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Discount mailing services
can be a cost-effective solution for your business needs.
Natalie Fowler, the owner of a neighborhood coffeehouse, recognizes
the advantages of using mail over other advertising media.
She wants to begin a mailing program to advertise her seasonal
and specialty coffees to households and businesses in her surrounding
neighborhoods. She plans to send large mailings on a fairly
regular basis. Natalie thinks that discount mailing services
could offer the most cost-effective mailing method. Natalie
uses the following steps to complete her mailing process.
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1. ORGANIZING THE MAILING
Quantity, Shape, and
Content
For her first mailing, Natalie wants to send 1,000 advertisements for
a seasonal promotion two months from now. Since she will pay an annual
mailing fee of $175, Natalie must mail 1,000 advertisements between two
and four times a year to make her mailings cost-effective compared with
retail rates.
Natalie has designed a 1-ounce letter with content that
is considered advertising by the Postal Service and is
therefore eligible for Standard Mail rates. She also
has the option of sending the advertisements as First-Class
Mail.
Address Lists and Addressing
Since Natalie does not have her own address list, she contacts several
mail service providers and finds a list that is formatted correctly
and has been verified in the last six months using CASS-certified
software. Natalie decides to purchase this list of 1,000 households
and businesses in her surrounding neighborhoods. She plans to print
the addresses on labels and affix them to her envelopes.
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2. CHOOSING A POSTAGE PAYMENT METHOD
How Will Natalie Pay
Postage?
To make mailing easier, Natalie decides to preprint her envelopes with
a permit imprint. She will not be charged for postage
until she enters her mail at the Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU).
To use a permit imprint, Natalie fills out an application
(Form 3615) at
the BMEU where she will enter her mail. Natalie pays
a $175 annual mailing fee and a one-time $175 application
fee for her permit imprint account.
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3. PLANNING FOR DISCOUNTS
Mail Preparation: Automation
or Machinable?
Natalie must now decide whether to prepare her mail as machinable letters
or automation letters with barcodes. She talks
to a Mailpiece Design Analyst from the Postal Service and finds that
her mailpiece meets the size, shape, and design standards for machinable
letters.
To support her mailing program, Natalie recently purchased
inexpensive presort software that provides printed address
labels with barcodes in presort sequence, mailing documentation,
and postage statements. Since her address list is already
CASS-certified and the mailpieces contain barcodes, she
can mail at the lower automation rate and save about
$0.05 per piece.
Level of Sortation
Because Natalie’s mail is going to the same local area, she knows
her mail will need to be sorted only to 5 digits. Natalie realizes that
she has two options for sorting her mail: doing it herself or hiring
a mail service provider. If she
does it herself, she can print her labels in ZIP Code order and have
her employees place the mailpieces into trays she gets from the Post Office. If Natalie hires a mail service provider, they can print her
advertisement, address and stuff her envelopes, apply postage, sort the
mail into ZIP Code order, and put the mail into trays. Ultimately, Natalie
decides to do this mailing on her own but knows that if she needs help
she can hire a mail service provider at any time.
Mail Entry
Natalie calls the BMEU to check on its operating hours and discovers
that the BMEU is located within a Sectional Center Facility (SCF), which
is a postal facility that processes the mail on its way to the delivery
Post Office. Because the BMEU and the SCF are in the same location, Natalie
can take advantage of the Destination Sectional Center Facility (DSCF)
discount.
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4. FILLING OUT THE POSTAGE STATEMENT
What Is a Postage Statement?
Natalie is required to give the BMEU clerk a completed postage statement,
which is a form that documents the volume of the mailing and the postage
payable or affixed. The presort software Natalie bought will help her
fill out the proper postage statement. By signing the postage statement,
she certifies that the mail meets the eligibility and addressing standards
for the rate claimed.
Which Postage Statement
Should Natalie Complete?
Each discount mailing service and postage payment method has its own
postage statement. Natalie can find postage
statements online, at her Post Office or at her BMEU.
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A. The permit number is on the receipt that Natalie received when she first
applied for a permit.
B. Areas in gray are filled in by Postal Service employees.
C. Natalie is not a federal agency; she leaves this field blank.
D. Natalie enters the total number and type of containers.
E. Natalie figures out her cost on page two of the postage statement.
F. Natalie fills in the weight of the mailpiece in decimal pounds to four digits.
G. The mail service provider who sold Natalie her address list gave her the
date that the list was last verified with CASS-certified software.
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5. LOOKING AT COSTS
Natalie uses the back of her postage statement to find
that her cost for postage will be $176 for automation
Standard Mail. For this first mailing, Natalie will also
have to pay the $175 annual mailing fee and the $175
permit imprint fee. However, she will be able to recover
these costs over time with the money she saves on future
discount mailings.
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A. Natalie uses Section A because she is mailing letters at
an automation rate.
B. Natalie enters the number of pieces she is mailing.
C. Natalie multiplies the number of pieces by the postage rate to find her
cost for postage.
D. Natalie’s total cost for postage is $176.00, which she reports on
page one of the postage statement.
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