With the advent of email, regular post – “snail mail” – has somewhat fallen by the wayside. Receiving something in the post usually means you have to pay something (utilities, speeding tickets and the like), or need to undergo a painful administrative procedure (such as renewing licences). Every so often, though, traditional mail is used to convey an exciting message that needs to be beautifully transmitted, such as a wedding invitation.
Snail mail is used for things that are too dreary and official not to be written down on paper, or for things considered too special for them to be allowed to exist only in the virtual realm. There is a whole echelon of correspondence that does not fit into these categories, and for this we tend to default to email.
For messages that need to be aesthetically pleasing, however, email tends to fall short, being largely text with little design. And while it is possible to send beautifully designed cards through traditional mail, the postal system in many countries is sometimes slow, unreliable and involves a lot of effort (not to mention trees).
Green Post offers another option, combining the best aspects of email and traditional post. Messages sent via Green Post seem less virtual as they are attractive invitations designed by you and sent out as images, but are still as convenient and environmentally friendly as email. Rather than just sending boring text in an email, you create a card, or choose from one of Green Post’s pre-designed templates, and then deliver it via email.
Green Post is ideal for managing events, because when you send out an invitation you also create an event on your Green Post account. When recipients view their invitation, they have the option to respond immediately at the click of a button. Green Post tracks these responses, and you can log onto your account at any time and see how many people have received your invitation and how many have responded.
These kinds of lists are useful in planning events as you can then send out reminders and ask those who have not yet responded to do so.
Developer Brian Gouws, who worked on Green Post, says: “I came to Flow with a heavy background in building bulk email software … I believe that Green Post caters to a gap in the bulk email market and that it makes it really easy for one to send virtual cards.”
Says developer Stephen Frank of working on Green Post: “I enjoyed pushing my technical knowledge and learning by finding the best (and often ‘creative’) solutions to the project’s particular challenges.”
Designer Ryan Levenson also enjoyed working on the project: “When I first heard I was working on the project I was very excited; the concept of Green Post is very simple but very clever, and it has developed into a very powerful online tool.
“As far as developing the product goes, it was great working with David Dansky [founder of Green Post]. He is very passionate about Green Post and was very hands-on throughout the entire process. From the end product you can see he was very critical on getting each element of the interface working and looking as slick as possible.”
Dansky came up with the idea for Green Post when he realised there was a huge demand for companies to create event invites for clients and track the responses. Dansky says businesses often don’t have the time or resources to send our professional invites and manage their guest lists, so he decided to create a platform that would do a lot of the work on its own.
Dansky says “It has been an absolute pleasure working with Flow, Richard [Frank, developer] and his team have so much perseverance and that seems to resonate throughout the company. I’m really looking forward to doing more work with Flow in the future.”
Flow recently used Green Post to invite people to its Mandela Day blood drive, where tracking responses was important as the number of people attending influenced whether the South African National Blood Service prepared for a half-day or full-day blood drive.