Bulk Mail Step by Step

Bulk Mailing:
Six basic steps to a discounted mailing.

• Step 1: Design your mailpiece. Whether you are using labels or envelopes, the design should conform to USPS regulations. The Postal Service has requirements for barcode placement, FIM code placement, permit indicia design and even the delivery address itself. For fastest delivery, be sure your layout meets these standards.
  
  
• Step 2: CASS-certify your addresses. In order to receive the discounted automation postage rates, addresses must contain the 11-digit Delivery Point ZIP code and corresponding barcode. To get this information, each address must be checked against the United States Postal Services' Address Matching System, which contains every delivery address in the United States - over 140 million records. The USPS requires that a mailing list must undergo address verification every six months (every three months for Carrier Route mailings). Once your address list has been CASS-certifed, you may also wish to purge any duplicate records from the list.
  
  
• Step 3: Presort your mailing list. Presorting the addresses according to USPS specifications is what gets you the lowest postage rates available. Sorting can be done manually, but it is a time-consuming and complicated task. Several bulk mail presorting software applications are available to do the sorting for you, so that the addresses are sorted to USPS specifications by the software and the mailpieces are printed in order, so that all you need to do is place them in the trays or sacks.
  
  
• Step 4: Print out your mailing pieces. Once the addresses are in presort order, you should print them out using the layout you created in Step 1. After they are printed, you can bundle them and put them in trays. Less-than-full trays and postacard-sized mail must be bundled into packages, with two rubber bands (one running top to bottom, one running left to right) holding the package together. Flats and Enhanced Carrier Route Line of Travel mailings also require packaging. All other kinds of mailings do not require bundling - they can be placed into trays as is. Your post office can provide you with the trays or sacks (flats go in sacks, everything else goes in trays). Make sure you place labels on all the trays or sacks. Some software packages (including ours) will print out the barcoded tray/sack labels for you.
  
  
• Step 5: Fill out the paperwork. The post office requires several forms be submitted with a bulk mailing - including the PS3553 CASS Report, which documents the address verification you did in Step 2, and the Postage Statement form, which documents the number of pieces in the mailing and the postage rates. Your presort software should make the appropriate calculations and print the completed Postage Statement form for you; otherwise it can be completed by hand.
  
  
• Step 6: Deposit your mailing at a business mail entry unit.