mail

Despite these clear advantages, most small and medium businesses continue to operate without mail tracking capabilities. There are four main reasons for this gap:

1. Knowledge Barriers

Many business owners simply don’t know that affordable tracking options exist outside of expensive Priority Mail services. The Postal Service’s complicated systems and terminology create a barrier that most small businesses can’t overcome without assistance.

2. Perceived Complexity

The technical aspects of implementing mail tracking—barcodes, integration with postal systems, data management—can seem overwhelming without specialized knowledge or resources.

3. Cost Misconceptions

Many businesses assume that mail tracking requires significant investment in new technology or expensive premium mail services. This misconception prevents them from exploring more affordable solutions.

4. Traditional Thinking

For decades, businesses have operated with the understanding that once mail leaves their office, it’s out of their control. This legacy thinking persists even as technology has made tracking both possible and affordable.

How Mail Tracking Actually Works

You might be wondering what mail tracking looks like in practice. Unlike package tracking that consumers are familiar with, business mail tracking works through a sophisticated system called the Intelligent Mail barcode.

“One of the key things that Click2Mail does that you can’t do for yourself, unless you’re a big mailroom or a big mail operation, is to get the tracking information from the Postal Service and have it at your fingertips,” explains Lee.

This system provides visibility into key milestones in the delivery process:

• When mail is processed at postal facilities
• When it arrives at the recipient’s local post office
• When delivery is expected or has occurred

While the technology is complex, the implementation can be surprisingly simple with the right partner.

Getting Started with Mail Tracking: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you’re ready to add tracking to your direct mail campaigns, here’s how to get started:

1. Choose the Right Provider

Look for a mail service provider that offers built-in tracking without requiring you to navigate USPS systems directly. Click2Mail integrates Intelligent Mail barcode tracking on most of their mail products automatically.

2. Access Your Tracking Data

With Click2Mail, tracking data is easily accessible through your online account:

1. Log in to your Click2Mail account
2. Navigate to “My Account” or click “Order History” from the dashboard menu
3. Locate your mailing order and click the three-dot menu icon
4. Select “View Tracking” to see delivery status information

3. Leverage Tracking Reports

Click2Mail offers two types of tracking reports to help you analyze delivery performance:

• Summary Report (CSV): Ideal for larger mailings, this spreadsheet format allows for easy sorting and analysis
• Detail Report (PDF): Provides comprehensive information in a formatted document

4. Integrate with Your Marketing Systems

The real power comes from connecting mail tracking data with your other marketing and sales systems. Click2Mail provides tools to help businesses monitor and manage their mail campaigns effectively.

For businesses on the go, Click2Mail even offers mobile access to tracking information.

Ready to Transform Your Direct Mail Marketing?

Mail tracking isn’t just an add-on feature—it’s a fundamental shift in how businesses can approach direct mail marketing. By bringing visibility, timing control, and multi-channel coordination to your campaigns, mail tracking elevates direct mail from an isolated tactic to an integrated part of your marketing ecosystem.

The days of sending mail into the void and hoping for the best are over. With affordable tracking solutions now accessible to businesses of all sizes, there’s no reason to continue operating in the dark.

To get started with mail tracking:

1. Visit Click2Mail.com to create an account
2. Explore our range of trackable mail products
3. Send your first campaign with built-in Intelligent Mail tracking
4. Monitor delivery through your online dashboard

It’s time to stop wondering when—or if—your mail arrived and start knowing for certain. Your marketing strategy deserves nothing less.