Postage goes on Sale this Summer. This time YOU can benefit.

Unlike the other USPS postage sale—the one that only the top 16 mailers in the US can qualify for—here's one with your name on it!

All you have to do is put a QR ("Quick Response") code on your direct mail, then drop that mail between July 1 and August 31. In turn the USPS will refund 3 percent of your postage.

"So what's this all about?" you ask, naturally suspicious of anyone who tells you the check is in the mail.

Well, %%dear reader%%, the USPS is getting hip to social media. And YOU can be the beneficiary!

Download a free QR reader to your smartphone, scan the code and enjoy!

The idea is to use a QR code which someone with a mobile device can scan, then land on your website where you can tell them more about your product or service.

A USPS spokesperson explained the official position thusly: "We recognize that the online world will continue to grow and thrive. [You bet, USPS. It's beating your butt!] So we want to make customers aware that mail can be an integral part of their communication (effort) and that campaigns... using direct mail are... effective."

Let's reiterate: To qualify, you have to mail at Standard or First Class, between July 1 and August 31. Letters and flats only, please, folks. But there's a lot you can do within those very loose guidelines.

Need ideas? Help? Call us! 703-996-0800 We'd be glad to help you take advantage of this deal.

Treats Coming to Your Mailbox Soon! Maybe.

"Care Packages" have been a staple of college life for generations. Similarly, "Goodie Bags" have warmed the cockles of many a soldier stationed far from home. These packages from home, lovingly filled with Mom's chocolate chip cookies, popcorn, and other treats fill the void of separation just a bit.

Now the USPS has glommed onto the "Care Package" concept in hopes that manufacturers will realize the benefit of mailing tempting samples to consumers hungry for a bit of good news in their mailboxes.

The "Samples Co-Op Box" concept will contain a mix of health and beauty aids and snack food products from multiple packaged goods companies. The companies—who no doubt have a "no competition in my box" agreement with the USPS—agree to share postage costs.

The USPS program is set to launch in early May in Charlotte NC and Pittsburgh PA, where about 200,000 consumers will become the guinea pigs for this new postal initiative.

After delivery, the USPS will distribute surveys to consumers to gauge their response to the program—and to the products they received. The test will be considered a success if the manufacturers see an increase in purchases or brand awareness, and if the USPS gets good feedback from the consumers. Analysis of delivery costs, per-box cost and effect on brand awareness as well as retail sales data will take several months to complete.

If the results are favorable, (and what's not to love about receiving free chocolate chip cookies in the mail?) the USPS could do further tests to determine optimum price points or could roll out nationally without further testing. TBD.

The post office does not expect to create revenue from the test. But a permanent program could make millions of dollars for the hard-strapped postal service which lost $8.5B in 2010 and has already lost more than $1.1B in the first two months of 2011.

Product sampling is big business, generating $4B a year in the US alone. The USPS wants to stake its claim on part of that lucrative enterprise and simultaneously chip away at its debt.

Free cookies in my mailbox? Bring 'em on, I say.

I'll take mine with macadamia nuts, please.

The Deadliest Quote!

Determining postage is not for the faint of heart

I work in a very dangerous job. No, I’m not snagging crabs out of a frigid arctic ocean, or felling 3-ton trees in a rainforest. I don’t work in a coalmine or build bridges. It may not be one of the most death-defying jobs, but I promise you, my job is even riskier!

You see, I work with the US Post Office.

It starts out innocently enough: You’re on the phone with me. You’re a new client, with a new direct mail project—your first! The boss is pushing you to get answers. But you don’t know if you want to mail a postcard, a flyer, a brochure, a newsletter or a letter. And you don’t know your own data.

We select an option and work through all the necessary specs. Size of piece. Number of colors. Paper stock. Bleeds. Number of pieces. Class of mail. Stamp, meter or indicia. I am feeling better about this process. We’re working toward a manageable end goal in tandem.
And then the wheels fall off the wagon.

“What’s my postage going to be?” you ask me innocently.

Oh no! It’s the dreaded unanswerable question!

I stall. I sweat. I try to change the subject. My mind races. I’m stepping into a bottomless pit and I know it. Any answer I give you will be wrong.

What kind of a person are you? Will you accept when I say this is ESTIMATED postage? Will you hold it against me 2 weeks later when we discover I was one tenth of a cent off? Will you question my expertise when I tell you I can’t give you a simple two-digit answer—NOW? Will you understand that to be perfectly accurate we have to have your data and determine its distribution while factoring the size, weight and thickness of the piece you’ve decided to mail?

Will you wait patiently while I try to explain how I can’t answer that question with absolute accuracy? Will your mind wander as I present my truncated explanation of 5-digit sorts…3-digit sorts…AADC…Automation…letters…flats…dropshipping…co-mingling…SFC or BMC rates?

Will you cut me short so my carefully crafted, oft-rehearsed explanation makes no sense? Will you graciously allow me to finish and then ask again, perhaps a bit impatiently, “OK, so what’s the postage?”

My mind is awhirl with the possibilities.

All the possibilities are jumbled up in my head as I’m calculating what would work best for you. There is a lot to consider, and my circuits are overloading.

But curious minds want to know. You repeat a little more insistently since I obviously didn’t hear you earlier: “What’s my postage going to be?”

Deep breath. Clear the mind. Calm the raging mental storm. A sip of tea. Another deep breath. OK, here we go, plunging in without a life jacket:

Dearest Client, let me help you. Please tell me about your data. Is it local? Regional? National?

If you can’t tell me that basic fact, I can’t give you anything remotely accurate. I can give you ranges, but your boss is looking for a nice, neat, simple answer. Something he can put in a spreadsheet. A range of numbers won’t hack it.

If you don’t know your data distribution, how am I to know how it will split out over the 27 different rate categories that this one piece of mail could qualify for?

If you’re unsure about the size of the postcard you’re mailing, there could be 54 possible rate categories—just in Standard mail. Add CRRT and you’ve added another 9 possible rate categories. Add First Class Presort as a consideration and you’ve just added another 6 categories.

Complicating the situation even further, in many mailing projects there can be 5 or more postal rate categories, depending on the distribution of your mailing list.

The USPS’s rules are so complex they fill a volume the size of the Manhattan phone book. Even their experts in mailing requirements disagree as to the interpretation of various rules and sub-rules. It is a daunting question you put before me. And you want your answer NOW!

I know my chance of calculating your postage rate exactly right is comparable to my chances of winning the Lottery: nil.

If I under-calculate your cost, I’m a goat if when we presort your job. “Ellen promised me the postage would be xx-cents each! We won’t pay a penny more!”

If I over-calculate, we lose the job. Some guy in Florida has promised he’ll print and mail your 20,000 postcards for $100 over the postage cost I’ve just quoted you.

I know that $100 won’t buy the paper to print your job on, much less print and mail it. I know you’ve given me one set of specs and him another, but you insist you’ve given both of us exactly the same thing.

Pfffft. Just like that your job is gone.

Trying to explain to you, Dear Client, the byzantine postal regulations and relating them to your job is a guaranteed anxiety attack.

Trying to explain to your boss why you lost a simple postcard job to some guy in Florida who is clearly not playing by the same rulebook is another.

Like I said, mine is a business fraught with risk. Thank you, USPS.





Working in a coalmine is looking better all the time.




43670 Trade Center Place,
Suite 150,
Dulles, VA 20166
Phone: 703.996.0800
Fax: 703.996.0888
1.866.365.2858
www.paulandpartners.net
sales@paulandpartners

Psst! Want cheaper postage? I can get it for you Wholesale!

In 1968, Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Graduate’s learned that the future was Plastics.

In 2009, the future in direct mail may be Co-mingling.

So what is this thing, co-mingling?

Co-mingling is a process by which mail from many direct mail service bureaus and many clients served by those service bureaus are mingled together in another—possibly distant—location. The goal is to increase mail volume so that more pieces of mail go to one area. That effort results in a higher mail density (ie distribution concentration) which in turn reduces postage costs.

That’s the process in a nutshell. Here is how it works:

The co-mingler takes your postcard addressed to someone in 20001 together with my newsletters addressed to folks in 20001, and someone else’s fundraising solicitations addressed to people in 20001, then puts them on a huge machine that sorts them by destination address. Result: all the various pieces addressed to 20001 are all bundled up together in the optimal distribution sortation.

To get to the best sortation discounts (5-digit) you need at least 10 pieces of mail addressed to the same 5-digit zipcode. The next level of sortation is 3-digit, ie the first 3 digits in a zipcode. Again, you need 10 pieces of mail addressed to those 3 digits to get a reduced rate. Can’t get there? There are two more levels which are roughly regional and wider regional.

Co-mingling puts your mail in the mix with everybody else’s mail, and thereby increases the likelihood that your mail will fall into 5-digit or 3-digit sortation.

The post office rewards density of mail. The postage differential between 5-digit and regional sortation can be as much as 4 cents a piece in Standard mail. Voila! Co-mingling to the rescue.

But wait! There’s more!

The co-mingler puts all our various pieces of mail addressed to 20001—which are now in presorted order—and ships them to the SCF (postal Sectional Center Facility) serving 20001.

Again, the postal system rewards mail delivered closer to its delivery point. You can save as much as 4 cents more a letter by delivering it its DSCF—Delivery point SCF. After all, you’re paying the freight, not the USPS. So they save $$. Eureka!

Obviously, the post office is encouraging co-mingling. It means they have to do less work, and in this age of reduced staffing, that’s a big deal.

Mail houses like co-mingling because they can get their clients better postage rates.

End users love co-mingling because it can mean lower postage rates.

From one extreme to the other—from worst-case scenario to best-case scenario in Standard class—mailers could save about 9 cents per letter in postage. It all depends on density and delivery address.

It sounds like a win/win/win. But there is no such thing as a free lunch. There are some potential trade-offs. Here are 4 things to consider:

#1. Co-mingling works with First Class Presort, Standard Presort and Nonprofit Presort mail. If you’re mailing at these rates, then you’re looking for ways to save $$, so co-mingling could be just the magic bullet you need.

#2. Plan on it taking extra prep time. The mail has to get to the co-mingling plant. It can stay there for several days as the co-mingler accumulates enough mail to fill the truck headed to North Piscataway. Then it has to travel to the DSCF.

If you’re able to plan ahead and allow for the extra time, co-mingling might be just what you’re looking for.

#3. Small national mailings benefit more than large local mailings. Spread thin? Have addresses all over the country? Using co-mingling to get to higher density may reduce your postage. However, if you’re already blanketing an area, co-mingling won’t help.

#4. There’s a cost to this service, but the postage savings should more than compensate for the extra fee. You’ll be quoted a specific fee based on the number of pieces in your mailing.

So there you have it. The post office—which is already outsourcing much of its inter-city trucking to private shipping companies and drivers—is now outsourcing its sortation process to other private companies.

Privatization--It’s the future for the USPS. And co-mingling is a large part of that future. Co-mingling may not mean as much as Plastic to Mr. Joe Sixpack, but for those of us in direct mail marketing, it is just as revolutionary. ~


Interested? Wanna save on postage?

Boy, do we have a deal for you!

Call Paul&Partners to schedule an envelope mailing during July, and we’ll laser your letters for 50% OFF our usual price! If your job qualifies for co-mingling, we’ll save more $$ on your postage, too!

Here’s the dreaded fine print:
Minimum quantity of 2500 letters. Job must mail during July. You must mention special code 0709C to get this special offer.

Call us today! 703-996-0800

43670 Trade Center Place,
Suite 150, Dulles, VA 20166
Phone: 703.996.0800 Fax: 703.996.0888 1.866.365.2858
www.paulandpartners.net sales@paulandpartners