USPS Marketing Mail & Nonprofit Mailing Services

If you've ever sent out a batch of postcards, flyers, or promotional mailers and cringed at the postage bill, you're not alone. USPS Marketing Mail exists specifically to make bulk mailing affordable for businesses and organizations that need to get physical mail into people's hands without paying First-Class rates on every single piece. At Midwest Label Supply, we handle the full process from printing and design through mail preparation and delivery. We've been doing direct mail out of our Milwaukee shop for a while now, and honestly, the mailing side of the business has grown a lot because people realize that physical mail still works. It cuts through the noise of overflowing email inboxes and actually gets read.

Whether you're a small business trying to reach new customers in your neighborhood, a nonprofit running your annual fundraising campaign, or a franchise rolling out promotions across multiple locations, understanding how USPS Marketing Mail works can save you a significant amount of money. We help our clients navigate the postal regulations, optimize their mail pieces for the best rates, and handle all the tedious sorting and barcoding that the post office requires. You focus on your message, we handle the logistics.

What is USPS Marketing Mail?

USPS Marketing Mail (formerly called Standard Mail, and before that, Bulk Business Mail) is a mail class designed for advertising, promotional materials, newsletters, and catalogs. It's the class of mail you want when you're sending identical or mostly identical pieces to a large number of recipients. Think of it as the workhorse of direct mail marketing. Just about every coupon pack, retail circular, and fundraising letter you've ever received came through the Marketing Mail stream.

To qualify, your mailing needs to meet a few basic requirements. You need at least 200 pieces or 50 pounds of mail per mailing. Every piece has to be the same general type, meaning you can't mix postcards with letters in the same mailing and call it one job. The content has to be primarily advertising or promotional in nature. And you need a USPS Marketing Mail permit, which involves an annual mailing fee and either a per-piece imprint fee or a precanceled stamp or meter.

The trade-off compared to First-Class Mail is speed. Marketing Mail doesn't come with delivery guarantees the way First-Class does. Most pieces arrive within 3 to 10 business days, with the bulk of them landing in 5 to 7. For most marketing purposes, that window is perfectly fine. You're not mailing invoices or time-sensitive documents. You're putting your brand, your offer, or your message in front of the right people at a fraction of the cost. We work with businesses of all sizes here in Milwaukee and across the country who have figured out that the postage savings more than make up for the slightly longer delivery window.

Nonprofit Mail Rates

If you're running a nonprofit organization, you already know that every dollar counts. Here's the good news: USPS nonprofit mail rates are substantially cheaper than standard Marketing Mail rates. We're talking roughly 40% savings on postage compared to what a for-profit business would pay for the same mailing. That's real money, especially when you're sending out thousands of pieces for your annual fund drive or membership renewal campaign.

To qualify for nonprofit rates, your organization needs to have 501(c)(3) status (or qualify under certain other nonprofit categories like religious, educational, scientific, philanthropic, agricultural, labor, veterans', or fraternal organizations). You'll also need to apply for and receive USPS nonprofit mailing authorization at your local Business Mail Entry Unit. The application process involves showing the post office your articles of incorporation, IRS determination letter, and a few other documents. It's a one-time process and once you're approved, you're good to go.

We work with quite a few nonprofits in the Milwaukee area and beyond. Churches, community organizations, animal shelters, food banks, you name it. The types of mailings we typically handle for nonprofit clients include:

• Fundraising appeals - Year-end giving campaigns, capital campaigns, and emergency appeals
• Membership renewals - Annual renewal notices with reply envelopes
• Donor communications - Thank you letters, impact reports, and newsletters
• Event invitations - Gala invitations, auction announcements, and community events
• Awareness campaigns - Educational materials and community outreach

We can help you get set up with your nonprofit authorization if you don't already have it, and we handle all the mail prep to make sure you're getting the absolute lowest rates available to you. A lot of nonprofits don't realize just how much they could be saving because they either don't know about the rates or they think the process is too complicated. It's really not, and we walk you through it.

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)

Every Door Direct Mail is one of our favorite tools for local businesses. The concept is simple: instead of buying or building a mailing list, you just pick the ZIP codes and carrier routes where you want your mail delivered, and the post office delivers a piece to every single address on those routes. No mailing list required. No names or addresses to print. Just pick your geography and saturate it.

EDDM is fantastic for businesses that serve a local area. Restaurants, retail stores, dental offices, real estate agents, home service companies, auto repair shops, you name it. If your customers come from a specific geographic area, EDDM lets you reach all of them without the cost and hassle of acquiring a mailing list. You can target by ZIP code, carrier route, household income, household size, and age demographics using the USPS EDDM tools.

The minimum for EDDM is 200 pieces per carrier route, and you can select as many or as few routes as you need. The postage rates for EDDM are very competitive because you're doing the work of sorting by route and the post office doesn't have to do any of the typical mail processing. Your mail just goes straight to the carrier for delivery.

At Midwest Label Supply, we handle the full EDDM process. We help you identify the right carrier routes based on your target demographics, we design and print the mail pieces (our inhouse design team can create something that actually looks good and gets opened), and we handle all the mail preparation and bundling that USPS requires. We've done EDDM campaigns for restaurants doing grand openings, home service companies expanding into new neighborhoods, and retail shops promoting seasonal sales. If you're a local business and you haven't tried EDDM yet, give us a call. It's one of the most cost-effective ways to reach new customers in your area.

Postage Rate Tiers and Savings

USPS Marketing Mail postage rates aren't one-size-fits-all. There's actually a tiered system and the more work you do on the front end to prepare your mail, the less you pay per piece. Understanding these tiers is important because the difference between the cheapest and most expensive Marketing Mail rates can be significant, and it all comes down to how well your mail is prepared.

The three main categories are letters, flats, and parcels, and the rates go up as the pieces get larger and heavier. Letters are the cheapest. They fit in standard envelopes and are lightweight. Flats include large envelopes, catalogs, and oversized postcards. Parcels are anything that doesn't qualify as a letter or flat. For most of our clients doing promotional mailers, we're working in the letter and flat categories.

Within each category, there are rate levels based on how the mail is sorted:

• Basic / Mixed AADC - The entry-level rate. Your mail is sorted to Area Distribution Centers but that's about it. This is the most expensive Marketing Mail rate, though still cheaper than First-Class.
• AADC (Automated Area Distribution Center) - Mail sorted to the AADC level with proper barcoding. Better rate than basic.
• 3-Digit / 5-Digit Presort - Mail sorted by 3-digit or 5-digit ZIP code. The more granularly you sort, the bigger the discount. Five-digit presort gives you the best rates because you're doing the most work for the post office.
• Carrier Route - The cheapest rate tier. Mail is sorted all the way down to individual carrier routes. This requires enough volume going to each route to meet tray minimums.

The key to unlocking the best rates is automation compatibility. Your mail pieces need to be properly sized, have a delivery point barcode (Intelligent Mail barcode), and meet the USPS requirements for machine processing. We make sure every piece we prepare meets these standards. We also handle all the presort work using USPS-certified software to get your mail into the right trays and sacks for maximum discounts. The difference between a poorly prepared mailing and one that's optimized for postal discounts can be substantial, and that's where having an experienced mail shop like ours pays for itself.

Our Mail Preparation Process

Getting the best postal rates isn't just about having enough mail pieces. It's about how those pieces are prepared, addressed, and sorted. We handle all of the technical mail preparation work that the post office requires, and honestly this is the part that scares most people away from doing their own bulk mail. It's tedious and there are a lot of rules. But we do it every day, so it's second nature for us.

Here's what our mail preparation process looks like:

• CASS Certification - We run every mailing list through CASS-certified software (Coding Accuracy Support System) to standardize and verify every address against the USPS database. This corrects ZIP codes, adds ZIP+4 codes, and flags undeliverable addresses before they waste your postage dollars.
• NCOA Processing - The National Change of Address database catches people who have moved in the last 48 months. If someone on your list filed a change of address with the post office, we'll catch it and update the address. USPS actually requires NCOA processing within 95 days of your mailing for Marketing Mail.
• Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) - Every piece gets an Intelligent Mail barcode sprayed on it. The IMb is a 65-bar code that encodes the delivery point, routing information, and a unique tracking ID. This is what makes your mail automation-compatible and unlocks the best postal discounts. It also enables delivery tracking through USPS Informed Visibility.
• Presort and Tray/Sack Preparation - We sort all mail pieces by 5-digit ZIP, 3-digit ZIP, AADC, and carrier route as volume allows. The sorted mail goes into USPS-approved trays (for letters) or sacks (for flats) with proper facing slips and tray labels.
• Drop Shipping - For larger mailings, we can bypass the origin post office entirely and truck mail directly to NDC (Network Distribution Center) or SCF (Sectional Center Facility) locations closer to the final destination. Drop shipping cuts transit time and can qualify for additional postage discounts.

All of this happens behind the scenes. You give us your mailing list and your artwork, and we handle every step from data processing through final delivery to the post office. We generate all the required USPS documentation including postage statements, qualification reports, and container labels.

Variable Data Meets Marketing Mail

Here's where things get really interesting for us, because variable data printing is one of our core specialties. Most Marketing Mail campaigns send the same generic piece to every recipient. That works, but it doesn't work as well as a personalized piece that speaks directly to the person receiving it.

With our variable data capabilities, we can customize every single mail piece in your campaign while still mailing everything at bulk Marketing Mail rates. We're talking about more than just printing different names and addresses. We can swap out images, change offers based on customer segments, include personalized URLs (PURLs), and print unique QR codes on every piece that track individual response rates.

The QR code tracking is especially powerful for measuring campaign performance. Each piece gets a serialized QR code that's unique to that recipient. When they scan it, you know exactly who responded, which version of the mailer they received, and when they engaged. Compare that to a generic postcard where you have no idea which pieces actually drove responses. We've set up campaigns for clients where each QR code links to a personalized landing page that's pre-populated with the recipient's information. The response rates on personalized variable data mailers compared to generic ones are night and day.

The beauty is that variable data printing doesn't cost significantly more per piece than static printing on our digital presses. The data processing and setup take a bit more time, but the per-piece printing cost stays competitive. So you're getting a massively more effective mailer for a small incremental cost, all going out at the same Marketing Mail postage rates. If you're already investing in postage and printing for a direct mail campaign, it makes sense to invest in personalization that will actually move the needle on your response rates.

Tactile Marketing: Why Physical Mail Wins in a Digital World

We talk to business owners every week who tell us the same thing: their digital marketing costs keep going up and their results keep going down. Pay-per-click rates have doubled or tripled in competitive industries. Email open rates are declining year over year. Social media organic reach is effectively dead for business pages. The digital marketing channels that used to deliver strong ROI are now oversaturated, expensive, and increasingly ignored by consumers who have developed a reflex to skip, scroll past, and tune out anything that looks like an ad on a screen.

That's exactly why tactile marketing through physical mail is experiencing a resurgence. When your Marketing Mail piece arrives in someone's mailbox, it doesn't compete with 200 other messages for attention. It gets picked up, handled, and looked at. The physical nature of the medium, the weight, the texture, the visual presence of a real object, engages the senses in a way that pixels on a screen never will. Neuroscience research consistently shows that people process physical materials differently than digital content. Physical items require more emotional processing, create stronger memory associations, and generate higher brand recall.

The smart play for most businesses isn't to abandon digital marketing entirely. It's to add physical tactile marketing touchpoints that complement your digital strategy. Send a personalized sticker sheet mailer with a QR code that drives recipients to your landing page. Follow up an email campaign with a physical postcard to the people who didn't open it. Use Marketing Mail to re-engage customers who've gone dark on your digital channels. The businesses getting the best results right now are the ones using physical and digital together, and USPS Marketing Mail rates make the physical side surprisingly affordable.

Direct Mail Sticker Sheets and Postcards

This is really our sweet spot. We started as a label and sticker manufacturer, and our direct mail service grew out of clients asking us to not just print their sticker sheets but also mail them out. So we built a whole mail preparation operation around it.

Our specialty product is sticker sheets in envelopes. A custom sticker sheet with an explainer card or promotional insert, all tucked into a branded envelope and mailed at Marketing Mail rates. It's a unique direct mail format that stands out in the mailbox. People love getting stickers. Kids go crazy for them. And the adults keep the brand stickers around way longer than they'd keep a postcard. We've seen sticker sheet mailers end up on laptops, water bottles, and office walls months after they were delivered.

We also do standard postcard mailings, self-mailers, letter-sized promotions, and catalogs. But the sticker sheet format is what makes us different from every other mail house. If you're doing a sticker promotion or brand awareness campaign, we can print the sticker sheets, assemble them with your inserts, stuff the envelopes, prepare and sort the mail, and deliver everything to the post office. One shop handles the entire process from artwork to mailbox.

All of our mail pieces are designed to be automation-compatible, meaning they meet USPS size, weight, and barcode requirements for the best possible postage rates. We'll let you know during the design phase if your piece needs any adjustments to stay in the cheaper rate categories. Sometimes a small change in size or weight can move you from flat rates to letter rates and save a bunch on postage.

Related Mailing & Print Services

Give us a call or fill out a quote request to talk about your next mailing project. Whether it's a one-time promotion or an ongoing monthly campaign, we can help you figure out the most cost-effective way to get your mail into the right hands.