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Informed Delivery

Informed Delivery is a free and optional USPS notification service that lets eligible residential consumers preview their letter-sized mail and manage incoming packages. Mailers use it to pair a mailpiece with digital content and to gather impressions, interactions and insights from it.

Updated October 31, 202655 sources

What it is

For a consumer, Informed Delivery is a digital preview of incoming letter-sized mail and a way to manage packages scheduled to arrive soon. The preview arrives in an email, the Daily Digest. A separate Mail Delivery Notification tells a user when the mail has arrived at the delivery point.

For a mailer, Informed Delivery adds a digital touch point to a physical mailpiece. The mailer runs an interactive campaign, supplemental content that lets users act on the mailpiece at once. One mailpiece then gives multiple impressions. USPS offers the basic campaign functionality for no additional fee.

Mailers create campaigns in the Mailer Campaign Portal, Informed Delivery's portal for mailers, or in PostalOne! from the eDoc they submit with a mailing. The results come back as reports in the Mailer Campaign Portal or as data through Informed Visibility Mail Tracking & Reporting, or IV-MTR.

How it works

A campaign covers a range of Intelligent Mail barcode serial numbers under one Mailer ID. Informed Delivery gives the same campaign treatment to every piece mailed with a serial number in that range. The content is an image and a target URL, which becomes the image's hyperlink.

A campaign from start to finish.

  1. The mailer submits the campaign in the Mailer Campaign Portal or with its Mail.dat eDoc.
  2. Informed Delivery checks the campaign's dates, serial numbers and target URL before creating it.
  3. Users see the campaign content with each mailpiece in the campaign's serial range.
  4. Reporting runs from the campaign's start date to its end date.
  5. The mailer gets the results as portal reports or as IDPC data through IV-MTR.

Campaigns

The Mailer Campaign Portal offers three campaign types: Serial Range Sequential, MID Level and Non-Sequential.

Informed Delivery groups pieces into one campaign by seven values, whichever way the eDoc links its campaign data:

  • The Mailer ID in the barcode
  • The campaign's start date and end date
  • The ride-along image URL and its target URL
  • The replace image URL and its target URL

Two sets of pieces that share all seven values become one campaign, from the lowest serial number to the highest. A later eDoc for the same campaign widens the range when its serial numbers fall outside it.

The post-campaign data

IDPC data, the Informed Delivery Post-Campaign data, holds these results for Informed Delivery interactive campaigns:

  • Click-throughs
  • Recipient ZIP
  • Email opens
  • Image placement in the email
  • Delivery dates

IV-MTR passes IDPC data through without generating it. The IDPC Data Dictionary describes the data, and the IDPC Sample Data Set gives example data for each field.

In IV-MTR, IDPC data is near-real time: each record arrives as soon as it is available. In the Mailer Campaign Portal, the data updates once a day in the evening, with one cumulative record for each mailpiece. After a campaign's end date, its data stays available, but no new data is generated.

IV-MTR holds IDPC data only for dates after 6/12/20, the date it began providing the data. Older data is in the Mailer Campaign Portal. Pre-Campaign Analysis and Post-Campaign Summary data do not come through IV-MTR, and the Mailer Campaign Portal User Guide covers them.

Getting the data

IDPC data is one of several data types in IV-MTR, alongside mail tracking data and Mail Quality Data. Beyond an IV-MTR account, it needs Informed Delivery Mailer Campaign Portal privileges, requested and granted through the Business Customer Gateway.

A one-time query or a data feed asks for it with the data type Informed Delivery Post-Campaign. A one-time query returns historical data, and a data feed sends data from the current day forward. A one-time query's download stays available for 72 hours after it is generated.

A mailer shares IDPC data with another Customer Registration ID or Mailer ID through data delegation, inside one organization or between two. IDPC data can be delegated at the Customer Registration ID level or the Mailer ID level. A Customer Registration ID level delegation covers all its Mailer IDs, current and future.

An organization that hands its IDPC data to a third party, such as a mail service provider, may not need to register for IV-MTR. It still needs Business Customer Gateway registration.

The data files

A one-time query's files are delimited text. A data feed sends delimited files or JSON. Each file holds at most 100,000 records, and a larger result comes as several files.

Every file name follows YYYYMMDDhhmmss_ID_CAMPAIGN_DETAIL_AAAA_BBBB, then the file's extension.

PartMeaning
YYYYMMDDhhmmssYear, month, day, hour, minutes and seconds
AAAAAlphanumeric characters for the message ID, such as A2WU
BBBBThe file's number in the batch, such as 0001 for the first file

Campaigns through PostalOne! eDoc

USPS Informed Delivery PostalOne! eDoc Technical Support for Mailers is USPS's guidance on submitting Informed Delivery campaigns in eDoc through PostalOne!, with Mail.dat or Mail.XML. It serves mailers, mail service providers and technical support staff who set up campaigns when the mailing is entered.

An eDoc campaign travels inside the mailing's eDoc. PostalOne! takes the Mailer ID and serial numbers from the presort data and sets the campaign's start and end serials. This removes the need to enter campaigns by hand in the Mailer Campaign Portal, and it reduces errors.

Mail.dat eDoc takes MID Level and sequential campaigns, but not PURLs or non-sequential campaigns. Mail.XML eDoc takes only sequential campaigns. Informed Delivery does not tell mail classes, shapes or service types apart, so only one campaign can be Active or Submitted for a Mailer ID and serial range at a time. A campaign serial range needs at least 2 serials.

Mailers must work with the Informed Delivery eDoc Team to get started.

  1. Read the Mailer Onboarding documents on PostalPro.
  2. Sign up for a Customer Acceptance Testing test account in the CAT Business Customer Gateway.
  3. Email the account information to the Informed Delivery eDoc Team at USPSInformedDeliveryeDoc@usps.gov.
  4. Set up testing scenarios and work with the eDoc Team through the testing period.

Two test environments take eDoc campaigns, and neither shows campaigns to real Informed Delivery users. The Test Environment for Mailers has its own Mailer Campaign Portal, where mailers view and edit eDoc campaigns. It has no Program Registration interface, so promotion discounts cannot be tested there. The Customer Acceptance Testing environment tests eDoc campaigns and the Informed Delivery promotion discount on postage statements. Its Mailer Campaign Portal is not open outside the USPS network.

In Mail.dat, a campaign travels in up to three optional files.

FileWhat it holds
.rms, the Referenceable Mail Summary RecordSummary information for the .rmr records, including the Campaign Title, Campaign Code, Display Name, Date Start and Date End
.rmr, the Referenceable Mail RecordThe images and target URLs shown to consumers, each linked to a component, a piece or a piece barcode
.rmb, the Referenceable Mail Barcode RecordBarcode information for a campaign job, which holds only .hdr, .rms and .rmb files

PostalOne! supports four ways to link campaign data:

  • At the component level, the .cpt file
  • At the piece detail level, the .pdr file
  • At the piece barcode level, the .pbc file
  • Through the .rmb file, with only the .hdr and .rms files beside it

The .rms and .rmr records code these fields with letters.

FieldValues
.rms Campaign Serial GroupingC, Intelligent Mail barcodes in a continuous serial range with non-personalized campaigns; S, saturation campaign data using ZIP11s
.rms Campaign Sharing IndicatorWhether Informed Delivery shows the campaign's sharing button: Y display, N do not display
.rms Campaign Target URL Parameters IndicatorWhether Informed Delivery adds tracking parameters to the target URL: Y add parameters, N do not add parameters
.rms Campaign Processing CategoryLT Letter, FL Flat, CD Card, MP Machinable Parcel, IR Nonstandard Parcel, PF Parcel, CM Custom Mail
.rmr RMR ID TypeP for a .pdr Piece ID, B for a .pbc PBC Unique ID, C for a .cpt Component ID

In Mail.XML, the campaign travels in a CampaignData block in the QualificationReportDetailCreateRequest. The block holds these fields:

  • CampaignTitle
  • CampaignSerialGrouping
  • CampaignCode
  • DisplayName, required when the mailing includes Referenceable Mail
  • DateStart and DateEnd
  • ReferenceableMailData, a block holding a ReferenceableMailID, a TemplateCode, and pairs of ReferenceableMailContentType and ReferenceableMailContentLink

A MailPieceCreateRequest can carry its own ReferenceableMailData block. A version in DocumentVersionData or a mailpiece in the mailpiece block takes the campaign through its ReferenceableMailID. Referenceable Mail needs Mail.XML 21.0 or later, and each ReferenceableMailContentLink is at most 250 characters. As in Mail.dat, every campaign needs a ride-along image URL and its target URL, and a flat campaign also needs a replace image URL.

PostalOne! sends Mail.dat campaign data to Informed Delivery when the containers reach Ready-to-Pay. The .rmr records and their piece data can change until and with the Ready to Pay submission. USPS treats Mail.XML containers as Ready-to-Pay by default, and PostalOne! sends the CampaignData block on once it processes it.

In Mail.XML, the eDoc Sender CRID that submits the campaign data owns the campaign. Only that CRID sees the campaign's management and reporting in the Mailer Campaign Portal. Sharing them with the mail owner is the campaign owner's job.

For an Informed Delivery Campaign, the campaign code must be unique for the barcode MID.

Each campaign under one Mailer ID must have its own campaign code.

When the .rms file is present, either the corresponding .csm Referenceable Mail Start/End Dates or the .rms Start/End Dates must be populated.

A Mail.dat campaign must give its start and end dates, in the .rms record or in the container's .csm record.

.hdr Mail.dat Presentation Category must be I = Informed Delivery to use .rmb file

A campaign job built on the .rmb file must give I as its header's Mail.dat Presentation Category. Its header must also give an eDoc Sender CRID.

PostalOne! still accepts a mailing whose campaign data draws warnings, but the campaign may not be created in Informed Delivery. Errors from Informed Delivery's back end arrive the next business day through the MDR Client's Receipt Poller. An .rmb job with bad campaign data errors out, and none of the job is processed. A campaign already created in the Mailer Campaign Portal or through the ID Mail API fails when its data also comes in the Mail.dat file. When PostalOne! changes a start date, its warning names the campaign code, the date submitted and the date it became.

Technical Specifications

Tech Guides

User Guides

Fact Sheets

FAQs

Program Requirements

Rules

.rmr RMR Content Types A = Ride-Along Image URL and B = Ride-Along Image Target URL are required for Informed Delivery campaigns.

A campaign from a Mail.dat eDoc must give a ride-along image URL and a target URL for it.

End Date must be at least one day after Start Date

A campaign must end at least one day after it starts.

Target URL must be valid

The target URL must be valid, and it must start with a lowercase https://.

.rmr RMR Content Type of C = Replace Image URL is required for Informed Delivery campaigns when the .mpu Mail Piece Unit – Processing Category is FL = Flat.

A campaign on flats must also give a replace image URL.

To ensure die-cut visibility for Informed Delivery® recipients, the leftmost edge of the die-cut extension must be in Zone C of the TED-C Letter Template.

For a TED-C mailpiece's die-cut extension to show in Informed Delivery, its leftmost edge must be in Zone C of the TED-C Letter Template.

New data delegations must be created for each data type.

Each data type must have its own delegation, so sharing IDPC data takes a delegation for IDPC data.

It is recommended you do not choose Comma as a delimiter in IDPC files since IDPC data itself can contain commas.

A delimited IDPC file should use a delimiter other than the comma, because IDPC data can contain commas.

What goes wrong

Informed Delivery refuses to create a campaign from a Mail.dat submission that breaks one of its rules:

  • The start date or the end date is in the past.
  • The serial number length, 6 or 9, does not fit the Mailer ID's length.
  • The campaign overlaps an existing active campaign.
  • It is an Intelligent Mail package barcode campaign, which is not valid.

A Mailer ID that is not eligible for Informed Delivery campaigns gets no campaign. A ride-along image can be at most 200KB and 300 by 200 pixels. A replacement image can be at most 200KB and 780 by 500 pixels.

Informed Delivery cuts three campaign fields to 40 characters before it sends them to PostalOne!: brand display name, campaign code and campaign title. The cut lets mailers claim discounts on the mailing.

A TED-C mailpiece whose die-cut extension starts outside Zone C may still be mailable, but recipients may not see the die-cut in Informed Delivery.

When Informed Delivery Post-Campaign is missing from the data type menu, the user lacks the privileges for it. A delimited file with no records arrives blank, while a JSON feed with no records sends nothing.

A fraudulent or seized package never appears with a package campaign. It can still show in the Arriving Soon section without a delivery date.

Terms

Informed Delivery Post CampaignIDPC, Informed Delivery Post-Campaign (IDPC) data, Informed Delivery Post-Campaign (IDPC) Detailed Data, Informed Delivery (IDPC), IDPC data
processing, open, and click-through results for Informed Delivery interactive campaigns
Intelligent Mail BarcodeIMb, 4CB, Intelligent Mail barcode (piece level barcode), 4CB, 4-CB, USPS4CB, USPS 4-State Customer Barcode, 4-state customer barcode
The IMb is a height-modulated barcode that encodes up to 31 digits of mailpiece data into 65 vertical bars using a 4-state symbology.
Mailer IdentifierMID, Mailer IDs, Mailer Identification, Mailer Identification Number, USPS Mailer ID
MID is a unique 6- or 9-digit number that identifies the mailer or the mailer’s client.
Customer Registration IDCRID, Customer Registration Identification Number, Customer Registration Identifier, Customer Identifier, Customer Reference ID, Customer Registration Identifications
a USPS-generated numeric code of up to 15 digits that uniquely identifies a business at a specific location
Informed Visibility Mail Tracking & ReportingIVMTR, IV, MTR, IV Mail Tracking & Reporting, Informed Visibility - Mail Tracking and Reporting, Informed Visibility (IV) Mail Tracking & Reporting
provides near real-time tracking information for all letters, flats, and mail aggregates, which includes containers, handling units, and bundles – giving mailers visibility into their mailings and service, increasing the value of mail and enabling mailers to plan their mailings, measure success of each mailing campaign, and efficiently staff.
One-Time QueryOTQ, one-time queries
a one-time (ad hoc) search for a particular set of records
data feedIV-MTR data feeds, Data Feed (Subscription)
a recurring search (subscription) that provides results at a specified interval
Data Delegationdata delegation functionality
Data delegation is used to share data between CRIDs—to provide visibility of a CRID or MID’s data to another CRID or MID’s users.
Business Customer GatewayBCG, BCG (Business Customer Gateway)
where shippers can manage their mailing activity
IV Solutions CenterIVSC
is part of the Postal Service’s National Customer Support Center (NCSC) and provides assistance with all areas of the IV-MTR application
Mail.dat
Mail.dat is an industry-defined database structure consisting of files linked by key fields.
Mail.xml
Mail.XML is an XML-based DTAC specification for web services.

Documents

Technical Specifications

Fact Sheets

User Guides

Data Files

Contacts

Informed Delivery Mailer Campaign Portal Support helps with campaigns through the Mailer Campaign Portal and with post-campaign reporting, at USPSInformedDeliveryCampaigns@USPS.gov or 1-877-329-7206. It is open Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT, except federal holidays observed by USPS. The same team helps with the IDPC data received.

Informed Delivery PostalOne! Support helps with campaigns through PostalOne!, at USPSInformedDeliveryeDoc@usps.gov.

The IV Solutions Center answers questions about IV-MTR, at InformedVisibility@usps.gov or 1-800-238-3150, Option #2.

Sources