Do you like to brag and say you taught yourself all about a subject?
I know I do.
In fact, I tried to do it this month with Mailing information and failed miserably.
I found that the United States Postal Service provides a plethora of information that goes on for days and days. Each subject I tried to learn about had even more little sub categories to define exceptions that were no where near the information I needed. I was only interested in learning about Business and Bulk Mailing. Finding information wasn’t the problem, but actually finding the basic details of what I needed were. I could usually find what I was looking for buried the the middle of tons of other information regarding the subject, followed by a list of exceptions. I also ran into the problem of finding a lot of outdated information. USPS is constantly updated and changing things, finding current information proved to be difficult. The large supply of mailing information is a double edged sword; good to have available, hard to sort through.
In order to help you stay informed and prepare for mail more efficiently, I have been doing a little sorting of my own. (With a lot of help from our Mailing Department) We have divided the information into smaller, bite-sized pieces. We have simply explained what you need to know about each Mailing Class, Mail Types and their Regulations, as well as other mailing options such as Every Door Direct Mail.
There is a lot of information we could spit at you about mailing, and we sure will if you ask us about it! But, in all honesty, you only need to cover a few basics. All of these things can help you decided what Postage Class is right for you, and if your piece will send as your intended Mail Type:
- What do you want to mail?
- How fast does it need to get there?
- Do you have your basic design requirements right? (if you have designed your own piece)
After these basics have been covered, our Mailing Department can handle the rest with ease. Your mail piece design is reviewed, pieces are sorted to get the lowest mailing rates available, addresses are checked and removed or updated if needed, and the job is sent.
These pages were created for decision makers to become more informed about their mailing options and as a resource for designers needing to know basic characteristics of each Mail Type.