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How to rethink your direct mail plan for 2025

Cut through rising costs with better timing, targeting, and execution

Quick guide  |  5 min read

How to rethink your direct mail plan for 2025 Hero Image

Direct mail marketers are navigating a more complex mailing landscape than ever – with evolving postage rates, shifting delivery standards, and rising operational demands. This guide breaks down the key factors that impact cost and performance – and the strategic levers you can pull to streamline execution, boost efficiency, and make every mailpiece count.

Why this matters now, more than ever

With the next USPS increase slated for July 2025, marketers are facing rising costs and new challenges. USPS adjustments to mail classes and service standards are forcing brands to rethink how they manage speed, format, and cost across every campaign.

You can’t keep running direct mail the same way and expect the same outcomes. Rigid send cadences, underutilized promotions, and siloed campaign planning will quickly eat into both your budget and your results. If you’re not actively adjusting how you send, from timing to targeting, you risk falling behind as the economics and logistics of mail continue to shift.

What impacts direct mail program efficiency

Direct mail outcomes are shaped by a mix of known and variable factors. The key is knowing what’s in your control – and focusing on the areas that will have the biggest operational and campaign impact. Here’s what shapes direct mail execution:

The number of pieces you send directly affects postage pricing tiers, print efficiency, and campaign performance.

  • Higher volumes can unlock better print and postage rates – but if they’re not segmented, you risk overspending on low-intent audiences.
  • Lower, more targeted volumes may cost more per piece but typically generate better ROI by reaching only high-value recipients.

Your choice of mail class (First-Class vs. Marketing Mail) impacts delivery speed, handling priority, and total cost. The choice of class for your campaign can either inflate spend or delay time-sensitive offers.

  • First-Class offers faster delivery and stricter handling, best for time-sensitive or regulatory communications.
  • Marketing Mail allows slower delivery but lower costs, ideal for promotional campaigns with flexible timing.

Where your mail is going affects logistics, delivery timelines, and overall cost.

  • Broad, dispersed audiences increase transportation and transit complexity.
  • Regional targeting closer to delivery zones can reduce in-transit time and cost, especially for large volumes.

Your flexibility around delivery windows determines your ability to optimize.

  • Tight delivery timelines limit batching and routing options, often resulting in higher costs and production pressure.
  • Flexible delivery windows enable more efficient logistics and access to lower-cost mail classes.

Format affects not just look and feel, but also how mail is classified and priced.

  • Larger or heavier formats (e.g. flats, thick postcards) may trigger higher postage tiers.
  • Format-optimized pieces stay within automation-compatible guidelines and reduce per-piece cost. Even switching envelope style or paper weight can move your mail into a cheaper (or more expensive) category.

How you print and bundle mail impacts production timelines and fulfillment capacity. How mail is grouped and routed for production dramatically affects speed, cost, and flexibility.

  • Small, fragmented jobs increase setup time and reduce print efficiency.
  • Batching across campaigns, or commingling by region, send date, or destination zone, improves production throughput and helps optimize postage rates. With USPS’s upcoming zone-based pricing, these strategies will play an even bigger role in a strong direct mail ROI.

What are five ways to optimize my direct mail program

When you focus on the areas you can control, you open pathways to streamline execution, reduce complexity, and increase the impact of every mailpiece.

Optimize volume and cadence

Align your volume to audience value and segmentation so each send is targeted and purposeful. Flexible delivery windows let you shift mail class or timing to align with campaign objectives.

Pro tip: Plan delivery timelines early to give yourself flexibility in routing, batching, and scheduling across production and postal services.

Batch smarter with print optimization

Fragmented, small-batch production can slow fulfillment and strain workflows. Instead, consolidate similar mail across campaigns, regions, or business units to unlock better routing and processing.

Lob’s Print Delivery Network automatically routes mail to optimal facilities for volume and geography – maintaining SLAs while improving production efficiency.

Leverage USPS promotions

Every year, USPS offers promotions that reward innovation in mail formats, digital integration, and engagement strategies. Aligning your campaigns to these promotions helps you enhance impact and take advantage of valuable incentives.

Here are three key promotions to use this year:

Integrated Technology Promotion

  • What it is: Incentivizes campaigns that incorporate digital elements like QR codes, AR, or NFC to bridge physical and digital channels.
  • Why it matters: Encourages multi-channel engagement and unlocks postal incentives for campaigns that integrate tech features into mailpieces.
  • Example: A retail brand embedded QR codes linking to a personalized shopping page on all direct mail, qualifying for the promotion and driving measurable digital traffic from offline audiences.
Read more on the Integrated Tech Promotion and how to use itRetail Postcard

Informed Delivery Promotion

  • What it is: Rewards mailers who add digital ride-along content (images, links) to USPS Informed Delivery emails that preview incoming mail.
  • Why it matters: Boosts impressions and digital touchpoints before the mailpiece even arrives—helping extend campaign reach across channels.
  • Example: A Real Estate co included a clickable Fake Check in their Informed Delivery preview.
Real Estate Postcard

First-Class Mail Incentive (launching in September 2025)

  • What it is: Provides incentives for qualified First-Class Mail campaigns, encouraging use of higher-priority mail to drive customer engagement.
  • Why it matters: Helps offset the cost of First-Class Mail while taking advantage of faster delivery speeds and enhanced handling.
  • Example: A financial services company mailed account upgrade offers using First-Class Mail to ensure timely delivery before a deadline, qualifying for the incentive and improving open rates.
Learn more about the First-Class Mail promotion and how to use it

Automate campaign execution

Bring your creative vision to life with seamless design-to-mail workflows. Integrate your favorite design tools to quickly turn your custom designs into personalized, high-quality direct mail—without any coding or manual adjustments.

Save time by triggering campaigns automatically from your CRM or marketing platform

Instead of manually uploading lists or starting production tasks, automation sends campaigns based on customer actions, whether it’s onboarding, renewal reminders, or loyalty rewards.

See Lob’s direct mail integrations

Improve visibility by automating reporting dashboards

Real-time dashboards pull delivery, production, and engagement metrics automatically, freeing teams from manual tracking and making it easier to adjust campaigns midstream.

Take a more targeted approach

Direct mail works best when it’s focused on the audiences most likely to engage. Targeted campaigns aimed at high-intent segments consistently outperform broad, untargeted blasts, especially when every mailpiece needs to count.

Start with your campaign outcome in mind: Can you refine your audience to focus only on the highest-value segments?

Here are four ways to filter your audience:

  • Purchase behavior: Have they purchased in the last 30 days?
  • Loyalty status: Are they part of your loyalty or rewards program?
  • Geography: Are you targeting specific regions or store footprints?
  • Engagement history: Have they responded to prior campaigns or communications?
Lookalike Icon

Lob’s Lookalike Lists feature helps you find new prospects who share attributes with your highest-value customers, allowing you to expand your audience intelligently without sacrificing relevance.

Explore more here

Smarter sending starts here

Mailing today requires agility, insight, and proactive strategy. With the right tools and approaches, you can optimize workflows, improve campaign delivery, and ensure every mailpiece contributes meaningfully to your marketing goals.

Build a stronger direct mail program now

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