The cost to mail bills, magazines and other materials to consumer-members through the United States Postal Service bumps up again July 14.

To learn about what the change means for Utility Pioneers, Pioneer Senior Manager of Publications Production Elizabeth Beatty and Publications Coordinator Alyssa McDougle attended the National Postal Forum in June. Both team members earned direct mail certificates at the conference.

“One area of continued pain for everyone is the ongoing USPS postal increases. We’re staring down another pretty sizable increase in July,” Pioneer Chief Financial & Administrative Officer Matthew Pierce reports.

The United States Postal Service enacts a 7.8% increase on July 14, 2024.

“It’s coming whether we like it or not,” Alyssa says. “To help us prepare, we learned about discounts and promotions we can use to mitigate the impact of the increase.”

1. Be Proactive

Several workshops taught the importance of being proactive to address postal changes and increases. One great way to do it is by reducing undeliverable mail — 5% or more of addresses in a typical mailing list are wrong or outdated.

The cost for bad addresses adds up. In mid-2024, paper returns cost 90 cents per mailing. Electronic return costs are about half, with more leeway for first-time address errors. About 2.5 billion pieces of mail per year are treated as waste by the USPS, costing billions of dollars that lead to steep postage increases.

Pioneer began using Intelligent Mail barcodes for our publications in 2011. Pioneer uses electronic returns to save Utility Pioneers $40,000+ in postage costs annually.

When you receive reports from your mail service provider, or MSP, with address changes, move updates or undeliverable mail, take time to verify the changes and update your mailing list. It will save you postage each time you mail to that address. Your MSP may have software to help you track down changes, so don’t be afraid to ask them for help.

2. Match Increases with Incentives

Although postage rates will go up by an average of 7.8% this summer, the impact of the increase can be lessened by taking advantage of several postage promotions and incentives.

Full-service and seamless acceptance incentives increased by 66.7% each, far outpacing the increase in mailing costs. Pioneer’s working with our members to take advantage of promotions when possible. If you’re not partnering with us yet, be sure to talk with your print partners to see if they’re providing full-service and seamless services.

Also, act quickly to take advantage of the USPS Mail Growth incentives for first class and marketing mail. These incentives allow mail owners to earn credits for mail volume in excess of what they sent in 2023. To qualify, mailers must have had a minimum volume of 1 million pieces mailed during the incentive period. The timeline to register for these incentives closes at the end of June, and must be done by each business through their own USPS Business Customer Gateway. Visit USPS Postal Pro for registration details. Need help? Reach out to Pioneer’s mailing team.

Several promotions will run through the end of the year that save between 3-6% on postage for eligible First Class and Marketing Mail. The proposed 2025 promotions include add-ons for Informed Delivery and sustainability as well. See the full schedule of promotions at postalpro.usps.com/promotions.

3. Plan for Time-Sensitive Mailings

Part of the USPS Delivering for America plan involves building and consolidating USPS facilities. With the infrastructure changes, prepare for transition period delays, specifically regarding your time-sensitive mailings.

Ask your mail service provider about destination entry to cut down on the number of facilities your mail passes between. Plus, the closer you get your mail to its destination, the less postage you pay.

4. Don’t Give Up on Mail

With mail costs rising, should you reconsider print products? Not if you want results.

Lob, a direct mail automation provider, hosted a workshop at the forum focused on key findings from their report, “2024 State of Direct Mail.” In 2024, 84% of marketers agreed that direct mail provides the highest ROI of any channel they use, up 10% from last year’s report. Letters and postcards are still the most popular format sent.

Customer retention and acquisitions are the most common campaign types. The most popular ways to measure conversion are personalized URLs.

The number of respondents increasing direct mail spend in 2024 rose from 58% to 82%. Marketers are still valuing direct mail as part of their omnichannel approach to communicate with members and potential customers.

Meet Mail Challenges with Cooperation

The National Postal Forum provides educational and hands-on workshops to help mailers and mail service providers stay up to date with postal changes, understand best practices and talk with industry peers and USPS executives in person about specific issues or challenges facing the industry.

“Many sessions focused on how to integrate postage with new technology,” Alyssa reports. “There were sessions on bringing databases into the cloud, how to use AI technology to streamline postal data and new ways to combine digital and mail marketing to reach consumers.”

The knowledge Pioneer’s team gained helps the co-op use resources to save members money on postage and make recommendations for improved workflows internally. Idea-sharing at the event is invaluable because we are all working toward the same goal of effective communication with our members and customers.

“We’re doing everything possible to take advantage of special discounts to optimize your mailing lists and to keep the Periodical permits healthy,” Pierce says. “Believe it or not, it’s still generally more affordable to produce and mail a glossy 32-page magazine than it is to send out a single sheet of paper in a First-Class stamped envelope.”