How to Beat the 2024 USPS Postage Increase
Starting July 14, 2024, the United States Postal Service is introducing a five-cent postage rate increase presenting an opportunity for businesses and individuals to re-evaluate their mailing strategies and discover cost-saving measures. This is a chance to optimize mailing practices, streamline operations, and explore bulk mailing options.
Let’s break down what you need to know about the USPS postage increase and strategies you can implement to mitigate its impact on your marketing budget.
Understanding the 2024 USPS Postage Increase
Here’s a look at what you can expect from the changes:
To navigate these changes efficiently, partnering with a full-service printer, like Aradius Group, is beneficial. We offer comprehensive mailing solutions, including postage audits, bulk mailing discounts, and more. Let’s dive deeper into these strategies to see how leveraging the expertise of a partner like Aradius Group, can ensure that your mailings are cost-effective and allow you to maximize your budget.
Strategies to Beat the 2024 Postage Increase
Bulk Mailing Discounts
Bulk mailing discounts are offered by the Postal Service to incentivize large-volume mailings, providing significant cost savings for businesses and organizations. To qualify for these discounts, mailings must meet specific requirements, such as:
-A minimum quantity of mail pieces
-Proper sorting by zip code
-Adherence to standardized addressing formats
-Presorted and bundled according to the Postal Service’s guidelines
The benefits of bulk mailing include reduced postage rates, faster delivery times, and the ability to allocate more budget to other areas of marketing and operations. These discounts can result in substantial savings and increased efficiency for large-scale mailing campaigns.
Cost-Saving Mail Formats
Choosing cost-saving mail formats is a strategic way to reduce expenses in your mailing campaigns. Formats like postcards, self-mailers, and compact letters can be more economical compared to larger or more elaborate mail pieces.
Postcards, for instance, are generally cheaper to print and mail due to their smaller size and weight. Self-mailers, which don’t require envelopes, save on both material and assembly costs. Additionally, utilizing lightweight paper and standard sizes that align with postal service guidelines can help avoid surcharges.
At Aradius Group, this is done with REACH, one of our direct mail solutions, which provides you with the top 10 most cost-effective mail size formats upfront to ensure your direct mail campaign budget is spent to reach the largest possible audience versus unnecessary postage.
Postage Audit
A postage audit is a thorough review and analysis of a company’s mailing practices and expenses. During a postage audit, our team of experts will evaluate various aspects of the mailing process, including current postage rates, mail classifications, distribution options, and more. The audit identifies inefficiencies, errors, and areas where cost savings can be achieved.
Postage audits from Aradius Group, can correct issues such as incorrect postage rates, and incorrect mail piece specifications, or take advantage of underutilized bulk mailing discounts, which all will significantly reduce mailing expenses.
We're ready to help if you’re interested in learning more about our free postage audits and how they can benefit your company!
Mailing List Audits
Similar to postage audits, mailing list audits are important because they evaluate a company’s mailing list to ensure accuracy, completeness, and efficiency. During a mailing list audit at Aradius Group, our experts will review the list to identify and correct errors such as duplicate entries, outdated addresses, and incorrect formatting. We will also verify the addresses against postal databases to ensure deliverability.
EDDM
Speaking of enhanced targeting, Every Door Direct Mail is a great way to cut postage costs. This is a service that allows businesses to send promotional materials to every address in a specific geographic region without needing a mailing list.
At Aradius Group, we offer an EDDM solution called ATTRACT. This solution helps reduce costs by providing access to bulk mailing rates since no mailing list is required!
Schedule an ATTRACT Discovery Call if you’re interested in learning more about EDDM, and how it could benefit your company.
The Takeaway
With the coming USPS postage increase on July 14, 2024, it’s more important than ever for businesses to adopt strategies to mitigate rising costs. Leveraging options such as EDDM, bulk mailing discounts, and conducting regular postage and mailing audits can lead to significant savings.
Additionally, working with a partner, like Aradius Group, can streamline your mailing processes and maximize available discounts. By taking proactive steps now, you can effectively manage your mailing expenses, maintain the efficiency of your marketing campaigns, and safeguard your budget against future increases.
