Another USPS postage increase is here. For direct mail marketers, the immediate concern is not simply that every piece will cost more. It is that plans made months ago may no longer work as expected.
Direct mail programs are rarely planned one campaign at a time. Annual budgets, mailing volumes, testing strategies, production schedules, and revenue forecasts are often established well in advance. When postage changes during that planning cycle, the effects can ripple through the entire program.
A budget that once supported twelve campaigns may now support only eleven. A carefully designed test may need to be reduced. An acquisition campaign may face a higher cost per response before the first piece enters the mail.
That is why the most useful question after a postage increase is not simply, “Should we mail less?”
It is: “How do we protect the plan?”
Read this whole article on Printing Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
