Current news: Postal rate changes & FREE stuff from the USPS

Many of you saw in the news that the US Postal Service wants to raise rates again in January 2011.  They only lost a few billion dollars and want to raise rates.  I understand and am glad that the USPS has finally done what all the rest of the country did over the past couple years – downsize their payroll.  Over 100,000 employees no longer work at the USPS, mainly through attrition, but at least the USPS didn’t automatically hire replacements. 

Back to the rate increase – The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) rejected the exigent rate case.  It was a unanimous decision and does demonstrate that the PRC is not just a rubber-stamp outfit.  A quick interview is posted at http://multichannelmerchant.com/catalog/1006-ruth-goldway-on-exigent-rate-case-ruling/ with the PRC chairman.  The USPS is appealing that ruling, but the message was clear.  The USPS has to further control costs, improve efficiencies and try to expand their market.  To that effect, they are giving away some FREE stuff – this is part of the expanding their market, not controlling costs. 

If you ship with the USPS using their FREE boxes, you can save a lot on packaging because they are FREE.  You can go to www.usps.com and order a variety of FREE supplies for expedited shipping services.  I have received numerous emails in the past weeks promoting their FREE boxes, including the new FREE shipping kit and the new FREE large flat rate boxes.  (My message is that there is a difference between emphasis and overkill.  Proper message conveyance is a subject for the future.)

Who’s gonna read this letter?

Before I start, please avoid using the word “gonna”.  It’s annoying, not a real word, but it did get attention in the headline.

Now that you understand who is sending the letter, consider carefully the other end of it – the reader.   A real person will open the envelope and start to read your pain-stakingly chosen words and make a quick decision whether to read all of them.   It is your job to inspire them to read to the end.  How? 

Good writing helps.  Creative & colorful phrasing helps.  None of those things matter much if you don’t know who is reading the letter.  You need to imagine them standing at the kitchen counter, popping open the letter and put yourself in their shoes (or sandals, bare feet, whatever).   In your mind, answer the question - Why did I just open this envelope? 

Now, ask yourself (as the reader), am I older or younger?  Older readers, due to their more traditional education, will prefer a more structured formal style letter.  Younger readers, have shorter attention spans and a more “open” literay education, will need snappier copy (let’s blame television here).

Am I (the reader) familiar with your group/mission?   This question tells you how much education you need in the letter.  Acquisition letters will need a lot more raw information, and that limits the passion building aspect of your message.  Continuity campaigns can spend more time building a dedication in the reader for your mission, which in turn can lead to increased amount and frequency of donations or purchases.

Am I passionate about this group or lukewarm?   This helps you decide how to use active or passive your verbs.  Your letter purpose might be more informative about a new event, so passive for active might be good.  No need to keep over-stimulating them – they already deeply believe.  Your message might need lots of hard energy to motivate the passionate supporters because the event is new.  You’ll decide that, but knowing their interest level helps mold your attitude in the letter.

I’m sure you can think of other aspects we all should imagine as we put ourselves into the reader.  Share them for discussion and let’s start a passionate discussion.

Letter signer – more than a scrawl

My rule #1 for writing fundraising or marketing letters - know who is signing the letter.  Is it a famous endorser of your campaign/product?  The CEO?  Development Director?  Decide up front whose name is going to be at the (almost) bottom of the letter (right before the required P.S.).

Whoever it is, remember that letters are personal.  Write it from the signer to the reader – not from a faceless person behind a desk somewhere to an anonymous reader across the state.  Use the voice of the signer – does that person talk in a colloquial down-home fashion, with professorial ten-dollar words or more in an engaging social fashion?  I suggest having a conversation with that person.  Spend 15 minutes discussing the purpose of the letter, how they rose to be the CEO/DD/whatever and then get a few passions from them.  Find out if they love movies, fishing, bowling, dancing, American Idol, etc.  This is important on two fronts.  You get to hear them relax and really talk to you, person to person, and it might give you something to include in your letter.

The more the reader connects with the signer, the more likely the reader will take the action requested.  Creating that connection, that personal relevance to the reader, is one of your primary goals as the letter writer.  You will not violate any bulk mail USPS rules by creating this personal letter as it won’t cross into the “personal correspondence” First Class mail rule.  If challenged by the USPS because you wrote so personally, just show them two letters.  Then you’ll have confidence that you even fooled the USPS into thinking the signer was sending a very personal letter to the reader.

Some of your readers really will know the signer.  Those personal touches, accurately done, will really increase your success with that crowd.   Those that didn’t know the signer before reading it, should feel as if they now have a connection. 

Happy letter crafting.

My rules for letter writing

In some of the next posts I’ll list my 8 consolidated rules for writing action-requesting letters.  Normally these letters call for the reader to make a financial donation.  Others to join a group or call a politician.  Whatever the action, you or your client are paying good money to make that action occur, so let’s git’er done and done successfully.

When I keep these rules in mind, lots of the clutter I keep putting into those letters just falls away into dust.  I used to write long, verbose letters for clients that got marginal but successful results.  After reading a few books, several dozen articles and attending numerous seminars/webinars, I summarized my list and pasted it to my office wall.   The difference in the success of the letters is dramatic.

In no particular order, I’ll list them one by one.  I welcome commentary, questions and contradictory statements.  Asking others to share with me is how I got better, so I look forward to improving my writing by hearing what you have to say.  We all will be better off.

Fair warning:  These rules do not follow the usual – “tell a tearjerker story, put in a sorrowful photo, be sure to accept credit cards and a prepaid envelope” model.  They apply to all letters requesting action, specifically fundraising letters.  And, no, grammar and spelling rules are not mentioned.  You may have noticed I purposely violated several of those rules (sorry Dad!)

After I write about all 8 of my rules, you’ll think “Duh.  That was obvious.”  My thoughts exactly.  However, they became obvious only after you read them.  And, there is still a reason that they are posted on a large hand-written chart on my wall – the obvious sometimes hides as we write.  Sometimes our own creativity is our worst enemy.

Nonprofits – how to get that great postage discount

Long ago, the USPS and Congress decided it would be a good idea to give not-for-profit organizations a break on their postage.  This would make it cheaper for groups to send out their newsletters, promote their fundraising activities, etc.  The cost of giving that discount to these organizations, who do tremendous good deeds in society, is shared by everyone who mails.  Your electric bill, birthday cards and bulk mailings all help.  Our communities are better off by letting these groups spend more of their money on their missions and less on overhead.

To get this discount, a not-for-profit group has to apply to the USPS and meet a few more criteria than the IRS has for nonprofits.  Getting approved is FREE.  The application form is fairly straightforward and they can download it here.  They’ll need their 501(c)(3) letter from the IRS, their articles of incorporation and some other documentation about what they do.  Board meeting minutes, brochures or newsletters all help show the USPS that they carry out their mission.  When they are approved, they may then mail at the discounted nonprofit bulk mail rates.  These rates are about half of what regular businesses pay.

There is a little catch for some nonprofits – some are ineligible plus there are limits on what they mail.  Ineligible groups include political candidates, chambers of commerce, services clubs like the Rotary.  For a complete list, go here.  On the mail piece, generally they cannot include advertising for non-nonprofits (I always wanted to write “non-nonprofits”).  I’ll go into more detail on what is and is not permissible, plus how to get around those rules, in a future blog.

Now you ask - doesn’t the nonprofit have to get a permit to mail at nonprofit rates?  The short answer – no.  IF they use a mailing house (and I happen to know of a great one here in Tucson!), they just need their nonprofit authorization letter from the USPS and that mailing company can step them through how to print their mailpiece.  If the nonprofit really wants to do the mailings themselves, then they need a permit.  Right now, the permit fees are $185 per year with a $185 one-time application fee.  Doing the mailing themselves costs them $370 right off the bat.  I would hope that the volunteers at the nonprofit group would have a higher purpose than to fold and insert letters.  That function is best performed by machines run by trained people at a printing/mailing company.

To sum up – nonprofits can get discounted postage rates by getting free authorization with a simple application.   If you know of a nonprofit who doesn’t get this discount, please encourage them to do so.

Saturday delivery – no more?

The USPS has announced their proposal to eliminate Saturday delivery. This is a cost-saving measure is one of their best opportunities to reduce expenses. The highlights of this plan are:
1. 5 day delivery to all street addresses, residential & business
2. Saturday is the lowest volume and the least disruptive day to remove
3. Post offices will remain open on Saturdays as usual
4. PO Boxes will still receive Saturday mail
5. Express Mail will be unaffected – still 365 days per year delivery

Many people have decried this as un-American, the last nail in the USPS’ coffin, a death nell for business – I say that is all nonsense. We used to have seven day delivery in this country and in many large cities there used to be multiple deliveries a day. As business evolved and had more options to communicate, the USPS changed with the times. Something we now take for granted had a much bigger effect on delivery – the telephone. Once every business got a phone, they could just call someone to communicate and didn’t have to write a letter. Hence, no more multiple daily deliveries. When that happened, the USPS then stopped Sunday deliveries at the growing requests of the religious community.

If you really think about it, how much of your Saturday mail that you get at your business do you take action on – on Saturday? You are probably closed, or if not closed, then the person who would take action isn’t there anyway. So do you really care if that mail came on Saturday or the next Monday? How about at home? Did Saturday’s mail cause you to suddenly run up to the hardware store? Go to that wedding? Of course not. You should have gotten that ad on Thursday or Friday and that wedding invitation should have come six weeks ago. Our lives are overall so busy that trips to the hardware store are part of a project that takes planning.

So I say, that if stopping Saturday delivery saves the USPS a few billion dollars over the next few years, and it will translate into slowing the increase of postage rates, let them go for it. Keeping postage rates lower is good for my business, and I think it will be good for yours.

For details on the exact USPS 5-day plan, check it out here.  If you disagree with me, you can voice your opinion here or comment to the USPS.   If anyone comes up with more ways to keep the USPS financially viable other than rate increases, please speak up.

Variations on booklet rules

Booklets, booklets. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways, so sayeth the USPS. Actually, they don’t love booklets. Booklets jam in their aging equipment and so they are tweaking the rules for certain specialty booklets as of April 5th, 2010.  Here is a link to the new rules in case you want a headache – USPS booklet changes. These 10 new booklets allow for a smidgeon of added flexibility for mailers.

Seven of the designs require both an “end to end” glue strip AND multiple tabs. My first impression – Just how ugly can a mail piece get? The other three require specialty equipment to glue the mailpiece shut. So now you have the option of requiring the reader to rip the piece apart before reading it because you glued it. Nice.

If you have questions about self-mailers, just ask me (hint: free advice here!). Better to know what tabs are needed during the design stage rather than when you get to the post office.

Bottom line – If you hear about new booklet rules, ignore it. Keep doing what you are doing right now.

Next time – I promise – some positive news from the USPS. They are proposing a 5-day delivery schedule. I’ll tell you why I think that is good for business.

Goings on at the USPS

My goal is to translate postal-speak into English, warn everyone about new stuff coming down from the USPS and give ideas on how to best work with the massive rulebook. Feel free to post questions and “challenges” you have. It can be anything from a quirky design you want to test, to a major problem getting a job mailed to asking “Just why do I care about an IMB or BRC or NDC’s?”

Next up – New booklet design rules or “Do you think they could make it anymore complicated?”. I’ll post soon about trying to stay sane with booklets.