When you’re planning your direct mail marketing, you need more
than a mere printer to partner with. You need a full-service company that can
help you develop customized solutions to get your mail into the U.S. Postal
Service system while also saving you money and time.
In fact, it may be best to think of the USPS as another vital
partner that can help you achieve great ROI on your direct mail. It has a
vested interest in your success, and fortunately has the tools that your
service provider can use to make that happen.
Remember, the USPS is one powerful institution. It receives no
tax dollars for its operating expenses. It processes and delivers over 154
billion pieces of mail a year to 156 million residential and business addresses
across the country. If it were a private company, its revenues would qualify it
to place high up on the Inc. and Fortune 500 rankings. And thanks to over 200
federal laws, the Postal Inspection Service ensures that the mailstream is secure
for both mailers and customers.
At the same time, wringing inefficiencies from the postal system
(and reducing costs) has been an important factor, like never before, in
driving how mailing campaigns are now being designed and implemented. To keep
up with these changes, it’s smart to reach out to vendors that have printing expertise,
outstanding customer service, and extensive experience working with marketers
of all sizes and budgets.
5 Ways USPS Expertise Can Improve Your Direct
Mail
Let’s face it: postal regulations are complicated, and not
without good reason. After all, they give marketers a nice amount of
flexibility in offering products and services to both consumer and commercial
customers.
But you’ll need someone that can help work with you and your
mail to get through the postal system and to your customers’ mailboxes. Look
for a company, for example, that offers extensive bulk mailing services,
including on-site USPS verification. Their strong relationship with the USPS means a
smoother entry of your mail, discount pricing, and better monitoring, all of
which improves your marketing budget’s bottom line, among other things.
1. Direct Mail Design
Vendors should be experts at direct mail design and how it can
be maximized to flow through USPS’s
processing equipment. For example, folders self-mailers (FSMs)
must meet some challenging
tabbing requirements in order to pass muster. For more
specifics, please refer to this helpful guide
to tabbing.
Design Tip: Don’t try to make your mailer do too many things
by including lots of copy or images.
You want your customer to quickly understand what it is you want
them to do, how they’ll benefit
from it, and how to proceed.
Limit your selling to one or a few products or services … and that’s it.
2. Managing Your Data
Postal savings can also be achieved by carefully and constantly
managing your data. It can’t
be said often enough: without accurate data, your campaigns will
not be successful. Again, a
variety of tools can be used to make sure you’re proceeding with
the best possible lists. Here’s
an introduction to
CASS-certification, pre-sort, and de-duping, and their crucial role in your
data processing.
Hint: The bare minimum of data processing for all
mailing projects have three components: CASScertification, pre-sorting, and
de-duping. These steps cannot be bypassed. They must be done in
order to produce a list for pre-sorting mail and for the laser
and printing machines.
3. USPS Pricing
With the changes to USPS rates that became effective on January
21, 2018. Many mail classifications
saw price hikes but there are many opportunities available for
marketers to save money. This quick
guide to rate changes (seriously helpful) includes a few ideas on how to take
advantage of the new
pricing with your direct mail.
There are other steps you can take with your vendor to deal with
your direct mail budget concerns.
For example, you can ask for multiple quotes on a project.
You can also look at how you can send your mail. First Class
mail is, in most cases, the most
expensive option. However, for small campaigns, or ones with
non-machinable characteristics, it
may be worth it.
Hint: Use Full Service Intelligent Mail Barcode (FSIMb)
to receive a 3-cent per piece discount
for First Class or Marketing Mail. This is unchanged from 2017,
and is something you should be
using anyway.
4. Commingling and Co-Palletization
The USPS also encourages two good work share methods that can
help meet your cost challenges:
commingling and co-palletization. Mailing campaigns that get prepared by either program get
processed more quickly by the USPS, which means that they arrive
in-home sooner.
Commingling: Letters and flats (self-mailers and postcards) can
be organized in trays and tubs
by zip code. The more digits that are matched in the sort, the
greater the discount that is applied.
Co-Palletization: combines addressed and sorted mail trays from
different marketers or providers,
separated by zip code, on the same pallet. This way, each full
pallet is completely prepared, then
trucked for an easy passage
to its destination SCF.
5. Your Direct Mail Drop Date
Another important consideration is your direct mail drop date. If there are any hitches or delays, the
value of your campaign, especially if it has a time-sensitive
offer, can be lost. You’ll have to plan
carefully for every stop of the process to stay on schedule.
How to speed up
this process: Be sure to have print ready
art to your vendor on an average of 5
days before requested drop date. Once the print-ready art is
provided, an art proof will be ready
for final approval. This should take place the same business
day, or 24-48 hours in order to secure
your desired direct mail drop date. This will not only help the
vendor immensely, but it will also get
your job processed into the system shortly after approval.
USPS Marketing Mail
Seven products make up USPS Marketing Mail - Letters, Flats, Parcels, High Density and Saturation
Letters, High Density and Saturation Flats and Parcels, Carrier
Route, and Every Door Direct Mail.
Formerly known as Standard Mail, this broad category covers many
types of direct mail pieces, like
flyers, circulars, brochures, newsletters, and catalogs.
It works well because it promises lower rates with only a
200-piece minimum requirement for a
campaign. But your mailpiece’s size and shape should be taken
into account when weighing the
differences within this class as well as when comparing with
First Class mail.
Your direct mail vendor should know what the advantages are for
each class from both a design
and cost standpoint. Their experience with USPS direct mail
pricing and regulations will come in
handy in determining which option is likely to produce the best
results for your company.
Ideas In Action
• Another tool, Informed Delivery, provides end-to-end mail
tracking information for letter and flat
pieces, bundles, handling units, and containers.
• Your direct mail campaign can be turned around more quickly with
on-site USPS verification.
• Experts – all under one roof – can save you time and money in
choosing a partner that can help
shepherd your mail through the USPS ecosystem efficiently, while
using best practices and saving money.
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