Texture you can feel. Scent you can experience. Paper structures that invite you to explore. Take a look at the physical features that bring direct mail to life and how USPS’s 2027 Tactile, Sensory, and Interactive promotion offers postage discounts for qualifying mailpieces.
For businesses planning upcoming campaigns, here’s a look at the design options USPS highlights and the promotion details.
Texture You Can Feel
Direct mail gives recipients something physical to hold. Embossed lettering creates raised details, while velvety finishes change the feel of a printed surface.
USPS also highlights metallic and light-reflective inks, along with specialty inks that change color in response to temperature or light. These treatments add tactile or visual features to printed graphics and messaging.
Take a look at how these techniques could relate to the products, materials, or brand characteristics featured in your next mailing.
Scent as Part of the Experience
Scented treatments introduce fragrance to printed mail. In its sensory mail guidance, USPS gives examples of coffee aromas for a cafe and floral scents for a flower shop.
For brands exploring scented direct mail, the fragrance becomes a physical part of the piece that recipients can experience while handling it. USPS includes scent among the sensory features that may qualify for its mailing promotion.
Structure That Invites Interaction
Direct mail can also incorporate dimensional paper elements. USPS identifies three-dimensional pop-ups, die-cut shapes, cutouts, and pieces recipients can assemble as creative options.
These formats change how someone interacts with the printed piece. A pop-up adds dimension when opened. An assembly format lets the recipient transform the mailing into another shape. Die-cutting creates shaped edges or openings within the material.
Who Knew?? A Look at 2027 Postage Savings
The USPS promotion runs January 1 through June 30, 2027, with a 3% basic discount and a 5% advanced discount. Registration opens October 15, 2026.
Eligible mail includes qualifying Marketing Mail and nonprofit Marketing Mail letters and flats, plus First-Class Mail letters, cards, and flats.
Explore the USPS promotional details by following this link 2027 Tactile, Sensory & Interactive Promotion | PostalPro. Participation requires meeting the applicable eligibility, registration, and mailpiece approval requirements.
Calitho’s full-service mail house brings printing, mailing preparation, and distribution together under one roof. From postcords and brochures to catalogs and personalized mailings, our team coordinates production, addressing, assembly, and delivery. Let us help with your next project by requesting a quote today.