Abstract: A digital postal mail delivery service provides a mail push notification service (MPNS) whereby recipients of sender mailers are invited to join the service in a secure and seamless manner. Preferably, MPNS notifications are provided periodically, continuously, or on demand, and these notifications may be coordinated with other physical or digital mail activities to increase the likelihood of converting new users to the service. The MPNS service takes advantage of publicly-accessible sources of user information to build a registry of potential users who can be matched to information provided by the senders. Upon receipt of a push notification, a customer may register for the service; during that registration, the service verifies the customer's identity and residence in a secure and efficient manner, preferably using the information originally obtained from the sender.

Abstract: A digital postal mail connector (or “gateway”) is supported within an enterprise's (a mailer's) digital delivery infrastructure, preferably as a rack-mounted hardware appliance or software install. The digital postal mail gateway interfaces with the mailer's existing print process (e.g., a print stream processor) to automatically create an alternative output stream that is sent as one or more digital files and received online by the mailer's customers in web-based electronic mailboxes.