As it stands right now, First-Class mailers are required to update their mailing lists every 185 days. On November 23rd 2008, however, the USPS is changing their standards to require ALL mail classes to update their mailings lists every 95 days.

This new move is USPS’ attempt to decrease the amount of “Undeliverable As Addressed” mail they handle every year. In 2004, UAA amounted to 9.7 billion pieces of mail, which resulted in $2 billion dollars of extra costs for the USPS.

And given that Standard UAA mail is discarded (First-Class is delayed), this amounts to a pretty significant amount of waste.

This update is actually good timing because the Do-Not-Mail bill is growing in size — there are currently 18 such bills in 15 states.

But new rules like the one above  – as well as programs like the DMA Choice Service that lets you opt-out of receiving certain mail — are forward-thinking moves that will help protect both the Direct Marketing industry as well as the environment.

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Tags: DMA Choice, Do-Not-Mail Bill, Mailing Lists, USPS

Good news for Direct Marketers… 

An article today on UnionLeader.com announced:

“A bill that would create a do-not-mail list to let people block direct mail ran into a major defeat Thursday. The House Commerce committee voted 14-1 to recommend that the full House kill the bill.”

The 14 that voted against the bill said the state doesn’t need to get involved because consumers already have the option of being removed from mailings lists by contacting individual merchants and Direct Marketing Associations.

More good news for Direct Marketers:

An article on Forbes.com about the slumping economy outlined industries that are expected to slump and industries that are expected to hold up.

Direct Marketing was chosen as one expected to hold up.

The reasoning:

Direct mail — and other direct response advertising – yields results more easily trackable than traditional, mass-media ad purchases. And as advertising budgets shrink, Marketers will be under greater pressure to show positive ROI.

This prediction goes hand-in-hand with our post about B-to-B Magazine’s Outlook 2008 Survey.

Please feel free to share your thoughts by commenting below.

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Tags: Direct Mail Spending, Direct Marketing Association, Direct Response Marketing, Do-Not-Mail Bill