One of the upcoming offerings in USPS 2021 promotion and incentives program is the Earned Value Promotion, which runs from April 1 through June 30 of 2021. Registration for this promotion started on February 15, 2021 and runs through March 31, 2021.
This promotion is intended to slow the decline of First-Class Mail® volume, including Business Reply Mail (BRM) and Courtesy Reply Mail (CRM). To encourage mailers to continue distributing BRM, CRM, and Share Mail®, this promotion offers a postage credit for each mailpiece that is placed into the mailstream by the recipient and scanned during the promotion period.
Participants in this promotion must register their Mailer ID (MID) information, permit(s) and use eligible Intelligent Mail® barcodes (IMbs) on their BRM, CRM and Share Mail pieces.
Participants must select one or more Customer Registration Identifications (CRIDs) from active permits and select one or more MIDs to be used on reply mail and Share Mail pieces. Participants also need to select the permit(s) where the future postage credits will be applied. If using Share Mail, participants must follow the Share Mail Publication requirements before enrolling in the Earned Value Promotion.
For all participants, the promotion results in a $0.02 credit for each BRM, CRM and/or Share Mail piece counted based on their enrolled MID.
At the end of the promotion, the BRM, CRM and Share Mail pieces scanned will be totaled and the earned postage credit applied to the selected permit accounts. Once the participant accepts their credits, the earned credits are applied to the selected permit(s) and can be applied to future mailings of First-Class Mail Presort and Automation cards, letters and flats and USPS Marketing Mail® letters and flats that are submitted electronically via Mail.dat, Mail.XML or Postal Wizard and claim the incentive code “RR” in the CCR field or using the drop-down menu in Postal Wizard.
Credits are available for their use once the volumes are agreed upon (July 1 through September 15 is the review period) and released to the respective permit(s). Expiration date for the credits is December 31, 2021.
The outbound mailings which contain the BRM/CRM pieces may be sent to recipients in any category, shape or class of mail. The BRM/CRM pieces must contain the IMb with the registered MID encoded to qualify. All qualifying reply mail must contain an Earned Value Promotion preregistered MID to be identified and scanned during mail processing. Postcard and letter size BRM must be barcoded with a valid and properly used ZIP+4 barcode on the mailpiece and the same ZIP+4 code must be encoded within the IMb. The IMb on all BRM/CRM pieces must contain the barcoded ID, service type ID, and correct ZIP+4 routing code. Share Mail pieces must contain a unique or static Intelligent Mail barcode with the registered Mailer ID encoded to qualify. The IMb on all Share Mail pieces must contain the barcode ID, correct service type ID (STID) and ZIP+4 routing code.
The USPS has a technical guide for the 2021 Earned Value Promotion, available the PostalPro web site. The USPS also has a landing page dedicated to all the available promotions for 2021.