2019 U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Rates go into effect on Sunday, January 27, with increases and ramifications across all segments, including direct mail. While increasing its focus on package delivery, these hikes likewise confirm the viability of this market, and the USPS' commitment to direct mail. Knowing about these new rates and how they will impact your direct mail campaign is vital to maximizing its effectiveness, and Design Distributors remains dedicated to helping you navigate these new changes, as well as designing, printing and delivering the most efficient mailers, to achieve and surpass your goals.
The following is a brief explainer of the updated USPS Postal Rates:
What should we make of the 2019 Postal rates? To start, USPS focus is shifting to package delivery, however the specifics of this increase and several other indicators highlight the viability of this market and the USPS’s commitment to direct mail.
More good news? Marketing mail will experience, what is effectively, a 2% to 2.5% increase. Another positive indicator is that the USPS has decided to maintain the first class exception up to 3.5 oz without payment of the additional ounce rate. Better still? The average increase on automated first class mail has been capped to approximately 1%.
With any increase there will be challenges, but that's why we’ve built Design Distributors’ services and offerings around the technologies and digital capabilities that afford us—and our customers—the ability to refine our efforts, enhance postal penetration, and find ways to reduce both cycle time and postage.
High-speed, high-quality digital printing offer the right solutions for your business.
Spend more time, up front, planning your campaign, placing greater emphasis on the quality of your contact list. Among many other direct mail services that can help streamline and improve the effectiveness of your campaigns, Design Distributors provides specialized data processing and mail tracking designed to enhance the accuracy of your contact lists. Regardless of the new rates, there’s always minimal margin for errors, or Undelivered as Addressed mail. Your marketing efforts must therefore be hyper-targeted, so that every penny spent is maximized.
Utilize state-of-the-art digital and sheet-fed presses, and printing techniques proven to increase response rates, such as those enlisted by Design Distributors. Faster speeds and unprecedented personalization capabilities can go a very long way. According to a data report by marketing and advertising trade association DMA (Data Marketing & Analytics), such methods could increase response rates by a whopping 300%.
Take advantage of automation rates, and partner with a direct mail provider utilizing Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) software, such as Design Distributors. This helps reduce undeliverable mail and otherwise-wasted postage, saving you money.
Test. Re-Test. Test Again. Study tracking analytics, such as those provided by Design Distributors, and adjust, accordingly. Modifying future direct mail marketing campaigns in response to these invaluable insights will be critical to success in the wake of these postal rate increases.
When it comes to maximizing your direct mail marketing efforts in the wake of the new USPS Postal Rates, you need an experienced partner with the equipment, software, services, and insights to guide you. Design Distributors has been achieving direct mail marketing success or clients for more than 50 years. Among many other cutting-edge technologies, we enlist the HP-T240 Digital Inkjet Web Press, a groundbreaking variable data digital printing press, and IMB Mail-TraX services, which utilize machine-readable intelligent mail barcodes (IMB) to help increase response rates and supply that strategic edge so crucial for direct mail success in 2019.
For more guidance on how to maximize your campaign efforts, contact Design Distributors, today.