How to choose your postage

The cost of postage can be one of the most expensive components of any mailing campaign and could have significant effects on your open rate and your delivery times. The two most important factors about postage is:

1. Postage class: The class will decide your cost and delivery time.
2. Postage appearance: How your postage looks on your mail piece could affect your open rate. This is independent of your postage class; therefore you can choose different appearances for the same class.

First Class Postage

All time-sensitive material must be mailed first class; this usually delivers in 3 to 5 business days. First-class is more expensive than Standard class. When using first class postage your undeliverable mail will be returned back to you by the Post Office. There are two types of first-class postage:

1. Regular first class: This is the normal first class postage that most consumers use. Orders using this type of postage can be shipped to you so that you can mail them locally.
2. Presort first class: This postage class has the same delivery time as the regular first class, but it has a lower rate since we perform some of the sorting work for the USPS.

Following are the different features of using presort first class postage versus regular first class postage.

• Your mailers will be barcoded.
• Your mail is trackable.
• Your postage is not canceled unless you choose us to cancel your postage.
• Your postage stamp has a different design than regular first class.
• We will NCOA (National Change of Address service) your list free of charge.
• Must be mailed by us and can not be shipped to you to be mailed locally.

Standard and Nonprofit class

Standard and Non-profit classes of mail usually take one to two weeks to deliver. This timeline could be extended further during busy times such as the holidays or election time. Your undeliverable mail will NOT be returned back to you and is recycled by the USPS.   We highly discourage mailing time-sensitive material at standard or nonprofit class rates. USPS offers no guarantees on delivery time with these classes of mail.  Following are the characteristics of this class of mail.

• Your mailers will be barcoded.
• Your mail is trackable.
• Your postage is not canceled unless you have us cancel your postage.
• The availability of postage designs is based on what USPS makes available for us at the time of mailing.
• We will NCOA (National Change of Address service) your list free of charge.
• Must be mailed by us and cannot be shipped to you to be mailed locally.

   You can use most handwritten fonts with presort postage; see them on this list. There are no restrictions with regular first class postage so all handwritten fonts can be used with regular first class.

Postage appearance

Your postage can be applied to your mailers using three different methods, regardless of the class of postage you choose. The appearance of your postage is a very important factor when your mailers are being sent in an envelope.  The appearance of your envelope can affect your response rate, which in turn can affect your revenue and profitability.  A higher percentage of your envelopes could be thrown away, unopened if your envelope appears to be part of a mass mailing or junk mail campaign. Therefore, we highly recommend using real peel-and-stick postage stamps for letter mailing campaigns versus using metered or indicia postage. A real peel and stick stamp is called 'precanceled' postage, when mailing using any of the presort classes.  The appearance of your postage is not that important when mailing pieces such as postcards or self-mailers that are obviously used for advertising. Using a real peel and stick stamp will not add any additional value to these types of mailings.

The table below shows the three different methods of postage that can be applied to your mailers.

Postage method	Appearance
Real peel & stick postage stamps: An actual peel & stick postage stamp. This type of postage is called "precanceled" if you are using presort class.
Metered postage: This is a red meter printed on your mailpiece. This option is only available for envelopes. We currently offer this type of postage only for international mail. We discourage this type of postage due to the "mass mailing" appearance.
Postage imprint/indicia: This is our permit number printed in your mail piece. We discourage using this type of postage on envelopes since it makes it look like junk mail. But in certain instances, an envelope with a permit imprint may generate more response. We generally use this type of postage on postcards and self-mailers.