Five ways to reduce mailing costs in your 2008 budget

The 2007 Postal Rate increase was painful for direct mail marketers. It is estimated that the postal reform will remove from the mail stream about 3 billion pieces of direct mail advertising, 800 million catalogs and 350 million periodicals. The good news is there will be less competition for your reader’s attention.

As you begin the budget process for 2008, you should take a close look at ways to reduce mailing costs. Postage and printing are the biggest expenses in most mailings. The new rules consider shape, weight and size in the postage rate structure. Changing paper and formats can cut printing and postage costs. Here are some strategies that could help you make budget next year.

1. Trim down your database – Each piece of Undelivered As Addressed (UAA) or unopened mail wastes printing, lettershop and postage dollars. On the consumer side, 20% of the people in your database moved last year. In a business database the people changes are even greater. Every database has prospects that could be deleted. Every time you cleanse a mailing list of 1,000 undeliverable addresses or poor prospects – you save about $500 in printing, production and postage.
2. Watch your weight and shape – Reducing the size or paper stock of your mailpiece will lower the weight and reduce postage on larger mailing formats. Redesigning the format from flat to lettersize provides big postage savings. The post office wants machineable mail. A lettersize mailpiece under 3.3 ounces is the niche product they want. You’ll pay much higher rates on all other formats from now on.
3. Commingle or drop ship your mail – The post office encourages worksharing. They have increased the discounts for vendors who can provide presorting and transportation of mail. This reduces USPS labor and they pass along the savings. Commingling works well for First Class and Standard letter mail that has low zip code saturation. B2B nationwide mailings are perfect for commingling. Drop shipping to Bulk Mail Centers (BMC) or Sectional Facilities (SCF) is a good strategy for large volume mailings with high geographic saturation.
4. Design for efficiency – Find out which sizes and shapes will make the best use of your printer’s sheets. Trimming a quarter inch from a design could enable the printer to put 4 up instead of 3 up on a sheet. This reduces the paper cost by 25%. Choose standard size #9, #10 or 6x9 envelopes. They will beat the price of a custom made or uncommon sized envelope. Standard sizes for envelopes, selfmailers and postcards are also less expensive for lettershop production.
5. Print 2-color instead of 4-color – Designing some pieces for one or two color printing will reduce costs. Creative use of color screens can give a 2-color piece the look of 4 spot colors. Mail a 2 color double postcard toannounce a new product or service. These mail at First Class Postcard a rate - which is less than Standard Mail – but get First Class delivery. Your UAA is returned to you for FREE. This low cost format cleans up your database and gets qualified leads from the business reply card. It’s a great tool for cleaning up controlled circulation or catalog lists.

SUMMARY POINTS TO CONSIDER

• Cleanse your database through NCOA at least one or two times a year.
• Consider dropping records from your database if they don’t CASS Certify or pass Delivery Point Validation (DPV). These records are very likely to be undeliverable.
• A reduction in your UAA will be an increase in ROI.
• Refolding a publication to 8.5x5.5 can reduce postage by 18 cents a piece.
• Redesigning a publication to a 6x11 slim jim will do the same as above.
• Commingling can save $5 to $20 per thousand in postage. It also eliminates the cost of data processing for postal presort and sorting during production.
• Drop shipping can improve delivery time by one or two days. Net savings after transportation can be $15 to $25 per thousand.
• Printing press capabilities vary greatly. Finding the right fit for your quantity and print specs can reduce cost.
• About 50% of all envelope mail is sent in a #10 envelope. The reason why is – they are cheaper.
• The 4x6 single or double postcard is still the best deal the post office has to offer. Postage is reasonable, delivery is fast and UAA return mail is Free.