Q: What should my permit look like?

 

A: There are several different options for your permit that the post office will allow. Here are some basic layouts. First Class Permit Example:

 

Standard Bulk Rate Permit Example:

 

Other samples can be seen at: http://pe.usps.gov/text/qsg300/Q604d.htm

 

Q: How will bulk mailing services save my company money?

 

A: If you do the mailing yourself then you will most likely spend your time and energy putting the mailing together, as well as paying the full postage rate for each piece of mail. This can get time consuming and extremely costly.

 

Send your mailings to Alamo Mailing to save you both time and money! A letter size standard bulk rate mailing will have the average discounted postage rate of $0.23 per piece, not $0.41 per piece that you will pay at the post office. That is already an average savings of $0.18 per piece! Your time is worth a lot as well so let us fold, insert and address your mails at competitive rates that will still leave you with savings on postage alone. It is almost like we are paying you to do your mailings for you. You can't beat it!

 

Please contact us at bulkmail@alamomailing.com or (210)637-0404 for any additional questions on how we can save you money with our services.

 

Q: What is the minimum quantity my mailing has to be to qualify for discount postage rates?

 

A: Per Post Office regulations, a discounted first class rate mailing requires at least 500 records to receive any reduced postage rates. A standard bulk rate mailing requires at least 200 records to qualify for a discount.

 

Q: What is the difference between a standard bulk rate mailing and a discounted first class mailing?

 

A: A standard bulk rate mailing offers a much higher discount by almost half of the full first class postage rate. This services has an average delivery time of 3-7 business days within Texas, but is not guaranteed by the Post Office. The minimum quantity for this discount is 200 records, anything less will result in full rate first class postage.

 

Alamo Mailing strongly recommends using the standard bulk rate service to allow our customers to save the most money on postage. Generally the only time that Alamo Mailing recommends using the discounted first class service is if the material is for a dated event that falls within a week of receiving the material or if the material is required by law to be delivered with the first class services.

 

A discounted first class mailing offers all the same benefits that you would receive with full rate first class postage but at a reduced cost. Standard delivery time is 1-3 days guaranteed by the Post Office. The mail that is not deliverable will automatically be returned to the address listed on the return. The post office requires that your mailing has a minimum of 500 records to qualify for discounted first class postage rate. Anything less then 500 records will go out at the full first class postage rate.

 

Q: What is Ancillary Service Endorsement (ASE)?

 

A: The Ancillary Service Endorsement (ASE) is the service offered by the United States Post Office that will send a customer back the mail that was either not deliverable or has a new forwarding address. This service is also known as "Address Service Requested" which is the phrase that is physically printed on each piece of material before the original mailing.

 

While the ASE is a useful and functional service to request for your mailings there are also hidden fees from the USPS that are involved with this service that may later affect your budgets bottom line. Alamo Mailing would like for our customers to consider the National Change of Addresses (NCOA) service for the very reason the possible hidden fees. Please see the information about NCOA in the FAQ area of our website.

 

Q: What is the benefit to using the mail tracking services on my material?

 

A: This is a new and exciting service that is now offered by Alamo Mailing to help you keep tabs when your mail is scheduled for delivery in homes or businesses. Your mail will be embedded with tracking information within the Intelligent Mail Barcode and once it is delivered to the destinations post office, the material will be scanned for tracking. You will be able to log on to the Alamo Mailing website with a unique user id and password, so that you can see where your mail is in the delivery process real time.

 

Q: How much room do I need on my material to print the delivery address allowing for automated discount postage rates?

 

A: The Post Office requires a completely blank box with no color or background which includes shadows & watermarks, and requests the size to be 2 inches high by 4 inches wide to allow for proper addressing and bar coding.

 

Q: I want to update my company database to ensure the addresses are the most accurate before mailing my material. Can Alamo Mailing help me with this process? (National Change of Address or NCOA)

 

A: If you are concerned that you might have invalid information in your database then you need to consider the National Change of Address (NCOA) service offer at Alamo Mailing through the United States Post Office. The process starts with you sending your "dirty data" to Alamo Mailing and then we fill out the necessary paper work for the NCOA process to begin at the Post Office and send it to them for review. Once the data is reviewed and the "dirty data" is corrected, the entire list is sent back to Alamo Mailing ready for us to mail out your material. This process will provide forwarding address information when available so that your database will be as accurate as possible and will help prevent returns to you. This process is also available for business addresses but it does not offer as high result accuracy due to corrected information being made available to the USPS. Please allow up to 72 hours to process (not including weekends and holidays). Once the corrected information is made available to Alamo Mailing then we can provide you with the corrected information so that you may update your database for mailings.

 

Please note that effective November 23, 2008 the United States Post Office will require all databases to undergo a "move update" process prior to mailing any material. Lists purchased through Alamo Mailing will already include this process. However, customer provided lists will need to go through NCOA to qualify for postage discounts. The USPS will require that all lists be updated within 95 days of mailing all material from that date forward.

 

Q: I want to purchase a list of name & address for my next mailing. Does Alamo Mailing offer this

     service?

 

Yes!  We provide a full service line of list acquisition.  These lists can be "rented" for single use or multi-use with a variety of demographic selections available.  these selections allow the marketer to target a specific market and demographic, usually with little or no additional cost for the list.

 

Examples of demographic selections are listed below:

 

Income

Marital Status

Age of/presence of children

homeowner/renter

Age of homeowner

Age of home