Postal Changes Take Shape

Eight ways to prepare for the rate case and reduce your costs

May 2007 By Steve Elias

multipage

A change that will occur later, in 2008, will involve change-of-address requirements. The USPS asks that mailers update their files with NCOA data, since this cleansing tool helps produce less undeliverable-as-addressed mail and keeps down its processing costs. Currently the USPS merely recommends that mailers run their files past the NCOA database every six months. However, in 2008 the USPS will require that NCOA cleansing take place every three months for First Class mailers and recommend this hygiene schedule for all other mail classes.

These proposed changes will set new, forward-facing standards for postage assessment, so mailers and their vendors have no choice but to prepare for the changes and integrate them quickly into marketing plans, processes and budgets. But remember that your list/data providers, database marketing firms, printing companies and mailing services want to work with you to help mitigate the direct impact of the changes.

Ways to Start Cutting Your Postage Bill

So what’s a mailer to do? Here are eight tips:

1. Ensure the quality of your mailing database so you minimize undeliverable-as-addressed mail. Quality control in the data-entry department has never been more crucial, so consider appropriate accuracy incentives for your data-entry department. With addresses transferring among different data environments, the probability of incomplete information—such as missing apartment numbers—is high. Remember, addresses that do not conform to CASS software will not benefit from automation-based savings.

2. Remove duplicates from your mailing files. Merge/purge simply is a best practice.

3. Take a closer look at your creative process. Ask yourself and your colleagues if there are potential cost consequences to the proposed dimensions of an envelope or self-mailer. That perfect square may be eye-catching, that nifty triangle sure could win an award, but will the additional mail-processing costs be worth it? Certain direct mail campaigns will continue to gain value from an unusual dimension or mail-piece thickness. In those cases, go for it! But consider, too, whether it makes more sense to challenge your copywriters to come up with stronger teasers and headlines that lead to action. A powerful teaser may pack a punch, but it’s pretty easy on mail-processing equipment.

4. Target your mailings as never before. Your current subscribers, members and customers already have provided you with a way to mail in a more targeted fashion. Profiling and modeling your customers through demographics create a powerful tool. Measure your responses to glean data on the lists that have worked and the geographic areas that have responded.

With higher per-piece costs on the horizon, you have a strong incentive to take advantage of the numerous demographic criteria and data overlays that are available to you. The more narrowly you concentrate your list selections, the better you can shape a message in your direct mail that speaks directly and effectively to your audience, thus improving your response rates.

5. If you don’t do it already, run NCOA data against your housefile at least once every three months, as it soon will be either required or recommended by the USPS (as noted earlier). Given that one of every seven Americans changes his or her address in a given year—approximately 5 million quarterly, according to the USPS—this recommendation reflects the reality of keeping up with the relocation habits of American consumers. While this service attaches an up-front cost to your mailing budget, it converts over time into savings as your mailings hit their mark more regularly. There also are various proprietary change-of-address products available that can capture additional updated address data for those consumers who haven’t notified the USPS of a move.

6. When you do run the NCOA file, make sure you request a receipt of the address changes so that you can use them to update your files. Not every mailer remembers to do this, even though it is an important practice that ultimately helps you to qualify more mail pieces for lower processing rates.

7. If your customer file’s concentration includes areas outside of metropolitan areas, ask your vendor to run it against the LACS database. This service converts rural routes into street addresses, which inevitably will code against the new CASS changes.

8. If your file includes metropolitan areas, ask your vendor to perform an apartment append to secure better coding and deliverability.

Integrate these steps into every marketing plan, and what today may seem as hard to process as a jagged-edged envelope will result in better quality data, up-to-date lists, stronger advertising messages and precision-targeted selections that bring larger overall returns on your marketing dollar.

Steve Elias is director of client services, data analytics and processing at MKTG Services, a provider of lists, data solutions and analytics services based in Newtown, Pa. He can be reached at selias@mktgservices.com or (917) 339-7159.



Editor’s Note: To help mailers determine how the new rates for flats/parcels will affect their mail costs, UPS Mail Innovations has developed a new rate calculator. Visit www.upsmi.com.

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