Direct mail marketers face a constant challenge: unpredictable postage costs. When the USPS raises rates, budgets shrink. Marketers are often forced to cut mail volume, delay drops, or pause their campaigns entirely. This uncertainty makes it difficult to forecast costs and measure return on investment accurately for a full year.
Gundir aims to fix this problem with their new Gundir365™ Postage Promise. The agency absorbs the risk of USPS rate increases, locking in postage rates for their clients for a full 365 days. Today, we sit down with Mike Gunderson, President of Gundir, to discuss how this new program provides cost predictability and why budget certainty is crucial for modern direct mail marketing.
Q: The USPS frequently changes its rates, which causes headaches for marketers. What inspired Gundir to take on this risk directly with the Gundir365™ Postage Promise?
Mike Gunderson: Postage rates rise every year and we are committed to seeing our clients succeed in the direct mail channel. Offering the Gundir365™ Postage Promise is a way for us to proactively guide our clients into smoother campaign planning and overall experience in the channel. We’ve seen firsthand how postage uncertainty derails budgets and campaign planning. When the USPS raises rates, marketers are often forced to cut volume, delay drops, or pause programs altogether. We’re invested in our clients’ success, and this program was built to take away the pain of rising postage costs.
Q: The program locks in a rate of approximately $0.40 per piece. Can you explain how the automatic year-end account audit and postage credit system works if USPS rates go up during a client’s 365-day window?
Mike Gunderson: If USPS rates go up during our client’s 365-day window, at year end, our team will audit and apply a credit to their account. Clients pay the standard postage rate at each mailing, just as they always have, and we track any USPS increases in the background and there’s nothing for them to file or claim. At the end of the 365-day window, we calculate the difference between their locked-in rate of around $0.404 and any increase that occurred, and we issue a credit up to their program’s annual cap. It’s automatic: no paperwork, no forms, no waiting on us to remember. And if a client stays in good standing, we roll them straight into a new 365-day promise at the current rate, so the protection never lapses.
Q: You mentioned the program is built for consistent mailers who need budget certainty. Who is the ideal client for this, and what are the minimum volume requirements to qualify?
Mike Gunderson: The program is built for marketers who mail on a monthly or quarterly basis. To qualify, a client needs to mail a minimum of 100,000 pieces a quarter, and Gundir has to be managing both the production and the postage. That’s what lets us track the rate exposure accurately and apply the right credit. It’s ideal for marketing directors and direct mail managers who own an annual postage budget and need numbers they can defend to their own leadership, as well as newer mailers who want cost certainty before they commit to the channel. Current clients on GundirLaunch or GundirLead are automatically enrolled and there’s nothing to sign up for.
Q: Marketers have different mailing schedules. How does Gundir365 accommodate both monthly and quarterly mailers when it comes to volume-based caps and mailing cadences?
Mike Gunderson: We’ve built the tier structure around both cadences from the outset, recognizing that a monthly mailer and a quarterly mailer carry very different exposure to a postage increase. Monthly mailers complete twelve drops a year, so their annual credit caps run higher, ranging from $10,000 at the 100,000-to-249,000-piece tier up to $100,000 for clients
mailing a million pieces or more annually. Quarterly mailers, sending four drops a year, follow the same tier logic but land at lower caps, from $3,000 up to $30,000 at that same top volume tier.
The design reflects our broader approach to the program: the cap is sized to match a client’s actual mailing pattern rather than applying a single number across the board. Clients are not required to select a cadence or apply for a specific tier. We track the mailing volume and frequency automatically, and the applicable tier is applied at the year-end audit without any additional steps from the client.
Q: With the risk of postage increases removed for a full year, how do you expect this to change the way your clients plan their forecasting, pro formas, and ROI analyses?
Mike Gunderson: Postage has historically been the one line item in a direct mail budget that clients could not fully control. Creative, data, and production costs can be planned with precision, but a mid-year USPS increase has long had the potential to undermine even a well-built forecast. Under Gundir365, the rate a client plans against on day one holds for the full 365-day window, which means the forecasts, proformas, and ROI analyses built at the start of the period remain accurate throughout.
That stability changes the planning conversation. Clients are able to commit to a full year of consistent monthly or quarterly mailing rather than reassessing quarter by quarter, and they can defend those numbers to internal stakeholders with more confidence. Mike also points to a secondary effect: clients who are not worried about being blindsided by a rate increase tend to mail more consistently, and consistent mailers see stronger response rates and better long-term ROI. Budget certainty, in that sense, does not just protect the numbers but improves them.
Unpredictable postage rates do not have to dictate a company’s direct mail strategy. By locking in costs and offering an automatic credit system, Gundir provides a clear path to budget stability. Marketers can now plan their annual campaigns without the looming threat of sudden USPS price hikes eating into their margins.
As direct mail continues to be a vital channel for customer acquisition, managing campaign costs will remain a top priority for competitive brands. Programs like the Gundir365™ Postage Promise show that agencies can take bold steps to protect their clients’ investments, ensuring direct mail remains a dependable and scalable option for years to come.
To learn more, visit gundir.com/gundir365/
