The United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced the incentive/promotion programs for 2020. These promotion programs began in 2011 with the first QR barcode incentive and have continued with added programs each year up until 2018. Due to the lack of an active USPS Board of Governors, no incentive programs were introduced for 2018, but were again put into place in 2019.

The Promotions

There are a total of six promotions offered in 2020, all of which are repeat promotions from previous years. A summary of the 2020 promotions:

Tactile, Sensory and Interactive Mailpiece Engagement Promotion

· Registration Period: December 15, 2019 – July 31, 2020

· Promotion Period: February 1, 2020 – July 31, 2020

· Eligible: USPS Marketing Mail letters and flats

Emerging and Advanced Technology Promotion

· Registration Period: January 15, 2020 – August 31, 2020

· Promotion Period: March 1, 2020 – August 31, 2020

· Eligible: First-Class Mail & USPS Marketing Mail

Earned Value Reply Mail Promotion

· Registration Period: February 15, 2020 – March 31, 2020

· Promotion Period: April 1, 2020 – June 30, 2020

· Eligible: BRM, CRM, and Share Mail

Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion

· Registration Period: May 15, 2020 – December 31, 2020

· Promotion Period: July 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020

· Eligible: First-Class Mail (excludes all FCM single-piece-price mail)

Mobile Shopping Promotion

· Registration Period: June 15, 2020 – December 31, 2020

· Promotion Period: August 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020

· Eligible: USPS Marketing Mail letters and flats

· Registration Period: July 15, 2020 – November 30, 2020

· Promotion Period: September 1, 2020 – November 30, 2020

· Eligible: First-Class Mail & USPS Marketing Mail letters and flats

The screen shots below show the calendar for the upcoming promotions, separated by class of mail.

Source: https://postalpro.usps.com/promotions/2020promotions/2020Calendar

Impacts to Mailers

We strongly encourage mailers to take advantage of these promotions and include the incentives in their planning for mailings in 2020. Mailers should also work with their software providers to make sure that any mailing software is being updated to support submission of Mail.dat files to claim these incentives.

The USPS is also asking mailers for their ideas and suggestions for promotion programs for 2021. To submit your ideas for future incentive programs, log on to https://postalpro.usps.com/promotions/2021_suggestions.

Resources

The new 2020 promotion program information is available on the PostalPro website, including the calendar shown above, links to the requirements for each promotion, industry webinar information, and more.

Jeff Peoples is CEO, Window Book.

This article originally appeared in the January/February, 2020 issue of Mailing Systems Technology.