O’Neil Digital Solutions · USPS Estimator
Review session: agreed changes and open decisions
Everything the group asked for on Aug 13, written out with the exact copy we’d use — plus six recommendations that need a yes or no before we rebuild. Nothing has been changed in the live tool yet.
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1. Changes we agreed to
Eight items. The first two change how the tool works; the rest are wording and accuracy. Reply with item numbers if you want any of them adjusted — otherwise we’ll treat silence as approval and build them as written.
Drop the Mail Growth Incentive from the calculation
StructuralKaren — MGI can’t be estimated responsibly from what a prospect can tell us in a web form. It depends on year-over-year volume growth and average postage per piece, and the average itself moves as credits are applied. Karen will cover MGI live in the webinar instead.
What changes: the second results panel comes out entirely. The tool then estimates promotion discounts only — one number, one method, defensible.
Note: see recommendation R1 — we’d keep a short, non-numeric mention of MGI rather than removing it from the page altogether.
Replace the “How does your mail reach USPS?” question
StructuralKaren, Stephanie — the current question doesn’t capture the two things that actually determine the answer: who prints the mail, and how it’s submitted. A client mailing direct to USPS is on a completely different rate scale than one going through a presort provider.
How does your mail reach USPS today?
Who prints your mail, and how does it get to USPS?
- O’Neil prints and submits it (via a presort provider)
- We print in-house, then send through a presort provider
- We print in-house and mail direct with USPS
- Another print provider, through a presort provider
- Another print provider, direct with USPS
- Not sure
It stays in step 2 (Mail Profile), alongside the other operational questions, so it reads as qualification rather than a sales probe.
Rename the tool
CopyKaren — “Recovery Estimator” implies we’re recovering money that was lost, which sets the wrong expectation. And with MGI out of the math, “Incentive” no longer applies: MGI is the only true incentive; everything else is a promotion.
USPS Incentive Eligibility & Recovery Estimator
Stop leaving postage savings on the table.
USPS Promotion Savings Estimator
See how much you could save by taking advantage of USPS promotions.
Remove “check a recent vendor invoice”
AccuracyKaren — the invoice figure isn’t the number the discount comes off. The discount applies to the qualified rate, so pointing people at an invoice produces a wrong input and a wrong estimate.
Estimated annual postage spend — check a recent vendor invoice.
Roughly what do you spend on postage in a year? A ballpark is fine — we’re sizing the opportunity, not auditing your spend.
“Negotiated rate” becomes “qualified rate” everywhere
AccuracyKaren — the discount is calculated against the rate the mail qualifies for after presort and commingling, not against a negotiated rate. Two places use the wrong term: an FAQ answer and the methodology disclaimer.
Promotion discounts apply against the qualified rate — the rate your mail actually qualifies for after presort and commingling — not against face-value postage.
Remove “Catalogs” from mail types; add “Kits”
AccuracyKaren — a large share of catalogs mail as Bound Printed Matter, which isn’t promotion-eligible. Offering it as a checkbox and then quoting savings would, in Karen’s words, be deceiving.
Jeff, Stephanie — kits are worth capturing: they’re a real lead-gen signal and they open the format-conversion conversation. Some kits mail as flats and qualify; some mail as BPM and don’t.
What changes: “Catalogs” comes off the list, “Kits” goes on. See recommendation R2 for how we’d handle the fact that kits can’t be scored reliably either.
Pull the Continuous Contact FAQ
CopyKaren — the promotion is ending, the window has effectively passed, and no current clients are using it. Keeping it in the FAQ invites questions we can’t act on.
What changes: that Q&A is deleted. The remaining FAQs stand as-is except item 08.
Fix the Integrated Technology FAQ
AccuracyKaren — the current answer implies QR codes and URLs qualify. On their own, they don’t. AI-generated copy is the qualifying path worth leading with.
Not always. Some incentives, like the Mail Growth Incentive, reward increases in qualifying mail volume without requiring a mailpiece design change. Other promotions may require adding qualifying features or technology — for example, Integrated Technology may offer opportunities to incorporate AI using copy or content you already have.
The CRID FAQ needs no changes.
2. Recommendations — your call
Six things that came out of the session as questions rather than decisions. Each is a yes/no; we’ll build the “yes” version of any you approve and skip the rest.
Mention MGI without quantifying it
RecommendedRemoving MGI from the math is right. Removing it from the page loses a genuine hook — growth-driven credits are the thing most mailers haven’t heard of, and it’s a strong reason to book a call. We’d keep a short callout on the results page with no dollar figure attached:
There’s a second program worth asking about. The Mail Growth Incentive credits a share of the postage on qualifying volume above your prior-year baseline. It isn’t in the estimate above because it depends on your year-over-year growth and your actual average postage — but if your volume is growing, it’s worth a conversation.
This preserves the webinar tie-in without the tool making a number it can’t defend.
Capture kits, but keep them out of the savings math
RecommendedSame problem as catalogs: some kits qualify as flats, some don’t as BPM, and the form can’t tell which. We’d add the checkbox so the signal reaches sales, exclude that volume from the estimate, and note it on the results page — “Kits vary by format. We’ve left them out of the estimate; there may be savings here worth reviewing.” The lead record flags it so the follow-up call starts in the right place.
Branch the results CTA on the new print/submission answer
RecommendedStephanie’s point — the outcome is very different depending on who prints and how it’s submitted — should land where it converts. Someone mailing direct with USPS gets a different next step than an existing O’Neil client. Same estimate, different call to action. It’s a small build on top of change 02.
Block free email domains on the form
RecommendedThe tool exists to generate qualified leads. Requiring a business email address costs almost nothing and keeps gmail-address tire-kickers out of Karen’s notifications. Easy to reverse if it feels restrictive once volume is real.
Karen to confirm the AI-copy wording verbatim
ActionChange 08 quotes what Karen said in the session. Because it’s the one line making a specific eligibility claim, we’d like her sign-off on the exact sentence before it’s published.
Keep the current URL
RecommendedThe rename doesn’t require moving the page. /resources/usps-estimator/ stays accurate, and anything already shared keeps working. Only the on-page title changes.
3. Still open
These weren’t resolved in the session. The first two block the rebuild; the rest can be settled in parallel.
| Question | Owner | Blocks build? |
|---|---|---|
| First-Class Mail Advertising — what discount percentage do we use? The tool needs a number to calculate against. | Karen | Yes |
| Participation share — what portion of a mailer’s volume realistically qualifies? Drives whether the estimate reads as credible or inflated. | Karen | Yes |
| Volume floor — is 250,000 pieces / $100,000 postage the right cutoff? Below it, the tool tells the visitor they’re under the threshold instead of quoting a number. | Karen & Jeff | No |
| How savings figures are represented publicly. Flagged for legal review before dollar ranges are promoted. | Rosson | No |
| Do leads need to sync to Salesforce? Our recommendation: keep them in HubSpot only. It’s already working end to end, and a sync adds a failure point for no near-term gain. | Jeff / marketing ops | No |
4. What happens next
The build is short. Getting the answers is the long pole.
- Approve this listReply with any item numbers you want changed. Silence on an item means it gets built as written.
- Karen answers the two blocking questionsFirst-Class Advertising percentage, and the participation-share assumption — plus sign-off on the wording in item 08.
- We rebuildStructural changes first (01, 02), then copy. Roughly a day’s work once the answers are in.
- Re-test and republishFull walk-through of the tool end to end, confirm leads still reach HubSpot, then re-upload and clear the site cache.
- Hand back for final reviewSame URL, ready for the webinar push.
Nothing is live yet
The tool at oneildigitalsolutions.com/resources/usps-estimator/ is still the version reviewed on Aug 13 — including the MGI panel and the old name. No changes go in until this list is approved.
Anything else?
Something we missed on Wednesday, or a question about any of the above — put it here.