Here we go again . Stamps 68 to 73 cents in July . Up 48% since 2019

[DonP]

The $500 pricing is good till the next price increase. Which will be in November. Retail Postage is projected to be $1.25 by 2027. Rates need to be higher for the USPS to survive.

Using Mixed AADC - to send a letter under 3 oz is only 33¢. Net Profit is 7¢ per letter - that is why you have to pay for 10k upfront.

The only time a human touches this is when they take the buckets to the post office.

That's AADC postcards . That's worthless . Letters are 50 cents . Postage goes up 8% July 14th .

 

[myinsurebiz]

That's AADC postcards . That's worthless . Letters are 50 cents . Postage goes up 8% July 14th .

I'm just telling you what they charge.

These are #10 Letter Envelopes with a letter and also a 3.5 x 8.5 Index Card printed front and back.

Normal Commercial Marketing Mail Letters are $0.385 for the everyday person with a Commercial Permit.

These peeps do major volume and have special pricing.

https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#_c109

 

[DayTimer]

I can't believe that I'm going to have to pay 73 cents to have a company send a truck out to my house with one of their employees to retrieve an envelope I'm sending from PA to my good friend JD in Kentucky, and then deliver that envelope to JD's home.

I mean it's only about 877 miles!

WTF! Outrageous!

 

[Life Hawk]

Fast Facts

COVID-19 profoundly affected the U.S. Postal Service's mail delivery operations. Letters and total mail declined in 2020, but packages hit record levels.
According to USPS, its on-time performance was significantly affected when record package levels combined with employee absences due to COVID-19—especially in December 2020.
COVID-19 also drove up costs, with USPS reporting increased expenses for increased use of leave and personal protective equipment. Although 2020 revenues increased, the cost increases led to an additional $100 million in net losses for the postal service.

U.S. Postal Service: Volume, Performance, and Financial Changes since the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 profoundly affected the U.S. Postal Service's mail delivery operations. Letters and total mail declined in 2020, but packages hit record...

www.gao.gov

The great shut down continues to give, and give, and give.

Anyone discussing the major increase in young deaths since all this started?

 

[JakeChard]

Over the last two years my agency has transitioned from working 90 percent direct mail leads and 10 percent web leads. To 80 percent web leads and 20 percent direct mail leads.

Persistency has been the same so far but the closing ratio dropped about 1 to 2 percent.

The biggest issue with web leads that my team has is the shelf life. You have to work web leads immediately. Within 3 days to get the best closing ratio. Direct mail leads are good for months.

Direct mailers are like tv leads used to be. Direct mail is on the way out. Web is in.

Especially with the changes that are being made in regard to buying and selling names to generate leads.
The most compliant and safest way to generate a lead will be by the consumer seeing an ad online and requesting info directly from the carrier.

They days were a lead vender can buy a mailing list and solicit them for leads are going to be behind us.

About 5 years ago I believed that direct mail would be nearly non existent in 10 years. And I started to plan accordingly.

I still sell face to face though. Web leads can not sustain the volume that is needed for telesales. And the changes coming up are going to make it really hard to get the thousands of names you'll need to get to sell over the phone the way they do it currently.

There is a telesales agency that works with my imo and does about $450k a month in ap. They make over 1 million phone calls a month. About 350,000 a week. In the 4 years they have been in existence they have made enough calls to call every person in our market 100 times over.

This is not a sustainable way to do business.

So are you running ads and have a sales team working the incoming leads straight away? I'm Interested in what you are doing with the leads that don't pickup.