If you haven’t noticed, direct mail campaigns are getting smarter thanks to systems allowing mailers to finally track each piece being sent out. Now, direct mail marketers can see why a campaign either worked or fell short of expectations by analyzing this important data.

The USPS’s Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) tracking system is a way to encode mailing information for letters and flats.

Given all the ways we communicate digitally through text, email, social media just to name a few, many wonder why “physical” marketing like direct mail is still used extensively by marketers.

With statistically longer lead times than digital as well as the expenses that come with printing and delivery, why do companies continue to connect with us through the mailbox?

In short, because it works––when it’s done right, that is.