Postage - General Tips

[RESteve]

So I feel a little bewildered by how postage works; I've actually never taken the time to learn the terminology, applicable discounts, ways to make it cheaper, etc.

So I'm hoping to get some advice on my mailings. I send out letters and notecards to my database in a routine manner. I'd say for the time being I send out about 10 letters and 5 notecards a day.

I have been using .41 stamps. Is there a cheaper way to do this? What's this "bulk" discount thing I read around the USPS site, and why is it split into Retail vs. Discount rates? How do I get discounts?

Jim, I noticed you mentioned in a another thread that you send letters for .26 (I think). How is this done?

PS. I also send out about 80 or so full color newsletters to my close network, again each using .41 stamps.

[Morristown]

Steve, you have to get a bulk mail permit. See if your office has one or someone in your office has one. When using it you have to be sending 200 letters that are exactly the same weight and size to the same zip code. Once you have done that the USPS has 12 days to deliver. Now another Real Estate company sent me a birthday style card the other day bi fold, in a nice envelope which enticed me to open it, and they had 8 cents of postage on it. I have not figured out how they did that yet.

[mkrotchie]

So Jim, how exactly is the postage printed? Do you drop off a bundle and give the postmaster a special handshake and he puts them through a postage machine?

[Morristown]

Nope, either you get a stamper and a stamp pad which you have to pay to have made and is not very convenient, or you make your own stamp that you print on the envelope. I print it on the envelope at the same time as I am printing the address information. I do a mail merge in MS Word which makes this easier.

If you choose to make the bulk mail stamp that you can print on your envelopes yourself here is what mine says.

PRESRT STD.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
SUMMIT, NJ
PERMIT NO. 764

then you have to take it to the post office that your stamp is designated for, does not have to be in the zip code you are mailing to though. Once you are at the USPS they verify how many pieces you have, and then they send you up to the front with a form and have you deposit enough money into that bulk mail account to cover the postage for that mailing.

[mkrotchie]

Man the USPS website is confusing. I got to the page where it talks about rates for "Standard Mail Letters" and there are 4 choices: Automation, Machinable, Non-Machinable, and Enhanced Carrier Route Letters.

I'm not sure which one I would be using.. any pointers Jim?

And just to be clear, you print the following on your envelopes in the upper right-hand corner?

PRESRT STD.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
SUMMIT, NJ
PERMIT NO. 764

I do see the annual cost for a bulk mailing permit is $175.

[JimOlenbush]

I used a bulk rate permit years back, and I stopped doing it. It is not too hard to do, you just have to sort everything by zip code and deliver it to the post office with your bulk rate meter stamped on it. The reason I stopped is that I think more people open a letter with a real stamp on it. It looks less like junk mail with a stamp. Just my opinion.

[RESteve]

Man the USPS website is confusing.

My point exactly!

Thanks Jim for the insight so far. I think Jim makes a valid point about bulk vs. stamped open rates.

[Morristown]

Yes it is a valid point. Which is why I mix it up. I mail every 2 weeks, well have dropped back to every 3 weeks but anyway, here is the schedule

1st bulk mail letter
2nd Post card
3rd bulk mail letter
4th post card
5th real stamp letter with special print on it.
6th post card
7th bulk mail letter
and so forth and so on.

looking for a way to mix in a birthday card type thing once in a while as well but the only one I have found so far is $1.03 each mailed and when you are sending a 1000 of them that is lots of cash.

Jim

[JimOlenbush]

What is your special print? If you don't mind sharing.

[Morristown]

Oh, rather then using Times New Roman or Arial sometimes I will do it in Monotype Corsiva, or Blackadder ITC

Just gives a different look on the face of the envelope and then people don't think about it so much and open it and read it.