Time again to think about trimming postage cost.

• Author: Turner, Jim
• Position: Direct Mail Essentials

Another postage increase was enacted in July 2007 following an earlier one in January 2006. So now is a good time to look at how to reduce costs in your direct-mail campaigns. Of all advertising media, direct mail is among the most expensive, typically ranging from about $500 per thousand for postcards to $1,000 or more for letter-size mailings containing a brochure, letter and reply card. Of course, mailings can be done for a little--but not much--less and certainly a lot more. But most will fall into this range.

There are a number of options to trim costs without jeopardizing your response rate.

Sort for the post office

Of course you have the basic choice of first class or standard class (formerly 3rd class) with a savings of at least $0.10 or more per piece. But there are numerous other options for presorting your mailings to save money. Among these are three- or five-digit sorting, sorting by automated area distribution centers and carrier routes. Within carrier routes (literally the route the postman takes), there are further categories such as basic, high density and saturation. Your mailer may also be able to use bar coding, which sorts and prints zip code information at the nine-digit level. Each additional sort level reduces your rate, so that even within standard-class mailings, you might save as much as $60 or more per thousand on postage.

Make your list more efficient

In a typical mail campaign, as many as 98 percent of recipients don't respond. So, try to refine your list selections. The optimum way is by accurate tracking of those who do respond. You may be able to find basic demographic attributes common to responders but unrelated to nonresponders. Think of it this way, for each 1,000 names you remove, you will probably save $500 to $1,000. Tracking is difficult work. But it is important...