Frequent Asked Questions

Mailing outsourcing services have been available to serve businesses with affordable rates to save on time and money. Aside from design costs and additional shipping costs, businesses would need to purchase the USPS first class postage rate for $0.58 each. However, if you use a direct mail company Star mail service, you can send your mailing at the marketing mailing postage rate (aka Standard Class) at $0.33 each. Moreover, if you are a non-profit organization, your postage will be at an even lower rate if you qualify. (Minimum number of pieces required for these rates is 200 pieces. Let StarMailing Services qualify for this discounted rate! Check out our nonprofit mailing services!

At StarMailing Services, we provide state-of-the-art precision from high-speed equipment for folding, addressing, inserting, and more, to share with others your business at a great price with quality mail preparation!

Here are a few of the many mailer types we offer. Listed from low to high cost:

• Postcard mailer: Common sizes are 4 x 6, 5 x 7, 8.5 x 5.5, 6 x 9, 6 x 11

• Self Mailer: Usually printed on 8.5 x 11, 8.5 x 14, 11 x 17 and folded to a smaller size and tabbed before addressing.
• Letter and envelope
• Catalogs/Brochures: Trifold, Bifold & 4 page newsletters

• EDDM: Send out direct mail pieces to each address on a carrier route. It will not have a name or address on the piece and will cost a fraction of regular postage.
• Saturation Mailing: Also known as Residential Mailing, saturation is a very similar strategy to EDDM but it has an address and name on each piece. It will be delivered to each address on a carrier route and the sender will also be given general demographic information about this carrier route from average age, household income, and more.

The following are the most common rates, and it will fluctuate based on several factors (ask our representatives which is best for your business):

• Marketing Mail (previously Standard or Bulk Mail) – Typical delivery time is 1 to 2 weeks.
• Targeted Mailing: Marketing (Standard or Bulk) Mail and First Class Mail. Uses a targeted mailing list to deliver to specific prospects. Mailing lists include consumer, business, renters, pet owners, health ailments, ethnicity and more!

Direct Mail Marketing continues to be one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing strategies available. Even in a digital environment, direct mail works very well many industries; however, it may work best for certain businesses and situations, we can gladly help you evaluate the best mailing solution for profitable results. Take into consideration the following factors:

• Cost: Mailing costs range from $1,500 to $3,000 for approximately  5,000 pieces and will depend greatly on the type of mailers you are sending out. The cost includes the postage per mail piece that is needed to send your direct mail through the United States Postal System. It ranges from 16.5 cents each to 33 cents (each for a letter-size mailer. Due to the high cost of mail advertising, if you are selling small-ticket goods or services, it is a challenge to justify the cost of direct mail advertising.

• Return on Investment (ROI): For successful direct mail advertising, setting an acceptable ROI is the first step. The direct mail campaign can’t continue without a return on investment. In order to generate future revenue, evaluating having enough revenue or enough awareness is part of the process. You will need to consider the “lifetime” value of your new customers after your mailing, even though you are not recovering your initial investment right away.

• Availability of A Quality Mailing List: If you have a large existing database of customers, your business is an ideal situation for your direct mail advertising because those leads already know who you are and are more likely to respond to your mail. If you do not have an existing customer list, Star Mailing can find a suitable mailing list specific to your clientele and for your direct advertising campaign. Whether you are looking for business lists or consumer lists, we can help.

1. WHAT IS THE ESTIMATED DELIVERY TIME?

• Priority Mail – 1 to 3 days
• First Class Mail – 5 days 
• Parcel Post – 2 to 9 days*
• Bound Printed Mail – 2 to 9 days•
• Media Mail – 2 to 9 days*
• Standard Mail – 7 to 14 days*

The USPS doesn’t guarantee delivery time for these classes. However, ow experience is that more than 98% of the time the mailers will be delivered within these dates. By using drop shipments, you can save delivery time and postage. Please call for more details on

Roughly put, a letter-size direct mail is any rectangular mailer at least 5” long and 3 1/2″ high. However, a mailer larger than the letter-size maximum dimension of 6 1/8″ x 10 1/2” is considered as the “fat” size direct mailer. The “flat” size mailer cannot exceed 12” x 15”. The postage rate for a “fat” size mailer is significantly higher than the postage rate for the letter-size mailer.

Postal Drop Shipping or Drop Shipment applies mostly to Marketing Mail including nonprofit mail. If we deliver mailers closer to the destination Post Office, we can receive a drop-ship discount from the Post Office for delivering the pieces. The overall cost may be lower even if you add the delivery cost of getting your pieces to the destination PO. Drop shipment is not for all mailing projects because you need enough mailers within certain areas to offset that delivery cost.

This is a complicated process to determine if you should use drop shipping or not. StarMailing services have been helping businesses and organizations make the most out of their marketing budget with drop shipping.  Star Mailing Services has the latest technology expertise to advise you with the most cost-efficient delivery option. In addition to lower postage, drop shipped mail will arrive at homes faster and at a more predictable time.

The nonprofit rate is a significantly lower postage rate that non-profit organizations can qualify for. Your nonprofit organization must apply at the Post Office and receive a non-profit authorization number before you can benefit from the lower postage rate.

First, you will need to read the information on this form to see if your organization is eligible to mail at the non-profit rates. Once you determine if you qualify, you will need to fill out the application and submit the required documentation. You can send this to us and we can send it to our local PO where they will then submit it electronically or mail it to Pricing and Classification Service Center. You will receive a letter notifying you if you are approved along with an assigned Non-Profit Authorization number.

The nonprofit authorization number is given to you once the USPS grants you qualification for the non-postage rates. A non-profit permit is needed to send out your mailing to the Post Office; but you can use StarMail’s permit for no extra charge. Avoiding the permit application will save you both time and money!

Check out our Non-profit services!

It may take from one to two weeks for nonprofit direct mail to reach its final destination the region.

Yes. If your package is 15.9 oz (1 lb) or less, you can mail packages via nonprofit postage rate. There are some restrictions to consider, so please contact us for details for further orientation.

No, discounted non-profit mailing is only available for marketing direct mail only. Marketing mail is also known as “bulk” mail or standard mail.

It depends on your marketing needs and the type of service you want to use, to make it happen we work on the ideal arrival date to determine your best day of the week.

Most mailings will get better results if the mailer is received at home during the mid-week (Tues/Wed/Thurs) because your prospects are usually busy over the weekend and tend to ignore direct mail pieces during these times. If you are mailing to local addresses via Marketing Mail, we can drop ship your pieces on Friday at either SCF or NDC location, and the mail will be delivered in 2 to 4 days.

Please note that drop shipment will not be possible for all mailers. We will advise you if it benefits you on your specific mailing.

We will send you an official postal receipt upon request when the mailing is completed. The form shows the date of the mailing and the quantity that was mailed, by official USPS documentation and verified directly with USPS for more follow-up information.

EDDM & Residential Saturation Mailing are very similar types of mailing methods because they both will deliver a direct mail piece to each address on a carrier route. They are at a discounted rate compared to regular direct mail postage.

EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) mailers are sent without names or addresses.  They are simply addressed as “Local Postal Customer”.  The postal couriers in a region are given bundles of these mailers for distribution.   On the other hand, Residential Saturation Mailers will contain a name and an address for each address (about 70% of all addresses have a name). The cost is slightly higher on Residential Mailer, but having a name and address on the mailer often produces better response rates than EDDM mailer.  A Residential Saturation Mailer includes information on the average demographics of each household, including the average age, income, number of children, and more.

PMOD (PRIORITY MAIL OPEN AND DISTRIBUTE) is not well known in the mailing service industry, but it can be beneficial to some customers. Instead of sending Marketing Mail to local Post Offices, we can ship trays of mail via the USPS Priority Mail closer to the destination post office (SCFs). If you are mailing to local addresses, PMOD won’t help. However, if you are mailing outside your local area, PMOD can expedite the mailing delivery time to 5 to 7 days instead of 1 to 3 weeks.

With PMOD, you can have a first-class delivery time without paying a first-class rate. The average PMOD postage rate falls between Marketing Mail (33 cents) and First Class Mail (0.49 cents) The total of the PMOD postage is the combination of Marketing Mail PO age plus Priority Mail postage.

Moving a residence or business usually involves going to the Post Office and providing the new address to forward all your mail. When we prepare your list for mailing, we are required by the USPS to compare your mailing list against the USPS move update database to replace undeliverable and outdated addresses If you request it, we can send you an updated database so you can improve your own list.

Check out our mailing capabilities

The USPS has several requirements that will limit what you can put inside an envelope and mail as first-class or as marketing mail. For example, an envelope has to be an even thickness, which means the insert piece has to be thin (no more than a gift card thickness).

If your mailer doesn’t meet the USPS guidelines for first-class or marketing mail, you can mail it as a parcel post, but postage is much higher than the postage for first-class or marketing mail.

Yes. You can track your marketing (bulk) or first class mail. We can use services such as trackmymail.com to track the delivery of your mailing. This type of tracking is different from the UPS, FedEx, or USPS Priority Mail tracking service. The biggest difference is your mail is tracked only up to the last local post office that handles the mail. It does not track if your mail was actually delivered to homes. Also, you don’t get any delivery signature.

We can safely assume that the vast majority of mailers were delivered to homes as long as they reached the local post office. This tracking is useful to determine if your mailers have arrived in various locations throughout the country, and you will be able to know if there are any issues with delivery in certain areas.

The typical cost of adding this kind of tracking is around 9 cents each. You will get various delivery reports by state, region, and zip code. We usually don’t recommend our customers to add tracking because it adds an unnecessary cost, as an expert in direct mail for 40 years, the USPS is very efficient in delivering mailers accurately and on time.