Home » USPS Postage Rate Increase Coming AGAIN – How planning now can save you money!

USPS Postage Rate Increase Coming AGAIN – How planning now can save you money!

Most mailing and shipping options are slated to increase on January 27, 2019.

Forget moving to FedEx and UPS, as they are also expected to increase pricing early in 2019. Maybe it’s time to review your mailing plans and procedures to avoid some sticker shock. Below is a chart showing increases on several popular mailing categories.

So what can you do besides shrugging and absorbing the increases? Here are a few ideas on how to keep costs down, and more on how to ensure your mailings are maintaining a higher return on investment.

Conduct a mailing operations audit with a reliable and comprehensive print vendor that provides in-house mailing services. Make sure you are taking advantage of the many pre-sorting and various delivery options available.
Don’t underestimate the importance of picking the correct paper. On a large volume mailing, a stock that puts your per piece weight into the next zone can be a costly mistake.
Do you mail a lot of letters or notifications? Maybe it makes sense to send a simple snap-pack mailer with instructions on reviewing documentation online.
Consult with your vendors mailing specialist to make sure your design falls within USPS requirements. Pieces that don’t follow postal regulations on the mailing panel or are slightly larger than USPS standards can be costly. Make sure you consult with professionals who have the knowledge and skill to help you design and plan for artwork that avoids unnecessary spending.
Verify your mailing lists are accurate and meet USPS guidelines. If within compliance, your project will mail efficiently, and with savings, if your mailer can take advantage of all the automated discounts the USPS offers. Talk to your mailer about NCOA and CASS certifications and other valuable list services.
Consider using a tracking program such as Track and Trace on a mailing to help you evaluate the effectiveness of a particular mailing campaign. Maybe you don’t need to mail as many pieces as you think.
Would you benefit by having your mail commingled for additional savings? Ask your vendors mailing specialist if your project qualifies.

These suggestions are only some of the ideas available to minimize the cost of postage. BFC is a full-service digital and offset printing and mailing facility located in the Midwest. Our centralized location, exceptional service and over 40 years of experience make us an ideal choice to consider for your next printing or mailing project.

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Got a silo problem? If you’re like most companies doing targeted and personalized marketing, you do. You may have plenty of customer data, but it might be in different places (silos), and these places often aren’t talking to each other. As a result, your marketing is less effective than it could be. Here are some risks to having siloed data: • Unhappy customers. Whenever mail gets lost because you have the wrong address, whenever a mail piece arrives with a bad name, or you offer to sell a long-term customer a product they already own, you risk alienating that customer. • High costs. The average price of every piece of returned mail is $3 (Source: Pitney Bowes). This is not just the postage and printing. It’s the cost of the piece coming back to you, figuring out what went wrong, and taking the time to fix it. • Lost sales. How many marketing opportunities are lost because the data on customers’ preferences and behavior is siloed in different departments? That translates into lost revenue. Let’s look at five steps for getting rid of those silos. 1. Connect inbound mail to outbound mail. Build in tracking mechanisms that allow you to connect the incoming to outgoing mail. This can be as simple as adding a barcode unique to each participant. When the response envelope comes in, the barcode is scanned. This connects the incoming mail to the outbound file, linking the customer information together. 2. Centralize data capture. Centralize mail processing in one location. Capture mail coming in from marketing, sales, customer service, web forms, and anywhere else in your company. 3. Extract what you need. Your mail contains lots of essential details that can be useful to your print and digital marketing. Extract all of the insights you can, including names, addresses, channel preferences, transaction history, and customer surveys. Input it into a centralized database that can be accessed throughout the organization. 4. Look and learn. Assign someone with a marketing and data background to analyze your database to understand what it tells you. Contained in there are critical nuggets about customer behavior, channel preferences, and more. Need help? Just ask! 5. Put it to use. With a closed-loop on your mail communications and a centralized, up-to-date database accessible by all departments, you have a powerful marketing tool at your disposal. Take what you can learn and use it to improve your targeted and personalized direct mail marketing or other customer communications.

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