New Postal Promotion Alert! Learning More About “Reply Mail IMbA”

After a few years of running the semi-popular, semi-loathed “Earned Value” postal promotion, the US Postal Service announced in 2022 that the promotion would be discontinued for 2023 and beyond. It had allowed mailers to receive a per-piece credit for every returned mailpiece using an enrolled permit, with those credits stored up for use on a future mailing.

In its place, they announced a new promotion that would seemingly take its place, as it too revolved around reply mail pieces – the “2023 Reply Mail IMbA Promotion”. This new promotion will provide up to either a 3% or a 6% discount on every reply mailpiece returned under an enrolled permit. However, there are a few major differences between the Earned Value promotion and this upcoming one, which runs from July 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023.

The primary difference is that the savings come in a discount, not a credit. This means that the postage reduction is claimed and used on the mail pieces returned during the promotion, rather than as a credit to be used on a future mailing. This format actually matches the reimbursement functionality used on all other postal promotions. Secondly, it is only for permits approved for the USPS’s new service called “Intelligent Mail barcode Accounting.”

The IMbA service from the post office allows for more automated processing of Business Reply Mail invoices, and more importantly, can only be turned on for Qualified Business Reply Mail permits. For those needing a refresher on the various types of BRM, see our other recent blog found here.

2023 Reply Mail IMbA Promotion Process

• The first step in taking part in this new promotion is to ensure that your business reply mail permit has been approved for QBRM, and once approved for that, to ask the USPS to enroll the permit in IMbA.
• The second is to register the permit for the promotion – promotion enrollment began on May 15, 2023.
• Thirdly, the actual business reply envelopes must be approved through the new Mailer Promotion Portal.
• Lastly, once the mail pieces return, the savings can be seen through the permit view in the Enterprise Payment System and the Incentive Programs reporting page. Both can be found in the Business Customer Gateway that is linked to the BRM permit. Good

As this is an entirely new promotion; the above steps are only how it is being described for us through the USPS Promotion Guidebook. Some details may be slightly different than originally described, but there is still no doubt that all QBRM mailers should be taking part in this promotion! With postage costs going ever higher, we need to take advantage of every promotion available to us. And as always, your subject matter experts at Production Solutions are here to assist you every step of the way!