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Can We Help You Do Your Next Mailing?
We've been working with RTO owners since 1980 providing printing, forms & services. In that time there have been very few things that we have encountered that have had the WOW factor that this new US Postal Service Program contains. Take a few minutes to read and learn about it. It will be time well invested.
15 to 20 years ago the USPS began adding rules, regulations, requirements and fees to their "bulk" mail service. That made it economically impractical for most of us to use bulk mail without the assistance of a rapidly growing industry of Mailing Houses. As a result of the new layers of bureaucracy and added cost of not being able to conduct our own direct mail, many RTO owners began used it less or not at all. In recent years, financial difficulties at USPS have caused it to search for new sources of revenue and hence developed this new EVERY DAY DIRECT MAIL program to get those of you who quit using direct mail back into the Post Office.
Allow me to give you what we see as the "good" and "bad" about this program and how it changes the way things have been done over the past 15-20 years..
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1209 S. Ridgewood Avenue - Daytona Beach, FL 32114 386-252-5766 Fax 386-255-5937 email: ashly@shopinform.com
What's Different?
Gone are permit fees (Minimum of $190 annually) and gone is the required CASS certification of mailing lists (service from independants that cost upwards of $200 per quarter for updates). Also eliminated is the need to provide or purchase a mailing list (this program is a "saturation" mailing program that delivers to every person on a carrier route) and gone also is the need to apply addresses and sort pieces before delivery to the post office (since mail is delivered as "saturation" all that is needed for an address is "Local Postal Customer."). You can still select where your mail goes and I will explain that shortly. The cost to deliver a piece of mail is 14.2 cents each and that can be for a piece up to 12" x 15"......14.2 CENTS!
What's Good About Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)?
The biggest deal is the price of 14.2 cents per piece. There are no other fees, charges or assessments. It's the cost of the postage and the cost of the mailing pieces and that it it! A standard 4" x 6" postcard, sent as bulk mail, depending upon your list, can require postage upwards of 20-22 cents (first class postcard stamp is 29 cents and anything larger than the 4" x 6" postcard size requires a 44 cent stamp). EDDM requires the piece to be taller than 6.125" or longer than 11.25" to qualify. So you are able to send a piece that is 3 TIMES larger than a standard postcard for about half of the first class rate.
If you've used any of the large bulk mail houses for your mail you know that they can give you a decent rate but that they mail to a region and saturate every carrier route. You're paying for mail to your targeted customer as well as to those that would never enter your store. With EDDM you can SELECT THE CARRIER ROUTES to which your mail is delivered. USPS provides us with an on-line tool that will put a radius around your store and then allow you to select carrier route located in neighborhoods where your customer reside and ignore those where you know the demographics are wrong. Now THAT's WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION!!!
What's Bad About Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)?
Quite frankly I haven't been able to find much "Bad" about this program. It appears to be as close to a win-win for the RTO owner and USPS. You as the rto owner, have a little extra work in compiling the mailing pieces into carrier routes and labeling the bundles. But the USPS site provides you with the forms and labels required and there are only 2 or 3 different forms. As a service to our customers, Inform will put your mailing together as required by the USPS and we have made arrangement with the USPS for the carrier route bundles to be Priority Mailed directly to your post offices involved and go right to the carrier delivering the pieces. All that you have to do is let Inform know what zip codes and carrier routes you wish to mail.
