The United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced the details for the promotions for 2025. There are five promotions, along with two add-ons that can be stacked on top of of these promotions.
Three of the 2025 promotions were available in 2024, while two new promotions have been added: "First-Class Mail Advertising" and "Continuous Contact". Informed Delivery has been converted from a promotion to an add-on, and the Sustainability add-on is new!
Let's look at the calendar for the 2025 promotions. All five promotions have different timeframes, while the two add-ons can be stacked on top of the promotions all year long. We will now go through each of the promotions on an individual basis.
This promotion is for First Class Letters, Cards, and Flats along with Marketing and Non-Profit Mail Letters and Flats. Periodicals, Bound Printed Matter, and Media mail is not eligible for this promotion.
This promotion is designed to have mailers create mail pieces that excite the addressee using multi-sensory experiences by using special effects featuring, sound, smell, texture, and even taste. You will need to submit a printed mail piece for approval to the USPS.
The postage discount for an approved mail piece is 4% and the discount will be taken off at the time your mailing is submitted to the post office.
This can be done using coatings, creating interactive mail pieces with pop-ups, pull-outs, infinity folds, or other dimensional feature including trailing edge die cuts (Ted C).
The sign up period starts on Dec 15th and runs through July 31st and the promotion runs from February 1st until July 31st. The Resource Guide for this promotion is located at https://postalpro.usps.com/promotions/25-tsi.
Just like last year you can decide when you would like the integrated technology promotion to begin and when it will end. You pick the start date, and you then have six consecutive months to use the promotion for a 3% discount.
The sign up period begins on Nov 20, 2024 and runs until December 31st, 2025. The promotional period is any running 6-month period of time that the mail owner chooses. You can go from Feb 1st to July 31st for example. You cannot break up your six months, they must be consecutive.
This promotion allows mailers to send First Class Letters, Cards, and Flats along with Marketing and Non-Profit Mail Letters and Flats. All other categories of mail are not eligible for this promotion.
This promotion encourages mailer to add one of these eight technologies:
QR codes can be used to trigger many of the technologies. Guidebook and Resources is available at https://postalpro.usps.com/promotions/25-it.
This promotion is the same as last year. IMbA stands for Intelligent Mail Barcode Accounting. The promotion is eligible for First Class Letters, Cards, and Flats only being sent back to the mailer as business reply mail.
You will need to have a Business Reply Mail account with the USPS, or you will need to set one up. This takes time so plan ahead if you use BRM or CRM and would like to use this promotion. You will need to be doing Qualified Business Reply Mail (QBRM) or sign up for it. You will also need to allow time for designing new envelopes and testing. It offers the following savings on inbound postage:
The IMbA barcodes assists the USPS with accounting of BRM/CRM. This promotion encourages reply mail customer to adopt IMbA static or serialized barcodes on reply mail.
The Registration Period is May 15, 2025 – December 31, 2025 and the Promotion Period is July 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025. Read more about the IMBA Reply Mail promotion here: https://postalpro.usps.com/promotions/25-imba.This is a re-design of the "Color Transpromo" promotion of years' past. It is only valid on First Class Mail letters, cards and flats and the discount is 3%.
The promotion sign up period is July 15th through December 31st.
The promotion runs from September 1st through December 31st.
Ineligible Marketing Messages:
More information about this promotion can be found here: https://postalpro.usps.com/promotions/25-fcma.
This new promotion encourages marketers to plan campaigns with multiple touchpoints to adopt a more targeted approach that drives customer behavior.
It offers a 3% postage discount, but not on the first mailing, only follow-ups. The promotion sign up period is February 15th through December 31st and then the promotion runs from April 1st through December 31st.
These repeated mailings must complement or build upon (but not duplicate) the initial mailing. You will need to submit both the initial mailing and the follow-up mailings, which should be related but not identical.
Eligible Mailpieces:
Ineligible Mailpieces:
Read more on the Continuous Contact promo here: https://postalpro.usps.com/promotions/25-cc.
The mail owner will receive a 1% discount on postage. You can sign up for this promotion starting on November 20, 2024 and the promotion runs all year in 2025.
Read more about Informed Delivery in our blog: A Secret One-Two Punch to Combine Direct Mail and Email.
Sustainability is a brand new add-on to any promotion above except Reply Mail IMbA.
Mailer must qualify for and demonstrate one of the following certifications by submitting a Certificate for Review with URL:
The mail owner will receive a 1% discount on postage. You can sign up for this promotion starting on November 20, 2024 and the promotion runs all year in 2025. Read more about the Sustainability add-on here: https://postalpro.usps.com/promotions/25-st.
The team here at Suttle-Straus can help design or advise on ways to achieve discounts on your 2025 mailings, please reach out if we can be of assistance. You can also check out our on-demand webinar on the promotions here: https://www.suttle-straus.com/free-webinar-get-postage-savings-in-2025-with-new-usps-promotions.