Many years ago, we dealt with a medium-sized biotechnology company and as part of their budget process, we were asked to price all their projected mailing projects for the upcoming year including postage. This was a time-consuming process that would take about a week to put together and finalize.
Each year, the marketing department would run out of money by July or August and ended up cutting almost all their projects for the last part of the year. So, why after a detailed and extensive process did the marketing department run out of money for direct mail? One word – postage.
As part of our process, we had assumed the proper postage method for the purpose and type of each piece being mailed. Things that were not a delivery priority such as newsletters or pieces that would weigh over an ounce (First Class postage increases by the ounce while Marketing or Standard mail is the same up to 4 ounces), we assumed a Marketing mail method with the rest being First Class Presort.
However, as the jobs would come up, the marketing coordinator insisted that we mail out everything via First Class, no matter the circumstances. When we brought up that they were spending tens of thousands of dollars more in postage than they needed to, she simply replied “We are a first-class organization and first-class organizations should mail everything First Class”.
Applying the proper postage is the number one way to stretch your direct mail dollar and increase your ROI. Please note the word “proper” is emphasized here instead of “cheapest”. This is because there are times when a piece should be mailed via First Class instead of via Marketing or Non-profit such as…
The key word in number five is recommend. Postage is too important not to be having a dialogue with your mailing professionals. Not only because of the amount of money that is involved but the overall success of your direct mail project can be affected by not selecting the correct postage method. We at Cox Printing take pride being able to provide all your options so you can make the best decision possible for your campaign.