Get Official USPS Tracking Updates Straight to Your Inbox!
Feature Update – IMpb Notifications We have some great news for Click2Mail users! We are thrilled to announce that Click2Mail now offers a completely free way to receive official USPS email updates about your Certified, Priority, or Priority Express mail as it travels to its destination. Keeping track of important mail just got easier, more…
QR Codes on Direct Mail: Design, Tracking, and Best Practices
By Lee Garvey A postcard has a 100% open rate — no spam filter to clear, no inbox to compete with. But getting the reader to act has always been the harder part. A QR code bridges that gap. With one camera scan, your mailpiece becomes the entry point to a digital experience you can…
How to Test Direct Mail Offers with Small Batch Mailings Before You Scale
By Lee Garvey Scaling a direct mail campaign that doesn’t work is a fast way to lose money. The smarter path is to run a small test first — validate your offer, your list, and your format on a few hundred pieces before committing to thousands. What you learn from that modest batch will shape…
Triggered Direct Mail: When to Use API, Zapier, or Email-to-Mail
By Lee Garvey Most businesses already send automated emails when a customer fills out a form, a lead hits a CRM stage, or an invoice gets generated. The expectation that those moments should trigger a communication is baked into how modern operations work. Physical mail can work exactly the same way — and when it…
Priority Mail vs. First Class: What’s Actually Different
By Lee Garvey The most cited difference is delivery speed. First Class Mail carries a 1–5 business day delivery window under normal conditions, though actual transit times have become less predictable in recent years as USPS has shifted substantial volume from air to ground transportation and consolidated processing facilities. Priority Mail carries a 1–3 day…
Print and Ship vs Direct Mail: When to Ship Bulk Printed Pieces Instead
By Lee Garvey Not every printed marketing piece belongs in a mailbox. Some of the most effective uses of a postcard, brochure, or rack card involve a sales rep handing it to a prospect in person, a restaurant stacking it at the counter, or an e-commerce company slipping it into an outbound package. The question…
New Homeowner Mail Campaigns: Timing, Message, and Offer Ideas That Work
By Lee Garvey Someone just signed the biggest financial document of their life, moved into a home they’ll likely stay in for years, and is now standing in rooms that need everything — a pest control company, an HVAC technician, a landscaper, a painter, a local pizza place. The first 90 days after closing are…
Real Property Mailing Lists: How Investors and Brokers Use Property Data
By Lee Garvey Consumer mailing lists tell you who someone is. A real property mailing list tells you what they own, what they owe, how long they’ve had it, and whether their tax payments are current. That combination turns a generic address file into a targeting instrument purpose-built for real estate — one where the…
Flyer vs Brochure vs Booklet: Choosing the Right Format for Complex Offers
By Lee Garvey A postcard can hold one idea. Once you need to carry three, six, or twenty — you’re in flyer, brochure, or booklet territory. The format isn’t just a design decision; it determines how much you can say, how the piece arrives, and what the reader expects to get out of it. The…
Direct Mail ROI Calculator: How to Forecast Response, CPA, and Revenue
By Lee Garvey Most people calculate direct mail ROI after the fact — if they calculate it at all. A campaign goes out, sales tick up or don’t, and someone eyeballs the result and calls it a win or a wash. That’s not ROI analysis; it’s hindsight with a spreadsheet. The smarter move is to…
Informed Delivery for Direct Mail Campaigns: How to Add a Digital Lift
By Lee Garvey Most direct mail campaigns get one shot at the recipient’s attention — the moment the piece comes out of the mailbox. Informed Delivery gives you a second shot before that even happens, delivered directly to their inbox the same morning their mail is sorted. For mailers who are already paying to print…
Business Reply Mail vs Courtesy Reply Mail: Which Reply Option Should You Use?
By Lee Garvey The reply envelope is the most underrated piece of any direct mail campaign. You can write compelling copy, nail the offer, and design a beautiful mailer — and then lose a response because the person didn’t want to find a stamp. Getting the recipient to act is the whole point. Making that…
How to Use EDDM for Restaurants, Realtors, and Retail Stores
By Lee Garvey EDDM asks one deceptively simple question: is your customer anyone who lives near you? For a lot of businesses, the honest answer is yes. A pizza shop, a new real estate listing, a boutique’s seasonal sale — none of these require a carefully segmented list of names and demographics. They just need…
Scuffs and Burns on Mail
Scuff and burn marks on mailpieces: what’s causing it and how to protect your mail If you’ve noticed scuff or burn marks on postcards and printed mail in your mailbox, you’re not alone. In the last several weeks, we’ve had an uptick in reports of mail being damaged this way during postal processing and delivery.…
Nonprofit Direct Mail Guide: Eligibility, Postage Savings, and Campaign Planning
By Lee Garvey Every dollar a nonprofit spends on outreach is a dollar that doesn’t go toward the mission. That tension — between reaching donors and staying lean — is exactly why USPS nonprofit postage rates exist, and why direct mail remains one of the most cost-effective fundraising channels available to qualifying organizations. Physical mail…
New Movers Mailing Lists: How to Build Offers That Convert After a Move
By Lee Garvey There’s a narrow window after someone moves to a new home when their loyalty is completely up for grabs. Their old dry cleaner, dentist, pizza place, and hardware store are now inconveniently far away. They don’t have a favorite anything yet in their new neighborhood — and they’re actively looking to fill…
Direct Mail Design Specs Checklist for USPS-Compatible Mailpieces
By Lee Garvey Most direct mail campaigns don’t fail because of a weak offer or a bad list. They fail because someone designed a beautiful piece and submitted it without checking whether it would actually survive the postal system. A misplaced address block, a missing bleed margin, or a file submitted at the wrong resolution…
Direct Mail Postcard Sizes Explained: When to Use 4×6, 6×9, and 6×11
By Lee Garvey Postcard size isn’t a formatting detail — it’s a strategy decision. The same offer sent on a 4×6 and a 6×11 will land differently in the mailbox, register differently in the hand, and signal something different about your brand before a single word is read. Get the size right and your message…
Every Door Direct Mail vs Mailing Lists: Which One Fits Your Campaign?
By Lee Garvey Two business owners walk into a post office. One leaves with a stack of postcards addressed to 3,000 carefully chosen homeowners with swimming pools. The other leaves with the same number of postcards bound for every single mailbox on six carrier routes near a new pizza shop. Same channel, same goal —…
How to Handle Returned Mail: Processing, Updating Lists, and Reducing Waste
By Lee Garvey Returned mail is one of those operational problems that’s easy to ignore until it becomes expensive. A few undeliverable pieces here and there seem harmless, but across a mailing list of any size, bad addresses translate directly into wasted postage, missed communications, and a contact database that quietly degrades over time. Handling…
What Is Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) and How Does It Work?
By Lee Garvey If you’ve looked closely at a piece of business mail recently, you’ve likely noticed a row of tall and short bars printed near the address area. That’s the Intelligent Mail Barcode, and it carries significantly more information than it appears to. For businesses that send mail at any volume, understanding how IMb…