Companies have gotten used to budgeting for an annual postage rate increase. This year the USPS has surprised mailers with a midyear increase on top of the one in January.
Here’s the latest:
- 6.9% price increase overall
- First-Class Mail®, marketing mail and other services affected
- Changes go into effect August 29, 2021
We’ve got ideas
There are several strategies you can implement to offset the rate increase. A few ideas include adding or expanding your digital communications, redesigning a package to be more economical, and implementing data hygiene measures and technology to reduce returned mail.
1. USPS rate increases, together with their proposed service standard may signal it’s time to supplement your print mailings with electronic delivery options such as email and text. Digital communications delivery reduces print and postage expenses. Many consumers now prefer digital.
- 48% of consumers prefer to receive digital billing statements
- 27% of consumers prefer paper billing statements
- 24% want both paper and digital
–ACI Speedpay Pulse 2H2020
2. The Expresso® customer communications management system is an omnichannel platform, so you can create and customize content, as well as manage and automate multiple delivery channels, from one dashboard.
We find that data hygiene, such as monitoring the accuracy and consistency of mailing addresses, is often overlooked as a source of savings. Making data hygiene a priority could result in more savings than you think. All records processed through Expresso are first scrubbed for NCOA, CASS and DPV. You can access the file processing results directly from our platform.
3. Finally, review your mailing packages for cost-saving opportunities and consider document association to save on postage. Expresso empowers users to upload PDFs that print in line with letters and statements. Also, look for opportunities to print duplex (two-sided) to reduce the number of sheets in your mailing package.
Check out more time and cost savings tips, and connect with your Nordis client services rep to discuss options to make your mailings as cost efficient and effective as possible.
The complete list of August 2021 price increases can be found on the USPS Postal Explorer website. If you are using Nordis commingle/presort service, contact your client success manager for updated rates based on this most recent increase.
