Helping You Mail

There are many companies in business to help you mail. They include:

Presort Bureaus and Letter Shops

Presort bureaus and letter shops specialize in preparing commercial mailings for customers. Some of these businesses will do it all for you -- everything from creating your mailpiece through dropping it off at the Post Office. You can find these businesses by doing a web search or looking in the yellow pages under "letter shops," "mailing services," or "printing." Use Business Mail 101 to learn what's involved in preparing a commercial mailing, then check with a few presort bureaus or letter shops to see what services they offer. Compare your costs and efforts in preparing the mailing yourself to the costs of paying a vendor to do some or all of the work for you.

Software Vendors

Many companies sell "presort software," which is special computer software that presorts your addresses, figures out how many mailpieces will qualify for which postage prices, and prints out a completed postage statement. Presort software can cost anywhere from about $100 (for simple packages) to thousands of dollars (for very sophisticated software). You can find presort software at your local office supply store. Look for software that is "PAVE certified" -- that means that the software has been tested and approved by the Postal Service.

Address List Vendors

There are companies—list vendors—that collect and sell information about consumers and businesses. You can buy or rent a mailing list from a vendor to target your intended audience.

Click here to learn more about getting an address list.