Saving Money on Postage and Processing
Reducing postage and mail processing costs can play an integral role in accomplishing your company's cost reduction goals. These reductions can be achieved by completely understanding the advantages and disadvantages of certain mailing techniques in specific circumstances. We'll compare and contrast several mailing processes and postage issues explaining how they will benefit your company.
- Drop shipping
- Letter size vs. flat size mail
- Keeping your list up to date
- Self mailers vs. envelopes with inserts
- Making mail pieces automation compatible
- Removing duplicates from your mailing list
If you are mailing fairly large volumes of standard mail or bulk mail into selected geographical areas - consider drop shipping closer to the postal service distribution point. For example, if you have large concentrations into some major cities, drop shipping trays / bags of mail to those destination points reduces the cost of postage.
The postal service refers to the letter size mail piece as any piece that has a final folded or envelope size of 6-1/8" x 11-1/2" and under. It must also be less than 1/4" thick and weigh less than approximately 3.3 oz. per piece.
Mail pieces larger than letter size are referred to as flat size. Companies often mail flat size without any apparent benefits. By configuring pieces to letter size during the design stage, postage savings average $50.00 - $60.00 per thousand less than flat size. Add that to the reduced printing and processing savings.
Are Your Mailpieces Automation Compatible?
During the design phase of your mail promotions, be sure your pieces are automation compatible.
When the postal service can process your mail on their automated equipment, your service is faster and cheaper and your postage rate is the lowest possible. Cutting out manual sortation is the biggest reason for savings.
Coupled with the automation compatibility of the mail piece, pre-barcoding creates postage savings between $21.00 and $59.00 per thousand pieces mailed.
Since the rules for compliance vary depending on the type of piece and are fairly complicated, check with your customer service representative at BlueGrass Mailing, Data and Fulfillment Services for more information.
Keeping Your List Duplicate Free and Up to Date
(Reducing waste is an easy way to save money)
Maintaining a mailing list is a consistent process and the single most important factor in continuing the success of mail promotions.
Matching your list against the N.C.O.A. (National Change of Address) database should be done annually. Lists can change up to 20% or more in any given year, so diligence in keeping your list current can pay off.
If you have been compiling a mailing list for more than three years and haven't completed address corrections or matched it against N.C.O.A., your list will have major deliverability problems. When mailing pre-sort standard (bulk mail) your pieces aren't returned so there's no way to make sure your mailings are deliverable.
Removing duplicates from your list is another way to improve efficiency. If you don't have good merge/purge software, send your database to BlueGrass Mailing, Data and Fulfillment Services to make sure there is no waste in your printing, processing and postage budgets!
Self Mailers vs. Envelopes with Inserts
Take a look at your envelope packages that you're producing and mailing. Could the information on the inserts be combined and communicated in a self mailer?
If so, you can eliminate the need for printing the envelope and inserts. Formal, first-class letters often require lasering a letter with a matching envelope: however, most promotions can be confined to a single piece - including the response vehicle. This saves a ton on printing and processing.