Postage Stamps and The Price of Gas

What do the price of postage stamps and the price of gas have in common?

Not much, but when the price of gas goes up $.01 it costs the post office around one million dollars. 

The US Postal Service recently posted a $1.1 Billion loss for their 3rd quarter.  A portion of this loss is blamed on higher fuel prices along with a number of other reasons having to do with mail volumes and the economy.

What does this mean for direct marketers?  Well, since we can't control the price of gas we need to prepare ourselves for a postage increase next year.  Another increase is expected in May 2009, with the amount to be announced in February.  The good news if any is that any increase will be limited to the rate of inflation.

If you use direct mail to market your business you should keep mailing (assuming you generate a positive ROI on your efforts) and start thinking about how another increase will impact your marketing efforts.  What other marketing channels produce an acceptable ROI?  How can you reorganize your marketing plans to maintain your current mail volumes?

Let me know what you're planning to do if the price of postage goes up again.