10 Ways to help control mailing costs
Mail is a medium that can reliably deliver information in a manner that can be personal, believable, transportable, and easily retained. With postage costs on the rise, here are 10 tips to help you proactively deal with the effects.
- Scrub Your Data. Your database needs constant updating to stay accurate. Mismanaged databases cost you money in wasted postage, prolonged delivery dates, and sometimes, embarrassing errors. Clean data can increase deliverability, response rates, and therefore, often profitability.
- Consider mailing costs early. Don't wait to consider your mailing method and cost of postage after printing. Early choices can make a big difference. Make mailing part of your printing specifications and evaluate methods and costs just as you would a printed project. Beyond the weight and the dimensions of a piece, you can save money and time by:
Preparing mail at the same location that you print. This eliminates the time and costs to transport your mail from the printer to the mail house. Many printers, including NPC, are offering full mail house capabilities. Be sure to ask whether the mail house is physically located in the same building. Otherwise, the company is still transporting the finished product and you are still paying for it.
In addition, when a printer can mail your project, they should be able to help you make changes to the print specifications that will save you money on postage. When they staff experts in both areas, they can work together to develop solutions that work.
Use a USPS Certified Plant Load Facility. Your mail will enter the mail stream directly from production instead of needing transported to a post office first. Certified Plant Load Facilities offer discount programs and have a full-time USPS clerk on site to ensure proper mail preparation.
- Weigh your options. The weight of your mailing can make a big difference in price. When planning your mailing, work with your printer to determine a finished weight of the final product, then take into consideration postage costs. If your piece falls just above an upper limit of a weight range, consider making some changes to reduce the weight to get it within the desired range. The common breakpoint for standard mail weight is 3.2 ounces. Other range scales exist for flats and packages.
More information on weight limits by class of mail can be found in this Resource Center or by contacting a mail piece design analyst at the USPS. - Size matters in mail. Avoid surcharges and changes in classifications. The postal service has size limitations for different mail shapes. The shape of your mail will determine the rate scale by class used to determine your postage. These sizes are determined by the ability to run the piece through the postal machines ("machinability"). Machinability is not the same as automation, which refers to discounts for additional features placed on the mail piece.
- Test Integrating Communications. One way to decrease your costs is to increase your results. Test to see if you could integrate other media to complement your mailing. Sometimes, through testing, you will find ways that can save you money, decrease your response times, and increase your response rates. Test using other media forms to complement your mailing like advertising, E-mail, the Internet, or direct sales. Your audience may respond differently than you think!
- Get All Possible Discounts. The postal rate system is complicated. Many discounts exist in its pricing structure. Simply put, the more work that is done before your mail hits the mail stream, the less it costs; the more automated your mail processing is, the less it costs.
Even if you are using common methods for cost reduction such as presorting, barcoding, and addressing to meet automation standards, more exist. Work with an expert to find out if you are doing everything possible. NPC helps many clients achieve more by evaluating services like drop shipping and commingling. - Secure your data. Nothing could cost you more than your list or even specific pieces of data getting into the wrong hands. Identity theft or misuse of confidential information can harm and aggravate people's lives, and cost you customers and money in correcting the situation. Make sure your partner is taking steps to ensure that your customer's information is not misused or stolen. Look for security provided by anyone handling your data.
Security takes a three-fold approach:Physical Security - Can anyone access the print and mail facility? Do all employees have access to areas dealing with confidential information? Are monitoring procedures and equipment in place to track any issues and create a record of activity?
Information Security - Who can access the data internally? How is it protected from external access? What technology is your mailer using to secure data integrity? Is it backed up regularly?
Human Resource Security - Does the company screen for substance abuse? What about background checks? Are they taking extra steps to ensure that data-driven print and mail is protected?
- Make an Impact with Customization. What are you looking to accomplish with your mailing? A certain response rate? Communication of details that are unique by individual or data segment? Awareness?
You can use personalization (basic imaging), variable imaging, versioning, or complete content customization (variable publishing) to help you create a clear, meaningful message, increase awareness of your communication, and improve your response. You can not only use content and print to create customized mail or 1:1 communications, you can use intelligent inserting technology to create a custom package that contains only those inserts or pages that are relevant to the recipient. - Where's your warehouse? Don't forget about what storage of your stock is costing you between mailings. You may be able to realize a significant cost savings in storing components of your mailings at your printer/mail service provider. With online inventory management, you can easily keep track of supplies without having to facilitate shipping to and from your printer and/or mailer. You could develop a fulfillment program that allows you to use your items at events and in communication programs beyond the mailing.
- Get a grip on the big picture. The single effort that makes the greatest impact is taking the time to take a cohesive and comprehensive look at your print and mailing program. Reduce redundancy and streamline your procurement efforts by grouping purchases and contracting for a longer period of time, rather than shopping each project. Some organizations may even act as a management company and procure other things for you that they may not be able to produce. This can reduce the time for procurement, make budgeting easy, simplify processes for accounts payable, and get you volume pricing on raw materials. For the biggest savings in mailing or shipping, choose a partner who will help you—from preparation through distribution.
Sources:
United States Postal Service Domestic Mail Manual
Direct Mail Pal, by T.J. Tedesco, Ken Boone, Terry Woods and John Leonard
