Do you want to save money on postage? Sure, we all do. One way to accomplish this is to send less mail, but that’s not always a good idea. Marketers understand that direct mail is one of the most powerful ways to communicate with current customers, especially when it comes to new customer acquisition and reactivating dormant accounts. Marketers are intensely focused on uncovering flexible solutions that meet their direct-mail delivery timeframes without breaking the bank. The focus is often saving money in terms of how the piece is produced, but the savings that can be generated from the right postal solutions can have a far bigger impact. Production oversight can certainly help save a few pennies per thousand pieces, but USPS promotional mailing options offer the opportunity for more significant savings. Print/marketing service providers must understand the options, build value-added production strategies to leverage postal discounts, and educate customers on how to use them effectively. The emphasis should shift from cost per piece to maximizing the value of what goes in the mailstream while reducing postage costs. The USPS’s recently announced 2017 Postal Promotions should help print and marketing service providers to change the conversation.

According to the May 24 issue of the Federal Register, the USPS will continue offering five promotions from 2016 with some updates and will also add one more. These promotions take effect on January 1, 2017, so you have plenty of time to prepare your strategy.

“This provides a $0.05 per piece rebate on all Business Reply Mail, Courtesy Reply Mail, and Alternate Postage pieces that meet program requirements and are placed in the mailstream by the recipient and scanned during the program period. To receive the rebate, registered customers must have distributed a Business Reply Mail, Courtesy Reply Mail envelope, or Alternate Postage card or envelope, and must comply with all other eligibility requirements of the program.”