USPS Files Price Increase for July 2024

Are you ready for the postage rate increase coming in July? Well, ready or not on July 14, 2024 postage rates are going up. Direct mail is still by far the best marketing channel with the highest ROI, but with each postage increase we need to reach out to customers to make sure they understand its value. Are your clients harnessing the power of print marketing?

Here are some of the rates:

First Class Regular

• 1 ounce stamped letter size pieces will increase to $0.73 each
• 1 ounce metered letter size will increase to $0.69 each
• 1 ounce postcard will increase to $0.56 each
• 1 ounce Flats size pieces will increase to $1.50 each

First Class Presorted

• Mixed AADC letters will increase to $0.622 each
• Mixed AADC cards will increase to $0.419 each
• Mixed ADC Presorted flats will increase to $1.355 each

Standard Mail

• Mixed AADC Letters will increase to $0.402 each
• Mixed ADC Flats will increase to $1.041 each

Nonprofit Mail

• Mixed AADC Letters will increase to $0.23 each
• Mixed ADC Flats will increase to $0.805 each

Yes, postage is increasing, but direct mail is still the most effective marketing channel! Show your customers how to make the most of it. Check out these special promotions with the USPS to save on postage for the rest of this year. There are a variety of programs to choose from, so your customers should be able to find at least one that is a good fit. You can help them save some money and look like a hero!

Postal Promotions For 2024

The Postal Service is offering six promotional discounts from February through the end of this year. Do you have a planned strategy to help your customers with them? You can not only help them save money on postage, but really stand out and increase their response rate.

1. Tactile, Sensory & Interactive Promotion – This program runs February 1, 2024 – July 31, 202 This year the discount has increases to 5%! Use this program to highlight special finishing technologies that engage the senses. Some ideas are special visual effects, sound, scent, texture/tactile coatings, and even taste. In addition, you can create interactive mail pieces such as pop-ups, infinite folds, or other dimensional aspects. This is a really fun one that can only be done with print marketing.
2. Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion – This program runs February 1, 2024 – July 31, 2024. This year the discount increases to 4%. Use this program is to add color marketing messaging on your bills and statements. Turn transactional mail into promotional pieces also.
3. Emerging Technology – This promotion is for creative ways to incorporate technology into direct mail. You can get a 3% discount if you use augmented reality, basic voice assistant or QR codes for mobile shopping. You can get a 4% discount if you use advanced voice assistant, video, NFC, mixed reality or virtual reality. This runs March 1 – Sept 30^th.
4. Reply Mail IMbA – This promotion is for a faster easier way to do reply mail. You can get a 3% discount by using a static barcode and enrolling in IMbA. You can get a 6% discount by using a serialized barcode and enrolling in IMbA. This runs July 1 – Dec 31^st.
5. Informed Delivery - This promotion is for Integrating direct mail with digital marketing channels. With Informed Delivery, business mailers can engage users through an integrated mail and digital marketing campaign that generates additional consumer impressions, interactions, and insights. This gives you a 4% discount. This runs Aug 1 – Dec 31^st.
6. Retargeting - This promotion is for matching either the visitor’s IP address to a website or an app to a customer’s physical address. Triggered automatically by a digital interaction, retargeted direct mail is a dynamically printed, targeted message sent in a timely manner to a customer’s home via a First-Class Mail Postcard. You can get a 5% discount. This runs Sept 1 – Nov 30^th.

Don’t let the postage rate increases scare your customers away from this important marketing channel! Direct mail has the highest ROI of all marketing channels when done correctly! Use this as an opportunity to talk to your customers about better targeting, messaging and of course testing.

It’s time to get creative with your customers and send direct mail that is interesting as well as cost effective. Don’t let the July postage rate increase get you down. You can help your customers get better results! Are you ready to get started?