How Will Postage Increases Affect Your Direct Mail Marketing?
We’ve heard for months about the postage increases and that you should stock up on stamps before the prices jump. While postage pricing is rising, it won’t affect the average postal customer.
The USPS has been raising prices on postage annually for several years now, as pressure to rationalize it’s business model while dealing with federally required unprofitable services is forcing mailers to pay more. As a result, the USPS 2020 postage increases will be rolling out in January 2021. While the cost of the first class stamp remains stable at $.55, there are price increases in several services that high-volume direct mailers use. Commercial First-Class and Marketing Mail (Standard Class) are both increasing by one cent in 2021, lower than the roughly 2% increases in 2020. Metered mail letters and letters with additional ounces more than one ounce are increasing by five cents, which is the largest increase of all the rates.
|
Product |
Current Prices |
Planned Prices |
|
Letters additional oz(s) |
15 cents |
20 cents |
|
Letters (metered 1 oz) |
50 cents |
51 cents |
|
Domestic Postcards |
35 cents |
36 cents |
|
Letters (1 oz) |
55 cents |
55 cents (no change) |
|
Flats (1 oz) |
$1 |
$1 (no change) |
The biggest take away from these rate changes is that flats are growing more and more expensive. They do have better ROI than letter size pieces even at increased postage though.
Even though the 2021 direct mail postage rates are rising, you can still get great direct mail results. In order to get the most bang for your buck call us to discuss your options. We can help you with designing for the most cost effective postage as well as cleaning your data to remove bad addresses before you mail to them. Segmentation is another great way to save money by only sending the offer to the people most interested in it. There are so many ways direct mail marketing can help you reach your revenue goals.
Conclusion
Cost increases are a common factor for any business, but thankfully shipping rates from USPS are transparent and easy to calculate. Your biggest work here is understanding how you’ll be impacted and developing a plan to raise rates and notify customers. For the most part, the small rate increase will still enable you to be profitable in 2021.