Postage rate hikes are here to stay, which means mailers need to explore every possible way to mitigate those rising costs. From January to July 2024, the rate for a single piece of first-class mail jumped 5 cents to .69 cents per piece. In fact, based on the past 18 months of trends across mail categories, it’s reasonable to forecast a 35% postage increase within three years.

Frequent rate hikes drive up operational expenses, squeezing profit margins for businesses that rely heavily on direct mail and large-scale mail campaigns. Moreover, the unpredictable nature of rate increases makes it challenging for enterprises to budget and forecast accurately. While the United States Postal Service (USPS) workshare programs provide baseline support for curbing costs, mailers can play the long game by fully leveraging all existing USPS promotions and investing in the latest automation tools. Let’s explore seven key strategies that support the ultimate goal for any piece of mail: lower costs, improved customer communications and higher conversion rates.

1. Bolster address hygiene protocols

Bounced back mail adds up quickly. In 2023, more than 27 million U.S. residents moved, according to the U.S. Census. To reduce Undeliverable as Addressed (UAA) rates, mailers need to regularly update and validate mailing lists using USPS-approved software that’s specially built to improve efficiency. Software can help standardize addresses, remove duplicates and cross reference against the National Change of Address (NCOA) database. With accurate addresses, companies can reduce printing, labor and postage costs.

2. Migrate flats work over to letter-size work

Here’s a simple fix that yields big results. Larger flat-size envelopes are more expensive to purchase and mail. Instead, through improvements in production process technology, you can fit the same amount of paper using a bi-fold technique in a smaller, less expensive 6”x 9.5” letter-size envelope. Production-level machines can accommodate a high sheet count of up to 16, while also saving time by automating the folding and stuffing process. Through software applications, 2D barcodes communicate how many sheets are added to each envelope. By combining these strategies, mailers can reduce postage by about half, as well as save on material and labor costs.

3. Use business rules to reduce overall mail volume

Enterprise mailers can use software-deployed business rules, such as householding and suppression, to improve mail operations. For example, if you’re sending multiple invoices to the same address, software can index the invoices so they’re in the same collation and placed in just one envelope. You can also create a rule that suppresses distributing an invoice for lower or zero balance statements – where the cost to mail a bill doesn’t warrant investing in such a communication.

4. Maximize workshare discounts with full-service Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb)

With software featuring full-service Intelligent Mail Barcode and Seamless Acceptance capabilities, mailers can capture the deepest workshare discounts by making it easier for the USPS to process your mail. IMb software not only facilitates these discounts, but also provides real-time tracking and electronic address correction services, ensuring that your mail reaches recipients with minimal delays or returns.

5. Explore USPS’s seasonal postal promotions

The USPS offers a wealth of savings opportunities above and beyond workshare discounts. Every year they release a handful of seasonal promotions and add-on incentives that provide an additional 2% to 7% off and are stackable on top of existing discounts. For example, the 2024 “Personalized Color Transpromo” promotion rewards mailers for highlighting marketing messages by incorporating color, dynamic variable print and personalization, along with utilizing a reply mechanism to further engage and collect responses. The discount runs for six months and offers a 3% to 4% discount. The “Retargeting” promotion, which involves matching the visitor’s IP address to a website or app to a customer’s physical address, runs for three months and provides a 5% savings. With all these promotions, the USPS provides detailed backgrounders about when to register and how to get pre-qualified.

6. Watch for the year-long Mail Growth Incentive

The USPS Mail Growth Incentive debuted this year and offers an additional 30% discount for mailers who distributed more than 1 million pieces over a 12-month period. The incentive applies to mail owners on qualifying first-class and marketing mail volume. While the 2024 enrollment has ended, it’s worthwhile to track if the USPS will offer the program again next year and when enrollment will open at its Business Customer Gateway, where you can sign up for the free newsletter to keep you informed.

7. Incorporate Informed Delivery, QR codes and Alexa/Google Assistant

The USPS will reward mailers with further discounts for preparing their mail in ways that encourage engagement with recipients. Informed Delivery, for instance, enables consumers to respond online to a mailing through previewed, interactive digital images and helps drive digital adoption. The USPS also offers substantial discounts for adding QR codes or verbiage for commands like Alexa and Google Assistant to your content that direct consumers to reply online. Together, these strategies not only earn you more USPS savings, but also greatly enhance your conversion rates and move your customers closer to opting for paperless communications.

While digital adoption continues to unfold, many consumers still prefer to receive bills and other communications in the mail, as is evident by the USPS’s 116.2 billion total mail volume in 2023. Enterprise mailers and print service providers need to actively pursue measures like capitalizing on USPS promotions and next-level technologies to improve mail operations. Together, these strategies will drive down costs, better serve customers and help achieve higher conversion rates.

Karim Manassa is Business Development Manager at Quadient. For the last 30 years, he has been passionately helping companies of all sizes harness next-level production mail technologies to scale for profitable growth and brand building.