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For many mailers, the May 14th postal increase does not have to be a time to panic; there are a number of proactive things you can do to combat these coming changes. We did an analysis for one of our large clients and showed them how they could potentially have zero effect. This is a client that spent $300,000 on postage per month. Instead of paying an additional $90,000 per month if they did nothing, we are able to help them potentially maintain their same budget. Here are the main steps to consider.

I am going to be somewhat broad in these suggestions because some steps depend on exactly what you mail. I want to give you a guide to hope, but not lead you astray. Please give us a call so we can discuss your particular situation on a case by case basis.

1. Redesign Your Flat-size Mail to Letter-size:

The Postal Service is keeping postage down on letter-size mail because they can process it faster. For those of you who send out flat-size mail it is very beneficial to change the design to letter-size. A 9x12 envelope can be changed to mail in a 6x9 or #10 envelope. An 8-3/8x10-7/8 catalog could possibly be re-designed to a booklet size. You may have to add more pages, reduce the product line or reduce the copy size, however, you can have up to ¼” thickness. That’s pretty good! The postage you can save is substantial.

2. Automate Your Mail:

There are a number of mailers who for one reason or another do not automate their mailings. Now is probably a very good time to make the change to automation. The Postal Service rewards mail that can go through their system faster, and adding a barcode on the mailer so it can go through a machine at 30,000 per hour is highly recommended. 

3. Merge/Purge (De-dupe) Your Database:

If you have put off cleaning up your database in the past, it is going to cost you big time come May. I realize that many mailers have logistical issues when working with internal databases, however, when these new postage rates hit, it will be like throwing money away. I highly recommend that you get an estimate of how much your postage will go up (for many it will be 15 – 40%), and submit those numbers to your boss and to IT Department. That should get their attention.

But wait! If you clean up your data the savings potential is greater than just the postage costs. You will also save on the printing and mail processing costs. I figure if you can clean up just 6% of your database it could potentially wipe out the increase you’ll face in postage. That should get your attention.

Some clients haven’t cleaned up their database in years. That means inefficiencies are running rampant. As best you can, GET RID OF DUPLICATES. (Our data processing personnel can program de-duping parameters that will meet your individual needs.)   

4. NCOALink Your database:

National Change of Address (NCOALink) is when you run your data through the Postal Services national database of people who have submitted moved addresses. The US population moves an average of every 5 years. That means your database could experience a 20% undeliverable rate if not cleaned up in just 1 year!

NCOALink is a process that is required for 1st Class automation mailers, and will shortly be required for other classes of mail as well. I believe it is a good requirement by the Postal Service, but why wait until it is required. Do it now! It costs very little to do and you could clean up an additional 4% – 20% of your list. I remember a client that had a 40% undeliverable rate on their database. Now that is some serious savings.

5. Delivery Point Validation (DPV):

DPV is a service that is different from NCOALink, in that it verifies that the address actually exists. This can be very important for mailers that compile databases via their internet sites, as many people submit bogus addresses to avoid getting hordes of solicitation mail.

Be aware that some of the addresses flagged by the DPV process can still get delivered by a Postal Carrier if the address is “close enough” to the correct address. For example, the address could be a building without a suite number, but you are lucky on that particular piece because the carrier recognizes the name of the business or tenant. Some are getting delivered and some are not. Let’s say that 50% do get delivered. That would mean that you are willing to get a 50% drop in response on that portion of your list. In other words, if you are getting a 2% response overall, then hypothetically you are okay if you get a 1% response. 

DPV is usually more involved than simply opting to delete these addresses from your database, however, if you do nothing, it is costing you money. Also remember, the Postal Service is going to make this process mandatory soon as well. You can still decide to mail to these flagged addresses but not at the automation rates. Again, it will cost you.

6. Ask Your Clients For Address Verification:

This is something that can be done as a stand alone project or you can marry it to an existing outgoing mailer to your customer database. Another option is to utilize your website to do this. Basically, you want to ask your customers to verify their addresses. This can be a proactive step to clean up the flagged names found through DPV. Also, it can help you decide which names to mail to when discrepancies come up through the de-duping process. This isn’t something that would be done with a rented list.

7. Rented Lists:

For those who rent lists, I highly recommend that you require your list provider to have their lists cleaned on a regular basis with the above data processing steps. Even if they say they clean up their databases, I recommend that if you rent a large number of names on a regular basis, that you let us do some list analysis to see how good their data is. We don’t have to do the entire list to verify its quality; however, an once of prevention could save you a pound of postage.

8. Trucking:

Trucking has been around for a while. Basically, when the mailer can truck the mail closer to the mails final destination in the postal stream, the Postal Services offers a discount. I bring up trucking since the USPS is giving greater discounts for trucking. For some clients that may not have benefited from trucking their mail in the past, it may become a possible cost saving option.

I hope that I have been able to provide some practical options for you so that you may minimize these upcoming postal increases. Should you have any questions on how we can help you, please call your sales or account representative.

Warm Regards,

Dennis Zetting
CEO
All Direct Mail Services, Inc.