The Post Office’s Best Value (written December, 2014)
I know people complain from time to time about the post office, its employees and the never ending it seems like prices going up. However I believe there is a very beneficial overlooked value that I see very few of us use. I do though. I take advantage of it every day!
What is it? Well we both know the post office charges 49 cents for a first class letter up to 1 ounce – right? Do you know what they charge for the 2nd ounce? Only 21 cents. That means you and I can mail out a first class letter up to 2 ounces for only 70 cents – that’s only 35 cents per ounce. You know what else? The third and fourth and fifth ounce is still only 21 cents extra. So for arguments sake, a 3 ounce first class letter that will reach our prospect in only 2-3 days costs only 91 cents per piece or about 30 cents per ounce. For those of you who might not realize this, but to bulk mail a piece costs about 30 cents per piece, yet takes 2-3 weeks to be delivered by the post office. Do you see the beauty of this? Do you see the incredible value the post office is offering here? You can get first class service for third class prices.
Here’s what I do every day. Every letter, whether it be a sales brochure, an acknowledgment letter or a reply letter, I include my catalog of services. What I did first was to create a 16 page 1 ounce newsprint catalog for all my services with complete explanations. I know some people think I send too much info, but I’d rather send too much info then too little. Information is important to running a business as well as getting all your offers looked at. I also like to educate my customers because down the road, they’ll appreciate the wealth of free info I give away. As for this article, for only 21 extra cents, I can make sure everyone I come in contact with gets my complete catalog of services. That’s everything I offer for less than the bulk mail rate. That’s the post office’s best value my friends.
If you are not taking advantage of this tremendous value, you are doing yourself and your business a disservice for sure. Now I’m not saying put a bunch of flyers together and just mail them out. What I am saying is that for a few extra cents, you can include all of your offers – your complete catalog – as long as you tie them in together so the prospect doesn’t just get a bunch of flyers for no reason. This is where a good cover letter and full explanations come in handy. For crying out loud, you can become my competitor. You can start your own cooperative first class mailing service at these rates. Your advertising could simply be fast cooperative mailings – my cooperative mailings are mailed through the bulk mail system which takes 2-3 weeks to be delivered. For the same price, up to 3 ounces, you and I can get our cooperative mailings in the hands of our prospects in only a couple of days. You can charge anywhere from $150-$200 per thousand per flyer – up to 3 ounces gets you at least 12-14 pages. That is between $1800 to $2400 in sales minus your cost of $910 for postage and another $450 for printing – that leaves you a profit of at least $500 per thousand mailed – not including inserting your own flyers that ride for free. So you see this is a great value! A tremendous value the post office is giving us!
In my own mailings, I also include a few articles and a few papers I have written on the subject of MLM and sometimes a program I am in with a good explanation of how we can make money together – all for only 21 cents extra per ounce. I just order 70 cents stamps from USPS.com and I am good to go. I highly recommend you take advantage of the post office’s best value! You should take advantage while it lasts my friends.
The author of this article is Larry Costello, President of All-American Print & Mail, 2200 Wilson Blvd #102-57, Arlington, VA 22201.