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Ideas for Dealing with New Postal Rates

I'm sure most of you noticed, as Doc did, that certain bulk mailing rates went up on April 17th, another attempt by the Postal Service to stop the flow of red ink. So with rates going up, what are bulk mailers to do?
Written by Doc , Contributor

I'm sure most of you noticed, as Doc did, that certain bulk mailing rates went up on April 17th, another attempt by the Postal Service to stop the flow of red ink. So with rates going up, what are bulk mailers to do?

Julie Sullivan over at Digital Nirvana has some great ideas for keeping postage costs down.

1.     Segment Your Data.  By segmenting your database, you'll be able to quickly discover buckets of opportunity ranging from your most profitable customers to your highest potential prospects. Allocate your marketing dollars wisely, and don't waste your budget on messages that will fall on deaf ears. 2.    Craft Relevant Messaging. As a direct marketer, you goal is to illicit response. Not only do you need to find the right audience, you also need to hit them with a relevant message that will get them to act on your offer. Incorporating strategies such as personalization and human behavior response triggers into your copy and design can improve your response rate and ultimately increase revenue. 3.     Digitize Your Print. Use technology that will transfer your one-sized-fits-all communications into meaningful conversations. Through business rules assigned to your program, variable digital print can take hundreds of variables and make them come alive into a personalized message for your target audience. Less volume and higher response can validate the digital print ROI. 4.    NCOA Your Mailing List. An upfront investment in NCOA (National Change of Address) could save you sometimes thousands on undelivered mail. Use this updated data with correct mailing addresses to cleanse your database and maintain a high quality list.

The one silver lining to a postal rate increase is that it forces large mailers to be even more efficient and to look to technology for help in keeping costs down. Doc knows it's all a numbers game and you have to find a way to make the numbers work in your favor.

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