I am interested in mailing thousands of postcards for a local plumbing company.?

I was wondering, how do I start, do we need to compile address lists? How does the carrier route mailings work?

I am trying to read through the usps.com business mail 101 and it's driving me batty! Someone please simplify their explanations!

Carrier Route Mailings: Usually consist of "occupant data" lists which "saturate" a given area...in other words its a list of every physical address in a particular route. You must also mail to the entire route to get the best postage rate.

This is a type of list that can get the absolute lowest possible postage rate (usually 13.5 cents)....however, to achieve this, you must have someone process this list in a manner that sequences the addresses appropriatley, and is able to produce the proper paper work for the post office.
( a print shop with mailing service capabilities)

You also need a local bulk permit number...either your own, or use someone elses. ($180 one time fee plus $175 innitially and then annually (some cities may vary)

This a very good investment if you plan on using direct mail often. Owning your own permit gives you power over the money... because alot of print shops will charge you a higher postage amount (say around 17.5 cents instead of 13.5 on saturation lists) ...because they can legally.

The software and equipment it takes to process mail in a certain manner gives a print shop the ability to save you alot more money in postage than you could achieve on your own just doing regular bulk mail (thats when you just sort everything by zip code...this gets your postage only down to about 30 cents instead of the 41) ...(usually this is the people putting labels on their mail by hand)

Print shops charge a mailing servies fee as well..this is anywhere from 3 to 7 cents, and they take care of everything for you from inkjetting the addresses directly on the pieces, to sorting the mail, producing certified paperwork, preparing and entering the mail into the postal system. If you are dealing with thousands of pieces, then going this route will cost you less than doing it yourself.

If you have any more questions I'd be happy to help doran@doranpeck.com
www.myezprinter.com

Hi we have a company, graphic design and print. We can help you custom create a postcards for your company. As far as gathering address and mailing them, what we did was go through the phone book and made a list of business and such that we wanted to target. I printed out mailing labels of the addresses and when we got the postcards done, I just attached the mailing labels and headed down to the post office. You can get postcards printed and sent out for you, but it's very expensive, it's just about the same price of having the postcards printed.
i'm not sure what you're asking as far as how does the route work. But if you do what I stated above, you could just take them to your post office and get the postage and send them off.
Hope this helps. If you're interested in seeing some of our work, check us out online at www.myspace.com/visualelements or email us through visualelements@charter.net
Have a great day!

Might be cheaper to print flyer's and hand out, or get someone to hand them out.

I think the P.O. has a cheaper rate for flyer's