As postal rates continue to rise in 2024, marketers and printers are grappling with how to manage increasing costs while maintaining effective marketing campaigns. The July 2024 USPS rate hikes have placed additional pressure on businesses that rely heavily on direct mail, particularly for catalog marketing.
To navigate these challenges, companies need innovative solutions that offer cost-saving opportunities without sacrificing reach or effectiveness. One such solution is postal pooling, specifically Enru’s High-Density Co-Mail Program, which leverages USPS discounts to significantly reduce mailing expenses.
What Is Postal Pooling?
Postal pooling is an advanced strategy that optimizes how mail is processed and delivered by the United States Postal Service. To understand how pooling works, it’s important to first grasp the basics of how the postal service handles mail and the role of ZIP codes in that process.
When a piece of mail is sent, it doesn’t travel directly from the sender to the recipient. Instead, it goes through a series of processing facilities. For example, a letter mailed from Atlanta to Los Angeles might first go to a local processing facility, then to a regional hub, and potentially through several more locations before finally reaching a local post office near the recipient. Each step in this journey involves sorting the mail according to its destination, often based on ZIP codes.
ZIP codes are more than just the five digits most people are familiar with. Many people realize they can extend up to nine digits (ZIP+4), but they actually go even further, up to an 11-digit code. The more digits in the ZIP code, the more specific the delivery destination. For example, a five-digit ZIP code might cover a large area of a city, while a nine-digit (called ZIP+4) code will pinpoint a smaller part of that area. Going all the way to the 11-digit codes used internally by USPS can specify an exact delivery point, such as a particular street address or post office box.
This detailed sorting is where the cost of mailing can add up. Every time a piece of mail is handled, whether it’s being sorted or rerouted, it incurs additional costs. These costs are passed on to mailers in the form of higher postage rates. This is where the benefits of postal pooling come into play.
Postal pooling consolidates mail from multiple sources — such as different companies or catalogers — into a single, high-density stream. Instead of each company sending its mail independently through all the various sorting stages, a pooler combines these mailings and sorts them according to their ultimate destinations. The key here is that the pooler does much of the work that would normally be done by USPS. By sorting mail to more specific ZIP codes, often to the ZIP+4 or even finer levels, the consolidated mail skips several USPS-handling steps.
Essentially, this means that instead of mailing a batch of catalogs that need to be sorted and resorted through several facilities, the mail is presorted and consolidated in a way that it can be dropped closer to its final destination — potentially at the local post office or a nearby regional center. USPS is only then responsible for the “last mile” delivery, which is its greatest strength. An efficient program like this can qualify the mail for substantial USPS workshare discounts.
In summation, postal pooling leverages the structure of the USPS sorting system by presorting and consolidating mailings to bypass multiple stages in the postal-handling process. This not only reduces the amount of time mail spends in transit but also dramatically cuts costs by qualifying for reduced postage rates under the USPS workshare program. For businesses that rely on direct mail, such as catalogs, these savings can be crucial in managing the financial impact of rising postal rates.
The Cost-Saving Power of High-Density Co-Mail Programs
With USPS implementing a series of rate hikes throughout 2024, the need for cost-efficient mailing solutions has never been greater. Enru’s High-Density Co-Mail Program provides a powerful way to mitigate these increases. By consolidating mailings into high-density pools, Enru allows businesses to qualify for the maximum possible USPS workshare discounts.
For example, under the July 2024 rate adjustments, Marketing Mail Flats saw a rate increase of 11.7%, imposing a significant cost on marketers. By participating in a high-density pooling program, those same marketers can counteract the cost increases. Enru’s pooling solutions help customers save on postage by reducing the rate per piece through more efficient sorting and processing, directly benefiting from USPS’s tiered pricing model.
Consider these examples of past cost savings from Enru’s High-Density Co-Mail Program:
| Marketing Mail | Postal Rate |
| Basic Carrier Route | $0.43 |
| Enru’s High-Density Co-Mail | $0.35 |
| Percent of Discount | 19% |
In practical terms, this means that a business mailing 100,000 catalogs could save thousands of dollars in postage by participating in Enru’s High-Density Co-Mail Program. These savings become even more critical when considering the cumulative impact of rate increases over time.
Adapting to Change for Long-Term Success
As postal rates continue to rise, businesses that rely on direct mail cannot afford to ignore the potential savings offered by postal pooling. Enru’s High-Density Co-Mail Program provides a proven, effective way to combat the financial pressures of USPS rate hikes, helping businesses maintain their marketing efforts without breaking the bank.
For marketers and printers looking to optimize their mailing operations and reduce costs, partnering with a leader in postal optimization like Enru is a smart move. By embracing pooling strategies and leveraging Enru’s expertise, businesses can navigate the challenges of rising postal rates and continue to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.
For more information on how Enru can help your business save on postage costs, contact us today to explore tailored solutions that fit your needs.
