Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

Automated direct mail has a consistently higher return on ad spend (ROAS) and ROI than digital campaigns and traditional mailings.

The Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which represents the printing and mailing industries, wants Congress to retain the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act that determines and sets price caps on the Postal Regulatory Commission’s rate-setting process for the U.S Postal Service.

Consumer price index (CPI)-based price increases were not enough to offset revenue lost from declining volumes.

Steven Kaczorowski admitted to helping the mail service provider owner defraud the USPS out of more than $1.5 million in postage.

Consumers are so used to the ability to receive paper-based documents that we can’t imagine being deprived of our “right” to have it – but the entitlement isn’t as well grounded as we think.

As you seek new services for your in-plant to offer, don’t forget to look outside the walls of your print shop. At The University of Texas at Austin, Document Solutions Director Richard Beto discovered a way to capitalize on his staff delivering print and mail to every building on campus on a daily basis.

Though nearly 20% of government mail will typically have a delivery issue due to address problems, the State of Colorado's Integrated Document Solutions division brought that down to just 5% by implementing an address quality program. In this video, Colorado State Printer Mike Lincoln tells IPI about improvements like this that his in-plant has brought to its mail operation, and how it is using USPS Informed Delivery to provide better service to customers.

To get a better understanding of the mailing services in-plants provide, how mail and package volumes are changing and which mailing technologies in-plants are installing, we surveyed our readers and are in the midst of writing a research report. Here are some of our initial findings.

After a long drought through all of 2018, the U.S. Postal Service is finally bringing back mailing promotions. This year includes some promotions from previous years, as well as one brand new promotion.

Mail is a major part of many in-plant operations. Our data shows that more than 60% of in-plants offer mailing services. To analyze the growth of in-house mail and the opportunities mail can bring, IPG has launched a new survey. It's open to all in-plants, even those that don't offer mail services, and participants are eligible for prizes.