On September 25, 2013, the USPS announced upcoming increases to postage prices. The prices will increase 3 cents for letters and 1 cent for postcards. Letters to all international destinations will rise to $1.15.
None of these changes are final until they’re approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), but in all likelihood they will be approved and go into effect on January 26, 2014. The changes mean that prices for some Click2Mail products and services will rise. However, we remain committed to making mail easy and affordable. Here are three of the ways Click2Mail can help you save:
No minimum order requirements. Unlike many print and mail companies, Click2Mail has no minimum order requirement. Mail 1 or ship 10,000 (and anywhere in between) and you still qualify for our postage discounts.
Discounts you can’t get on your own. Our system prints addresses in USPS-approved standardized format and presorts your pieces to get you further reductions in your postage expenses. These are savings you can’t get on your own (unless you have the same software and mail in bulk). Those special discounts include:
– Address standardization discounts. Address standardization by itself greatly increases deliverability time and percentage of successful deliveries. To meet USPS addressing requirements, Click2Mail uses CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) certified software to standardize U.S. domestic addresses. The standardization process corrects minor spelling errors, supplies missing directionals, adds USPS approved acronyms and abbreviations (when applicable), and adds ZIP +4 Codes. This results in faster delivery to your recipients and allows us to receive – and pass on to you – postage discounts on every standardized addressed.
– Presorting discounts. The USPS offers postage discounts for presorted First-Class mailings of 500 or more pieces. To qualify for discounted presort rates, all pieces must meet USPS address standardization requirements and be properly prepared, presorted, packaged, labeled, and trayed (letter mail) or sacked (flats). Essentially, mail pieces that meet automation requirements and are sorted into geographic order bypass one or more of the postal services’ sorting operations (and cost less, as a result). Click2Mail customers get those savings.
Free National Change of Address (NCOA) service. One of the sources of wasted expense in direct mail campaigns is pieces that go to outdated addresses. Click2Mail reduces the chances of this happening to you through our link to the USPS’s change of address database, which reflects new addresses provided by people when they move. Every time you send us a mailing list, we check your information against this database and automatically update it with any new addresses on file. This results in more accurate delivery to your recipients and allows us to receive – and pass on to you – postage discounts on every piece you mail.
When it comes to mail, Click2Mail is committed to its partnership with the U.S. Postal Service and to keeping you informed about the changes going on there – and how those changes will affect the way that you communicate with your customers and prospects. Rest assured, though, that wherever postage rates go, Click2Mail will always help you to get more and spend less!
