As the Sonny and Cher song states, "the beat goes on," so guess what! Postage rates are increasing just like the last 3 plus years.

An annual report delivers information back to a brand's supporters at the end of the year, whether they are shareholders in a for-profit company or donors to a non-profit. Shareholders want to see the financial results from the past year, plus the strategic plans for the next year. For non-profits, its an important opportunity to thank their donors and show the social impact of those donations on their supported causes.

Did you know there are only 9 weeks left until Christmas Day? This is not a drill! At Suttle-Straus we're in the middle of the holiday gifting season in the promotional products department, and if you have needs for this year we recommend having orders placed no later than October 31st-Nov 1st in order to guarantee arrival in time for the holidays.

Halloween decorations have been put up, stores have Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations filling the aisles and pre-Black Friday sales are ramping up, which means it is time to start thinking about sending off holiday letters and packages. Here are some dates to remember so your items arrive on time and at the best rates.

It's no secret that we all really love our pets! According to the 2023-2024 APPA National Pet Owners Survey, 66% of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to 86.9 million households. In 2023, a total of $147 billion in sales is projected to be spent on pets in the U.S.

It’s been four years since we attended our last HOW Design Live conference, and we were excited to hear it was in Nashville. A quick refresher, this is one of the top design conferences for creatives and Suttle-Straus sent three members of our Creative team on varying days throughout the week. We had the opportunity to see a variety of sessions by amazing speakers, including the first ever "HOW Women Lead" pre-conference. Here are the top three trends our team wants to share:

You're a new designer, fresh out of school, and you've just been assigned your first print job. Congrats! Now what? Before you rolodex your print production knowledge and excitedly overwhelm yourself with the thought of grommet binding or special UV coatings, revisit some basic considerations for a successful first go.

While this could be as simple as knowing who to contact, to something more specific like proper file setup for print-ready pieces, no detail is too small to overlook. Ease into the process with this broad overview and dig deeper with the resources linked here.

We are now into the summer months, and it is time to revisit the USPS promotions for 2023. Three of the 2023 promotions are already completed or underway, see the original blog: How to Save on Postage - Part 1. The USPS has added a couple of new promotions for the second half of this year, the Reply Mail IMbA Promotion and the Retargeted Mail Promotion to go along with a repeat of the Informed Delivery Promotion.

It's year three of the United States Postal Service's (USPS) 10-Year Plan, and the USPS is raising postage rates for Market Dominated products for the second time this year on July 9^th. The increase averages 5.4% across First Class, Marketing Mail, Periodicals, Package Services and Special Services. Flat rate mail, periodicals and packages will have a higher average rate due to the fact they are not meeting the cost associated with delivery. The USPS call these products "under water." The USPS has the authority to add an additional 2% increase above the 5.4% until these products are covering delivery costs. View the entire USPS 10-year plan here.

What's the best way to bind together a marketing piece with multiple pages? Saddle-stitching and perfect binding are the most common methods. Learn the pros and cons for each method below: