As you have heard – if you wish to continue receiving postal-automation discounts for your commercial mailings, you must convert all your existing mail barcodes to the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) by midnight of January 27th. This transition will occur in two stages, with the option to use an IMb-basic barcode until January 2014 while still receiving automation discounts. The IMb-basic is a transitional barcode that can help you understand the new system before committing to the IMb full-service barcode in 2014 (required if you wish to still receive automation discounts after this date).
The January 28 deadline to convert all your first class and standard mail barcodes to the intelligent mail barcode is approaching fast, yet many direct mail advertisers are still unsure about what changes the introduction of Intelligent Mail barcodes will bring to their business. Such big upgrades in the postal service industry always cause a lot of anxiety for businesses who rely on direct mail, and many are worried that the transition will cause extra costs and lost revenue as they come up to speed.
The good news is that the Intelligent Mail barcode is, as the name implies, substantially more ‘intelligent’ than the first class and standard mail barcodes – offering greater precision and flexibility in your tracking and automation functions. When engaging in direct mail marketing the more precisely you can track the deliverability and customer-response of each mailing, the more profitable and effective your campaigns will become. Once they have gotten used to the new system, savvy commercial mailers will be able to implement many in-depth tracking measures and fine-tune their mailings to a higher degree than ever before.
So let’s look at the ways typical ways the IMb can save you money and improve your ROI as a direct mail marketer. The IMb combines information from the POSTNET, OneCode ACS and PLANET data into one comprehensive barcode, allowing you to track the progress and response to each individual piece of mail with a high level of accuracy.
The above can have a huge positive impact on your bottom line, as it removes a lot of the guessing and waiting that is traditionally associated with direct mail. For instance, there is the old cliché that one will try to avoid payment by claiming ‘the check is in the mail’ – when your return mail has an IMb, you will be able to verify such claims immediately. This allows you to make more fully-informed decisions and plans in regards to tweaking your mailing campaign, while keeping your customers up to date on the status of their outgoing and incoming mail from you.
Us Mailing House is your Turn Key Direct Mail partner. We are here to help you understand the US Mail changes and how to stay on top of postal regulations. If you are thinking of sending a direct mail campaign in the comming months, send us a copy of your mailer and we will check to make sure it complies with USPS regulations. We will check your mailer free of charge. It is much better to have your direct mail design checked out by professionals before going to press.