Here is basic information on types of mailings and the rates you should expect to see when doing any of these mailings:
Standard Mail
Minimum Weight: None.
Maximum Weight: 15.9999 ounces (less than 1 pound).
Minimum Quantity: 200 pieces or 50 pounds of mail.
Standard Mail is mail matter not required to be mailed as First-Class Mail or Periodicals. Lower nonprofit rates are available for Standard Mail but require specific authorization.
Mailers use Standard Mail to send:
- Printed matter, flyers, circulars, advertising.
- Newsletters, bulletins, and catalogs.
- Small parcels.
All Standard Mail rates are bulk rates, and each mailing must meet a minimum quantity of 200 pieces or 50 pounds of mail. There are no single-piece Standard Mail rates. In Standard Mail, there are rates for letters and flats/nonletters. Unlike First-Class Mail, there is no separate Standard Mail card rate (cards are mailed as letters or flats/nonletters). Standard Mail parcels (for instance, a small merchandise sample) are charged a residual shape surcharge.
Certain special services can be used with Standard Mail parcels: electronic Delivery Confirmation, bulk insurance, and return receipt for merchandise. Standard Mail is not forwarded or returned unless you request it with an ancillary service endorsement. Forwarding and return services may result in additional fees or postage.
For beginning mailers, Standard Mail is often the best choice because postage rates are very low.
TIPS
- Standard Mail is for domestic mail only. You cannot send Standard Mail to international addresses.
- Many mailers use a service called "Priority Mail drop shipment" to speed up the delivery of their Standard Mail. You mail your trays or sacks of Standard Mail via Priority Mail to the postal facility nearest the final destination of your mail. This is a very cost effective way to get your message to your customer sooner.
First-Class Mail
Minimum Weight: None.
Maximum Weight: 13 ounces (over 13 ounces, First-Class Mail becomes Priority Mail).
Minimum Quantity to Mail at Discounted Rates: 500 pieces.
First-Class Mail that weighs 1 ounce or less, depending on the shape, may be subject to a nonmachinable surcharge.
All mailable matter can be mailed as First-Class Mail. Some things MUST be mailed as First-Class Mail (or Priority Mail), including:
- Handwritten or typewritten material
- Bills, statements of account or invoices, credit cards
- Personal correspondence, personalized business correspondence
- All matter sealed or otherwise closed against inspection.
First-Class Mail includes:
- cards
- letters
- flats
- parcels that weigh 13 ounces or less.
Single-piece rates, Presorted rates and automation rates are available.
If getting your mail there fast is your top priority, use First-Class Mail. First-Class Mail postage rates are the same regardless of how far the mail travels. That’s a great deal! First-Class Mail postage includes forwarding and return services. You can enhance the service, security, and convenience of First-Class Mail by adding special services such as registered mail and certified mail. These services are available for a small fee.
Many beginning mailers use First-Class Mail cards and letters because, if you mail at single-piece rates, there’s no special payment method, no mailing permit, and no extra time to presort the mail. You simply put a stamp on it and drop it in the collection box. Simple and quick.
Saturation Mailings
If you're a small, local business looking for an inexpensive way to increase your sales, you might want to consider "saturating" your market. A saturation mailing is a targeted offer to the true customer base of a business. It's inexpensive both in preparation and postage, and can reach customers very quickly.
But before you begin, make sure you understand the rules. A saturation mailing needs to meet certain requirements set by the United States Postal Service (USPS). For example, the mailing must be directed to more than 90 percent of a carrier route, which is defined as the entirety of addresses to which a single postal carrier delivers. Usually, a carrier route consists of about 450 addresses.
The other main requirement for a saturation mailing is that the mailing has to be sorted in "walk sequence," the actual sequence that the carrier walks the route. For efficiency purposes, every day each postal service carrier in the US delivers the mail in a specific order. That route never varies, day in, day out, rain or shine.
When a direct mailing effort is organized in walk-sequence order, it significantly lowers postage costs. The Postal ServiceTM offers saturation mailing rates as low as 13.5 cents per piece for businesses as an incentive to presort the mailing before bringing it to the Post OfficeTM. Compare that 13.5 cents to the First-Class rate of 39 cents, and you'll see the large savings. Nonprofits can reap even greater monetary benefits, with postage as low as 8 cents per item.
Perfect for Local Offers
For many small businesses, a saturation mailing can mesh perfectly with customer growth efforts or retention pushes. Those companies that are in the service or delivery business auto repair garages, boutique retailers, pizza places, and restaurants, for example can, without a doubt, profit from saturation mailings.
Indeed, any local business that mails postcards, including auto dealerships, even medical offices, can benefit from experimenting with these mailings. Offers like "50 percent off" an entree or "$5 off an oil change" can be magnets for new customers and can also bring back lapsed ones. Most important, the unique business proposition that your business offers will be reinforced in the minds of vital neighborhood shoppers.
This is where location comes into play. The clients of a small business generally live within two to five miles of the business. A good saturation mailing gives you instant name recognition throughout your neighborhood. Imagine potential customers receiving a new restaurant's saturation mailing piece and, later that day, driving by the restaurant. They think, "Oh, yes, I know that place..." The restaurant has kicked it up a notch and is on the mental map of newfound local residents.
Value for Your Dollars
Saturation mailing lists also offer small businesses greater value per name/address purchased than the more costly resident lists. Unquestionably, resident lists can be pulled from a wider range of criteria. For example, many list brokers or managers offer resident lists that can be selected by age of individual listed; total household income; length of residence; mail-order buyers; and many other selects. If those demographic points dovetail well with a company's customers, then a resident-list mailing may make sense.
But for a local small business, the price of a saturation mailing list is minimal and its effectiveness per piece can be substantial. List costs are considerably lower for saturation mailings, so you can send out more pieces. For example, you could send out 10,000 pieces in a saturation mailing for the same price of 1,000 pieces with names on a resident's list.
That's where choosing the right carrier routes, trying those within five miles of the business, will allow the success of the saturation-mailing campaign to take off. And it's worth noting that, contrary to popular belief, you are not limited to a "Dear Occupant" tagline. You can use individual names as part of the address. There is a cost factor to consider, but the added distinctiveness of the piece can be worth it.
An inexpensive list, carefully chosen from local carrier routes with addressee names, has success written all over it. In fact, saturation mailings are so efficient that newspapers are experiencing a noticeable loss of advertising space to direct mailers. Saturation mailings offer an environment without competition, plus a much greater opportunity for branding, since your ad won't be buried deep inside a newspaper.
Find the Right List
Don't be intimidated by the scope of such a project as saturation mailing. Direct mail designers and mailing companies know the steps and can help along the way. Many list brokers have self-serve, online products and services (and specialists to help) that range from free simple queries to instantaneously downloadable saturation mailing lists. Just enter in your ZIPTM Codes and the lists will be ready in less than a minute.
Simple counts of the addresses of a specific carrier route can be used for planning piece totals; rough costs for mailing can be estimated through reliable mailing houses or printers, or on the USPS Web site. Similarly, these sources are able to advise on the dimension limits for postcards or letters used in saturation mailings (generally, the minimum is 3 inches high and 5 inches long).
And, finally, we're back to location. The location where the saturation mailing is dropped off does matter. To ensure the fastest delivery, the mailing needs to be brought to the carrier route DDU (destination delivery unit). The DDU is the Post Office that actually delivers your mail pieces to those routes.
The rewards of saturation mailings can be many. The key is to be ready to capitalize on the three L's: Location of the business, Location of the all-important neighborhood customers, and Location of the Post Office. It's really that simple. The rewards will deliver themselves.
General Standards
Determining Mail Processing Categories
There are five mail processing categories for mailpieces: letter, flat, machinable parcel, irregular parcel, and outside parcel. USPS assigns each mailpiece to one of these categories based on the physical dimensions and characteristics of the mailpiece, regardless of the placement or orientation of the delivery address on the piece.
Minimum Dimensions
[11-9-06] For mailability, the following standards apply:
a. All mailpieces must be at least 0.007 inch thick.
b. All mailpieces (except keys and identification devices) that are 1/4 inch thick or less must be:
1. At least 3-1/2 inches high and at least 5 inches long.
2. Rectangular, with four square corners and parallel opposite sides (see Exhibit 1.2), unless prepared as Customized MarketMail under 705.1.0. Letter-size, card-type mailpieces made of cardstock may have finished corners that do not exceed a radius of 0.125 inch (1/8 inch).
Minimum Dimensions, Pieces 1/4" Thick or Less Shows the minimum size dimensions for a piece of mail that is 1/4 inch thick or less. (click for larger image)
Maximum Dimensions and Weight
No mailpiece may weigh more than 70 pounds. Except for Parcel Post, no mailpiece may measure more than 108 inches in length and girth combined. For parcels, length is the distance of the longest dimension and girth is the distance around the thickest part.
Length and Height
The location and orientation of the delivery address on a mailpiece generally establish which dimensions of the piece are the length and the height. The length is the dimension parallel to the address as read; the height is the dimension perpendicular to the length; the top and bottom of the piece are the upper and lower edges, respectively, when the address is positioned for normal reading. This general rule does not apply to:
a. Automation rate flats.
b. Standard Mail Enhanced Carrier Route flats.
c. Standard Mail Customized MarketMail.
d. Pieces thicker than 1/4 inch that are not prepared and mailed as a flat.
Nonmailable, Nonmachinable Placement
The location of the delivery address on a letter-size mailpiece determines which dimensions are the length and height of the piece. Consequently, the placement of the address may render a piece nonmailable or nonmachinable.
General Mailability and Right of Refusal
Articles presented for mailing must be prepared under the general and specific standards in this document. The USPS accepts properly packaged and marked parcels but reserves the right to refuse nonmailable or improperly packaged articles or substances. Additional or other standards can apply to overseas military post offices and international mail.
Mailer's Responsibility
It is the mailer's responsibility to refrain from depositing nonmailable matter in the mail. The mailer must comply with applicable postal laws and regulations governing mailability and preparation for mailing, as well as nonpostal laws and regulations on the possession, treatment, transmission, or transfer of particular matter. Information about USPS standards is available from postmasters, business mail entry managers, and the PCSC manager.
Delivery Address
The delivery address specifies the location to which the USPS is to deliver a mailpiece. Except for mail prepared with detached address labels, the piece must have the address of the intended recipient, visible and legible, only on the side of the piece bearing postage.
