USPS

On November 13, 2019, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) announced that due to the USPS incorrectly calculating the “percentage change in rates for First-Class Mail” they have remanded the First-Class Mail prices changes proposed for January 26, 2020. You can read the full order from the PRC.

The PRC has remanded ALL planned First-Class price changes and has asked the USPS to resubmit its proposed pricing “expeditiously” so they can maintain the January implementation date.

In addition to First-Class mail rates, we are anticipating the PRC to issue a separate order for Marketing Mail and Package Services as well. We will keep you up to date on any new developments.

The US Postal Service is running a promotion offering incentives to mailers to utilize an Informed Delivery campaign.

Mailers who mail between September 1 and November 30th, 2019 can realize a 2 percent discount on postage as well as the ability to engage digitally with recipients to further increase the impact of their mailings by using Informed Delivery.

So, what is Informed Delivery?

It’s a consumer-facing feature that provides mail recipients the ability to preview, via email, the letters, and packages that will be arriving in their mailbox each day. Letters and packages are scanned by the USPS and an image of each piece’s mailing panel is sent as a daily digest.  Consumers love it to keep a pulse on what’s arriving each day.

But, did you know that Informed Delivery goes much further than simply notifying consumers of what’s set to arrive in their mailbox? It also increases engagement and response. Mailers can, for free, link those images or even supply enhanced images featuring a live link to a URL. This increases engagement with your messaging and moves consumers to the digital space easily.

This means that even before someone picks up their mail after work, they can click the link associated with your mailing and make a purchase or inquire. Pretty impressive. The best part is that there’s no fee to utilize Informed Delivery and during this promotion, you can save an additional 2 percent on your postage.

Informed Delivery is popular.

There are 17.5 million registered users and 12.5 million of them receive daily digests of the mail that’s arriving in their mailbox.

Is there really a 2% discount on my postage rate?

Yes! If you’ve got a mailing planned for September 1 through November 30^th, you can take advantage of this promotion.

Why should you consider utilizing Informed Delivery?

1. Offers an email open rate that is more than twice the industry average.
2. Generates multiple impressions of just a single mail piece.
3. Drives consumer response and engagement.
4. Gives mailers the ability to reach the consumers digitally – just by knowing their physical address.
5. It can potentially increase the return on the investment of a direct mail campaign.
6. Informed Delivery provides additional data so that you can begin to optimize your marketing spend in the future.

There are several campaign elements that are required in order to utilize informed delivery. But don’t worry, your MailSmart Logistics team will help you with all of them, but here’s a top-level list of what you need to run an Informed Delivery Campaign:

1. MID (Mailer ID) on your mailpiece
2. IMb Serial Number Range
3. Size/shape of your mailer (flat, letter, postcard)
4. Campaign Dates
5. Target URL
6. Whether or not you want to utilize a Representative Image (full color depiction of the mail piece which can replace the scan of the actual mail piece, if the mailer chooses this option… for the promotion, this image needs to closely replicate the real mail piece and must be pre-approved by the USPS) or a Ride-Along Image, which features a strong call to action and a link.

Interested in testing out Informed Delivery during this promotion?

We’d love to help you save 2 percent on postage while increasing engagement. Please get in touch with us right away so we can make sure that we can get you into the queue. The promotion runs from September 1 through November 30th.

Drop us a line and we’ll be in touch!

MailSmart Logistics is proud to sponsor the Northern Virginia Metro Postal Customer Council’s Largest Event of the Year!

PCC Day 2019 is an annual full-day conference focused on direct mail innovations and insights.

Inspiring keynotes, informative sessions, local and national solutions providers, USPS representatives, and plenty of opportunities to meet and get to know direct mail leaders and peers. PCC Day 2019 is a must-attend event for anyone who works in direct mail.

Please stop by the MailSmart Logistics table in the Solutions Showcase to say hello and get answers to your direct mail postal logistics questions. We look forward to seeing you there!

PCC Day 2019

Wednesday, September 25

8:00am – 3:00pm

Marriott Fairview Park

3111 Fairview Park Drive

Falls Church, VA 22042

This event sells out every year so REGISTER HERE today!

If you would like more information on PCC Day 2019, please contact us.

Join mailers from a variety of industries from business to nonprofit who are looking forward to gathering this year at the National Postal Forum. Over the course of four days, you will have the opportunity to attend stimulating sessions on the latest topics and trends in the mailing and shipping industry, mix and mingle with industry professionals, and meet new service providers.

The NPF values education and equips you with the tools you need to take your business to the next level. Take your pick from the over 100 USPS-led sessions and workshops under these six multidisciplinary tracks:

1. eCommerce, Steps to Shipping Success
2. Informed Visibility: Real Time, Real Data
3. Leadership and Professional Development
4. Mail Operations: Fulfilling the Needs of your Customers
5. Pushing the Envelope: Why Mail Works
6. The Evolution of Delivery: From Mailbox to Mail “inbox”

This year the conference is being held in Indianapolis at the Indiana Convention Center on May 5-8. There are three registration options, and you can check them all out here. Our very own Debbie Sylvester will be there – be sure to look for her.

The annual price adjustment request filed by the U.S. Postal Service has been approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission. The new rates will go into effect on January 27, 2019. This will of course negatively impact all our clients’ budgets.

We are currently updating our USPS rate charts with first-class, Marketing Mail letter and flats rates for both nonprofit and commercial mailers and we’ll post them on the site as soon as they are complete.

In addition we are updating our 2019 commingle rates for our clients to offer them the best possible guaranteed rate for their campaigns.

If you have any questions or would like to explore using our commingling and drop ship services to contain your postal costs, please call us at 443-539-2640.

Our clients are preparing budgets for 2019 and the question of what’s going to happen with postage rates is always a huge consideration.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS)  has filed its annual price adjustment request with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). The rate increases need to be approved by the PRC before the implementation date, which this year is January 27, 2019.

Rate increase requests cannot exceed the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The USPS has requested increases which overall meet the guidelines however several segments, if approved will realize greater changes such as:

• First Class postage will go from 50 cents to 55 cents – a ten percent increase! This increase is mitigated by a reduction in the rates for additional ounces, but even so, for direct marketers this increase is a double-whammy, as inbound mail is affected as well.
• If the rate requests are approved, nonprofit rates will see a 4.8 to 5.5 percent increase at the Destination Sectional Center Facility (DSCF), according to initial calculations from Steve Kearney of the Association of Nonprofit Mailers. Since high-volume mailers and comminglers strive to qualify their mail down to the DSCF level for maximum savings, this increase has a big impact on the direct response community.

Nonprofits are also concerned about the limitations potentially being placed on marketing mail which would limit the mailing to only paper therefore excluding any upfront premium offering such as labels, ornaments, stickers, calendars, etc. We are monitoring this situation as well. As of late, the USPS seems to be backing off this proposed change.

We understand the importance of postage in our clients’ budgets and what a large portion of a project’s cost it impacts. We will continue to monitor and update you as changes and/or approvals happen. In the meantime, your postal experts at MailSmart Logistics are here, ready to help you attain the absolute best postage rates possible. Put our volume discounts to work for you. Please let us know if we can answer any questions or help in anyway.

Attention Nonprofit Mailers:

A new rule proposed by the Postal Service poses a huge threat to nonprofit postal budgets.

The proposal eliminates all merchandise and goods from USPS Marketing Mail, which moving forward would be limited to paper-based, printed matter only.

The biggest impact would be on upfront premium mailings containing non-paper items like tote bags, pens, hats, etc. Plastic membership cards, coins, and other non-paper techniques would also be barred from nonprofit rates. These mailings would need to shift to a more expensive product like Priority Mail or Parcel Select to be mailed.

You can review the full description of the proposed rule here: USPS Marketing Mail Content Standards

Please take action by submitting letters in opposition within the 60 day comment period, which has now officially started, and ends on October 22, 2018. Instructions for mailing and e-mailing written comments are included in the proposed rule document in the above link.

These advocacy actions are proven to have a big impact on USPS decisions and plans! So please take action now.

Stay in touch with MailSmart Logistics and the Alliance for Nonprofit Mailers for updates in the days ahead, as this is a developing situation. Next week we will share a sample letter that you can customize for your organization and submit during the official comment period.

If you’re going to the 2018 Chicago Nonprofit Conference, be sure to attend “’Where’s the Mail?’ Mission Critical Production Advice” on Tuesday, August 28 at 11:45am.  Our very own Debbie Sylvester along with Shannon Murphy of CCAH, Kim Postulart of Alzheimer’s Association and Lauren Merrill of Catholic Relief Services will be addressing this proposed rule and what you and your organization can do to stop it from being implemented.

MailSmart Logistics will continue to provide updates on this critical issue, but if you have any specific questions, please contact us at any time.