Leveraging USPS 2023 Marketing Mail Promotions and Incentives
Each year the USPS announces new promotions and incentives for marketing mail. These promotions encourage marketers to implement direct mail into their campaigns while elevating mail pieces with interactive features and creating a consistent digital marketing experience. Marketers who incorporate these features in their mail will benefit from a 3-6% postage discount and see an increase in customer engagement. The USPS will begin accepting pre-approval requests for these promotions starting December 15, 2022, through their Mailing Promotions Portal.
Below are the six direct mail promotion programs that you can capitalize on in 2023. Darwill is here to help you understand them and to spice up your direct mail campaigns by using dynamic colored recipient variables, creating a multi-sensory experience, integrating mobile shopping through QR code scans, and more!
Tactile, Sensory, & Interactive Mailpiece Engagement Promotion
Encourages mailers to excite their customers' senses by incorporating innovations in paper and stock, substrates, inks, interactive elements, and finishing techniques for a multi-sensory experience. Darwill’s team introduces our clients to the options available and recommends the best elements to incorporate into their mail pieces that will engage customers.
- Eligibility: Marketing Mail letters and flats; First-Class Mail letters, cards, and flats
- Incentive: 5% discount at the time of mailing
- Registration period: January 9, 2023 - July 31, 2023
- Promotion period: February 1, 2023 - July 31, 2023
Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion
Enhances the value of First-Class Mail by encouraging mailers of bills and statements to highlight marketing messages through the use of color, dynamic variable print, and personalization. Marketers can utilize a reply mechanism (BRM/CRM) to further engage with customers and collect responses.
- Eligibility: Qualifying First-Class Mail presort and automation letters. Additional discount for Courtesy Reply Mail or Business Reply Mail inclusion (all reply pieces must include a valid IMb)
- Incentive: 3% discount at the time of mailing or 4% with a reply
- Registration period: January 9, 2023 - July 31, 2023
- Promotion period: February 1, 2023 - July 31, 2023
Emerging & Advanced Technology Promotion
Encourages mailers to incorporate emerging technologies such as “Enhanced” AR, VR/MR, NFC, Video in Print, multichannel mail integration with voice assistants, and mobile shopping. In 2023, there are two discount levels for different technologies. The USPS has also added a quick response (QR) code for mobile shopping. Our team helps clients send a mail experience by connecting the mailpiece with the latest digital technologies.
- Eligibility: Marketing Mail letters and flats; First-Class Mail letters, cards, and flats
- Incentive: 3% using emerging and advanced technologies or 4% using enhanced emerging technologies
- Registration period: March 15, 2023 - November 30, 2023
- Promotion period: May 1, 2023 - November 30, 2023
Informed Delivery Promotion
Encourages mailers to use USPS’ Informed Delivery omnichannel feature. Participants must create Informed Delivery campaigns through the Portal or submit elements through eDoc submission and develop campaigns that meet best-practice requirements. Setting up these campaigns has never been easier with Darwill as a partner. We do all the work to set up our client’s campaigns so they can focus on other important tasks.
- Eligibility: Qualifying automation Marketing Mail letters and flats; qualifying automation First-Class Mail letters, cards, and flats
- Incentive: 4% discount at the time of mailing and 0.5% for eDoc Submitters
- Registration period: June 15, 2023 - December 31, 2023
- Promotion period: August 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023
Reply Mail IMbA Promotion
This is a new promotion offered that encourages mailers to adopt the newly introduced automated accounting system for Business Reply Mail (BRM). To receive a 3% discount, mailpieces must use static IMbA on qualifying postage; to receive a 6% discount, mailpieces must use serialized IMbA.
- Eligibility: First-Class presort and automation letters
- Incentive: 3% discount for static IMbA on the BRM and a 6% discount for serialized IMbA
- Registration period: May 15, 2023 - December 31, 2023
- Promotion period: July 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023
Retargeted Mail Promotion
Retargeted mail is another new promotion being offered for 2023. It incentivizes marketers to send a postcard to a recent website or mobile app visitor who didn’t convert. Qualifying postcards are those mailed in connection with website or app behavior during the established program period. Marketers that retarget consumers will benefit from a 5% discount.
Darwill’s Rapid Retargeting product makes it easy to reach customers based on their recent actions or behaviors. When customers fail to complete a website conversion, we use this product to look up the visitors' IP addresses and run the data through a "reverse IP append" algorithm. This allows us to collect information on the active buyer and send them targeted direct mail pieces to entice them to complete the conversion.
- Eligibility: Qualifying automation First-Class postcards
- Incentive: 5% discount at the time of mailing
- Registration period: July 15, 2023 - November 30, 2023
- Promotion period: September 1, 2023 - November 30, 2023
Enhance Your Marketing with Darwill
Not sure where to start with direct mail? The marketing experts at Darwill will help you devise a plan for knockout direct mail campaigns. We’ll advise you on which 2023 USPS promotions work best with your specific campaigns. Plus, we’ll do all the heavy lifting to execute the campaign while you sit back and reap the benefits of the postal savings. See a boost in customer engagement and drive more sales in the New Year. Leverage these promotions with Darwill’s help today!
