By Kim Mauch, July 11, 2014
The Postal Service™ has had quite a bit of success offering discounts for certain mail piece designs. These incentive programs have encouraged mailers to use modern and innovative designs that allow users to interact with their mail in new ways.
The promotion results from the first half of the year aren’t in yet. However, there are some interesting new incentives that will start up in August that mailers may want to take advantage of. It’s important to note that for most of these incentives, you’ll need to sign up using the Business Customer Gateway, and use electronic documentation (eDoc) to submit paperwork for any mailing claiming a discount.
Color Print in First-Class Mail® Transactions
First-Class Mail, from personal correspondence to bills and statements, has been in a continual decline since 2006. USPS® is offering this 2% postage discount to help limit that decline. From August 1 through the end of the year, First-Class mailers sending statements and bills can claim this discount by using 4-color printing for marketing and consumer messages.
Many mailers have included inserts with their statements to sell additional services and inform customers. However, those customers can get into a bad habit of tossing those messages to the side in favor of the content of their bill or statement. With this program, mailers would print that information directly on the statement using dynamic/variable color print.
Emerging Technology featuring NFC
Smart phone usage, for social media, web browsing and e-commerce, has increased sharply over the last few years. USPS has struggled to link this growing trend to the mail. In its latest attempt, USPS is offering mailers a 2% discount on mail that includes Near Field Communication (NFC) technology or “enhanced” augmented reality. This incentive will be available for mailings in August and September only.
While several Android smart phones and tablets include NFC capabilities, iPhone and many others do not. The additional work required to satisfy the “enhanced” augmented reality option can be costly. This is an innovative incentive, but it may be before its time. While only the most innovative mailers will attempt this discount, it will be interesting to hear what their results are.
Mail Drives Mobile Commerce
Starting in November, the Postal Service will again offer a 2% discount for mailers who use a physical mail piece to drive customers to a mobile-enhanced online store. An additional percent discount is available for those who use USPS to fulfill those orders.
This has been one of the most popular incentive programs, and is timed perfectly for the holiday shopping season.
For each of these promotions, you’ll need to fill out a survey at the end to tell USPS about your experience. It’s also a good idea to compare the results of these mailings to any previous design, as the new features may be more or less effective.
Brainstorming has begun for the 2015 promotions as well, which may feature the first Periodicals incentive, promotions for nonprofit mailers and repeats of previous successes. The official list of new promotions should be out sometime this fall.
Article Provided by Satori Software. View more articles by Satori Software.
