Save Money with Bulk Mail – Tip #8

Bulk mailing is the least expensive way for you to mail a printed newsletter.  Although the pricing element is a pro, the speed of delivery (or should I say the absence thereof) is a con.  But, let’s be realistic…there are times when money is more important than time so read on for the details of what’s required for you to be able to send your newsletters via bulk mail delivery.

In order to send out a mailing bulk, you must have a minimum of 200 pieces of like mail.  The more pieces you have going to a zone, the greater your cost savings.  With a little planning, the payoff to bulk mailing is that you can almost cut your postage costs in half.  If you’re mailing to a large database, those savings can be significant.

The most common type of bulk mail is called “Standard Class.”  (it used to be called 3^rd Class)  Most advertising mail, newsletters, etc. are sent by Standard Class.

You can contact your Post Office for further details, necessary supplies, classes and information, however there are a couple of annual charges that you need to be aware of so you’ll know what to ask them for.

Bulk Mail permit — This is an annual fee and is charged to everyone using bulk mail.  It enables you to use either your postage machine or pre-cancelled stamps to send your bulk mail under your permit number which they will assign to you.  If you’re going to be using your postage machine, you’ll have to have an imprinter made for it.  Contact your postage machine vendor. 

Imprint fee — If your list has reached several hundred (or thousand) and it becomes too time consuming to run them through your postage machine or to hand affix pre-cancelled stamps, then you may want to get an imprint permit.  On top of your annual bulk mail permit fee, the imprint fee is on top of that (check with the post office for current fee schedule) and enables you to have your bulk mail permit number printed right on your newsletter.  When volume warrants, this saves a tremendous amount of time and labor costs.

The downsides of bulk mail delivery are:
1)  Length of service – takes longer for bulk mail pieces to be delivered as contrasted to first class mail.  Sometimes this is an issue, sometimes it’s not. 
2)   Appears less “special” – obviously when something is sent via bulk mail delivery, the recipient of the piece knows that the same piece has gone out to a large list of people.  Again…sometimes this is an issue, sometimes it’s not.

Does bulk mail have a place in your business?  If you have a very large database with whom you want to stay in touch by doing a physical mailing periodically, then…..yes, absolutely…bulk mailing is an option you should consider.

-Debra Jones
http://DebraJonesOnline.com
http://shop.DebraJonesOnline.com