In general
In-country delivery times tend to be 4-5 days economy class postage and out-of-country post depends on the destination country. The destination country also has an impact on the cost. For some countries we can arrange for in-country printing and postage which cost cost and speeds up delivery times.
Even countries under international sanctions can receive post. Delivery times in all countries can be affected by strikes, protests that affect road/trains, extreme weather, etc.
- UK: 4-5 days in practice (Royal Mail promises 2 business days but has never been able to deliver this quickly in real-world tests)
- EU: depends on the country. Northern and central European countries are reported to have faster delivery times than southern European countries.
- US: Using ground transportation - 2-8 business days for within the state, 5-14 days interstate.
- Canada: Using regular mail - 2 business days for within the local area, 3 business days within province, 4 business days inter-province.
- Australia: Using regular mail - 2-4 business days for within the state, 3-6 days interstate.
- Other country estimates available on request.
Countries without a local print-an-post partner will have their mail sent from outside the country and this will by subject to international postage rates and delivery times.
However...
When delivered to politicians and companies, they have their own in-house mail sorting rooms and processes such as:
- Bundled forwarding?: Is it bundled with other post and sent to another preferred address? This can add another few days
- Admin screening?: Do admin staff review and even process it and simply report on it to the named recipient?
- Digitised and forwarded?: Some recipients may even scan mail and forward it on.
- Staff reply?: After screening, do staff simply prepare a stock reply and send it back to the sender?
This applies to any communication, not just postcards. It is even easier for email and social media to be 'managed' by staff and unseen by the named recipient. With postcards they may hang around on a desk, pin board, etc.
Understand your recipient
Nothing replaces good knowledge of your recipients position and receptiveness to cour campaign and their internal main (and email) handling processes. Knowing these can help you develop PostBug campaigns where the message reaches and engages the recipient. For example:
- Personalised messages are more engaging than generic messages
- Tailored content in the message and/or image is more personal than a generic message and/or image
- An image that is beautiful, praising or flattering to the recipient may be kept for a while
- Including the sender's reply address on the postcard can enable and invite a reply
- Using a variety of images gets more attention than a single image on all postcards
- A postcard designed as an invite or event entrance ticket to an event can make them keep it and/or share it
- A postcard designed to pass to others can help get it in front of key people from someone they know
- Indirect postcards to recipients who do not normally receive this type of mail (employees, board members, suppliers, customers, allies, etc) can make them raise the issues with the intended recipient.
