Did you know that:
- 17% of Americans change addresses annually?
- 42 million people move each year
- One out of every six families move
Not enough of our direct mail customers pay attention to keeping a very updated list of customers to mail to. Can you imagine how much waste in money and time it causes from undeliverable addresses? It can easily cost into the thousands. That can definitely make a big cut in the profitibility of your business!
Here are some ways you can reduce your costs when doing your next mailing while keeping your list current and updated.
To make sure that you are getting a list with accurate addresses, ask about the National Deliverability Index (NDI) of the list. The NDI rates the percentage of addresses in a list that are deliverable. Use the NDI to target the address elements you need to get the delivery —- and postage price —- you want. For example, if you are targeting a specific 5-digit ZIP Code, look for an NDI of 100% for address element.
The United States Post Office provides many ways where you can validate the accuracy of postal addresses.
You can also use www.USPS.com to check zip codes in your list.
You can submit your list directly to the USPS on a printout so they can mark any changes of addresses. There will be a small fee for this service.
You can also run your list through a NCOA approved vendor that can check over your list with special software and make on the spot corrections.
The most important thing is that you should make a conscious effort to ensure all addresses are good. As stated earlier there is so many people and businesses either moving or changing contact information on a daily basis that it is sometime to pay attention to early on in order to save waste and wasted money in the process!
Filed under Arizona mail services, US Postal Service, direct mail, direct mail costs by on Feb 17th, 2010. Comment. 
We have complied a short list of 4 of the most helpful resources when planning and implementing a direct mail campaign.
3) USPS direct mail resource page
shows how to create your mail piece
direct mail defined
create mail list
sending procedures
mailing and shipping tools
direct mail research
We hope you find these resources helpful to your next direct mail campaign. Remember to always do your due diligence when hiring a direct mail house to process your mailing. Check on their references, their past history of clients and programs they worked on, check with the Better Business Bureau, and make sure they are proactive in following up with you.
Filed under US Postal Service, direct mail, direct mail campaign, direct mail tips by on Oct 12th, 2009. Comment.
The US Postal Service has recently reported that they may close up to 410 branches across the USA. It is caused by lower quantities of personal mailings in conjunction with the recession.
Although the comsumer market is practically in panic, professional mailers and direct mailing houses are not worrying. The closures will definitely have an impact on the upcoming holiday market, causing delays and such. But as far as the direct mail houses, USPS services will continue as normal as they put priority on these places since it is high volume and therefore higher revenue to the USPS.
The only worry direct mail houses may have is the mail processing centers. If any of those places gets shut down, there could be a fallout of productivity on behalf of direct mail houses.
There are direct mail houses that have declared that if a lot of branches are closed, there is still a lot of branches left to pick up the slack. Fortunately, there is great density of post office branch retail offices. So, no need to worry now!
Filed under US Postal Service, direct mail, mail services by on Oct 1st, 2009. Comment.
For sending standard mail – what used to be called bulk mail – the post office has only 2 sizes. Mail is either letter size or non-letter size. The dividing line is larger or smaller than 6-1/8” x 11-1/2” x ¼” thick. The aspect ratio (length divided by height) must also be in the range of 1.3 to 2.5. This latter criterion makes all square mail non-letter size.
One of the biggest changes the post office has made is in the acceptance and design of non-letter size mail – the larger pieces. And the consequences can be staggering.
It used to be that non-letter size mail could be designed in practically any fashion and receive some form of discounted postage rates. Not anymore. Now, mail must be laid out so the mailing address is in the top half of the mail piece. And, regardless of whether the mail piece runs horizontal or vertical, the top half is always defined by the vertical direction. That is to say, if the mail piece is a 9”x12” envelope and the envelope is designed so that the address runs across the 12” side, the top half of the envelope for post office purposes is still regarded by folding the 12” side in half.
The consequence for not following this design: pay full first class postage prices. There is no give on this issue. There is no in between postage rates available. And local post offices may not issue letters of exception. If someone wishes to get a letter of exception, they must send a request to a central processing facility in New York and this could take some time, time which most direct mailers do not have.
Moral: If you want to send non-letter size mail at discounted rates, be sure to follow the post office’s design specs.
Filed under US Postal Service, direct mail campaign, direct mail costs, direct mail tips by on Aug 12th, 2009. Comment.
Despite the passage of postal reform legislation a little over two years ago, the US Postal Service remains steeped in financial problems.
It’s anybody’s guess how much, if any, financial assistance the USPS will get from Congress — whether or not it’s part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package.
The major issue continues to be how the postal service will cope with its nearly $5.8 billion annual obligation to pay healthcare costs for retired postal employees.
All this comes at a time when the USPS reported a loss of $384 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008 and projected that mail volume would fall even further, to some 12 billion to 15 billion pieces, for the year ending this Sept. 30.
Even with these losses, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) mandates that the USPS can raise rates every year — but only in accordance with the rate of inflation specified in the Consumer Price Index.
And so the postal service announced last month that standard mail and nonprofit rates will increase an average of 3.8% on May 11.
Catalog or flat rates will rise by 2.5%. But some standard hikes are going to exceed the average.
“It looks like standard rate parcels went up an average of 16%,” says Jerry Cerasale, the Direct Marketing Association’s senior vice president for government affairs. “Our initial response is that it’s just going to depress volume more.”
Under the new rate schedule:
Standard mail regular automation letters with five-digit ZIP codes that weigh 3.3 ounces or less will cost 23.3 cents to mail.
Standard mail regular automation letters with three-digit ZIPs will be priced at 25.1 cents.
In the standard mail regular nonautomation category, machinable automated area distribution center letters weighing 3 ounces or less will now cost 25.6 cents.
Meanwhile, the industry is hoping the USPS can remain solvent given its fiscal woes.
The PAEA allowed the postal service to file an “exigent (i.e., urgent) rate case” if the conventional CPI-based hike would leave it with insufficient operating funds.
But Postmaster General Jack Potter said in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security in late January that the USPS doesn’t believe it’s “appropriate” to ask for an exigent rate case.
“This would be counterproductive, particularly in an environment where mailing activity is already severely contracted,” he testified.
Early last month, a coalition of 40 mailers and trade groups wrote a letter to National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers, Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag and OMG deputy director Robert Nabors, asking that any forthcoming stimulus bill include an amendment from Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) that would allow the USPS to pay retired postal employees out of a separate retiree health benefits fund and not from general postal revenue.
The letter argued that “The U.S. Postal Service confronts a severe economic challenge that, if not addressed in an effective way, could cause serious and disruptive changes to its structure and services, and the estimated 9 million jobs it supports throughout the mailing community. Because the Service remains an essential and fundamental part of the nation’s communications and commerce infrastructure, and because of the vast network of jobs it supports, we believe that action must be taken swiftly. …This is vital legislation that will preserve or restore up to a million jobs in the mailing sector.”
Before the groups wrote that letter, Potter asked the Senate panel for changes in the law that would permit the postal service to cut back its delivery schedule to five days a week, and also requested assistance with the USPS’ healthcare obligations. His proposal received, at best, a lukewarm response among the senators.
For the latest postal news, visit http://directmag.com/legal/postal/.
(the above article is taken from http://directmag.com/mail/0301-usps-financial-woes/)
Filed under US Postal Service, bulk mail, direct mail costs, mail services, postage stamps by on Jul 30th, 2009. Comment.