Getting your Direct Mail Media to your customers in a timely manner is paramount to a successful marketing plan. When deadlines are close many people feel that first class mail will guarantee a quicker Postal delivery time than Presorted methods. This may or may not be the case depending on a few variables.
Since implementing Automation processing back in the early 1990’s the Post Office has been steadily fine tuning their production efficiency. This fine tuning has resulted in much faster processing and subsequent delivery times for ALL classes of mail. This factor along with the recent decreases in the amount of mail the Post Office processes daily makes a win win situation for businesses looking to save money on their marketing campaign. I have seen standard rate magazine mailings get delivered overnight to local addresses in some cases.
Other factors to consider would be when a mailing will be submitted to the Post Office. First Class mail gets priority treatment over presorted mail so mailing at the end of the month, when many large companies mail their invoice statements First Class, a Standard rate mailing may take a bit longer to get to its destination. The same would apply for holidays such as Christmas, a time when Postal mail flow is at its peak volumes.
If you are in a super crunch with only a couple of days before your deadline then yes, First Class may be the only answer. If your mail piece is designed correctly for automation compatability, your deadline window is a little wider and you are submitting your mailing during a “normal” flow time for the Post Office, I would not hesitate to mail at the lower Standard rates. Placing in-home delivery endorsements on your mail pieces and or attaching “do not delay” tags to your trays or sacks can help speed things up as well.
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