Postal Optimization – The Secret to Savings
As of June 2022, the U.S. Postal Service delivers over 425 million pieces of mail each day. If you were in charge of the USPS, making processes move quickly would be at the top of your priority list.
That’s why the USPS uses the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service book of regulations. It defines how a piece of mail is priced for postage, how mail is required to be addressed and all other aspects that help postal processes run more efficiently.
When it comes to direct mail, we’re concerned with two questions the Mailing Standards book answers:
What decreases the cost to mail something?
What increases the chance of the mailer getting to the right place?
USPS pricing is tied to minimizing the effort needed to process mail. If you follow the rules, choose mailer sizes optimized for easy handling, and assure your addresses are correct and complete, you’re going to get a discount on mailing anything over 500 pieces. Getting to that optimal pricing is called pre-sorting. If you or your list builder (NFocus) takes care of it (rather than the post office), you’re going to pay less in postage. The savings can be significant.
Our NFocus postal optimization process and pre-sort gets you the best rates with the post office. Your campaigns are literally ready to roll onto the conveyor belts for processing and have best opportunity to land in the right mailbox.
Pre-sorting is a separate service, executed after your initial list is built. Postal optimization and pre-sorting is optional but we think it’s essential for best return on your direct mailing investment.
PRO TIPS
Check out our Supercharge Your Direct Mail Postcard Campaigns post to learn about optimizing your savings when doing postcard campaigns.
If you have your own mailing list, we’re happy to optimize it and do pre-sorting for your next campaign. It’s a great way to clean-up your existing list and get it ready for your next campaign. Note: You need to own, not rent, the list we optimize for you.
If you’re having trouble sleeping, you can read the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service – it’s the book we use to understand how to make mailings the best they can be. It’s 1,332 pages long as of this edition from April 2022.