For the third year in a row, the U.S. Postal Service is offering special promotions encouraging direct mailers to use mobile technology, such as QR codes, on its mail pieces and in return mailers will receive a 2% discount on postage.
The Direct Mail Mobile Coupons and Click-to-Call promotions, which runs from March 1 to April 30, provides business mailers with the discount on Standard Mail, Nonprofit Standard Mail and First-Class Mail letters, flats and cards (presort and automation).
Direct mail mobile coupons, according to a release, will “support the high growth in digital coupons” via the internet or mobile.
The click-to-call promotion, according to the release, “is a web-based communication tool in which a person initiates a phone call by clicking a button, image or text to connect with another person through voice communication.” These types of communications, USPS says, can be initiated by hyperlinks on websites, emails or QR codes, also known as 2-D barcodes.
According to USPS, these promotions “seeks to drive awareness and increase the value and utility of direct mail coupons in today’s digital world,” according the release states.
Registration for both of these promotions is open until April 30.
This is the third year in a row that the USPS is offering such promotions. The first in 2011 was a QR code promotion offered to commercial mailers for an upfront 3% discount on the prices for First-Class Mail and Standard Mail letters and flats, which included a QR code inside or on the mailpieces. In 2012, USPS launched the “2012 Mobile Commerce and Personalization Promotion” which was similar to the 2011 version.