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Demystifying U.S. Bulk Mail Postage Rates

Postal Rates are probably the most misunderstood element of the entire Bulk Mail process. That's primarily because we are all very familair with the traditional concept of buying stamps at the post office. You purchase the number of stamps you need for a set price at the counter and you're then able to mail your letters, bills postcards and greeting cards. When you move into Bulk Mailing It doesn't work the same way. Bulk Mail Postage and the rates associated with it fluctuate based on a scale that takes into acount many different variables.

The first thing you need to understand about Bulk is there are different postage rate categories for First Class Mail, Standard Rate Mail and, Non-Profit Mail. The only way to identify which of these categories a particular mailpiece will fall into is to Presort the mailing list using certified Postal software. The software takes into account the dimensionality of the mailpiece along with other varaibles that affect the cost of delivery and assigns the appropriate postage rate category value to each address record in the list.

The software prepares a form known as a Postage Statement. This postage statement shows the breakdown of mailpieces that qualify for each of the different rate categories within the class of Bulk mail that was presorted. Generally speaking, the lion's share of your mailpieces will fall into the 3-Digit Bulk Mail rate. Each of the charts below has the 3-Digit line that you can use to guesstimate your postage cost.

Since we presort your mail, inkjet it with a barcode and an endorsement line along with the actual address, we significantly reduce the amount of handling the Post Office needs to do with your mail. As a result, the Post Office gives you the discounted pricing shown below for your Bulk Mail. In fact, all Bulk Mailers like MLS Mailing recently were charged with taking on the additional task of making certain that every address in your mail list is updated against the Post Office's current National Change of Address registry. This process significantly cuts down on the potential for undeliverable mail and all of the costs associated with handling and discarding that material.

It goes without saying that the better handle you have on your mailing list and customer habits, the greater the chances are that Variable Data Personalization will have the kind of impact you would like to see from your Direct Mail efforts. If you think you'd like to attempt a results-oriented Variable Data Personalization mailing project, let us show you the ins and outs of what is possible. We can also provide some insight into exactly how you can utilize VDP most efficiently to help ensure that it translates into additional sales and revenues for your enterprise. Plus, MLS Mailing has the know-how and the technology to make Variable Data Personalization less cost-prohibitive than ever before.

Following are the Direct Mail Postal Rates effective May 11, 2009. We hope these charts give you important insight as to why we need a list and a sample mailing piece (to measure and weigh) in order to presort your list before we can provide you with a final postage amount. Wihtout that information we can only give you our best guess based on the 3-Digit rates below.

Here are a few mailing pieces that generated remarkable results for MLS MAILING Clients.

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