USPS Continuous Contact Promotion 2026: How to Capture the 5% Postage Discount on Follow-Up Mailings

The USPS Continuous Contact Promotion pays a 5% postage discount on follow-up mailings that go to the same addresses as an earlier mailing, for USPS Marketing Mail and Nonprofit Marketing Mail letters and flats. The initial mailing pays full postage; every follow-up that meets the rules earns the discount, and the promotion runs April 1 through December 31, 2026.

As of mid-September 2026, registration is open and more than three months remain in the window, enough for an initial drop in October and two or three follow-ups before the December 31 cutoff. Everything below is sourced to the USPS program guidebook and USPS promotions pages linked below, with the postage math worked at published 2026 rates. Mail Processing Associates (MPA) prints, processes the data, presorts and enters mail for series like these from Lakeland, Florida, and we can run the follow-up drops inside the promotion window.

What Is the USPS Continuous Contact Promotion?

The USPS Continuous Contact Promotion is a 2026 USPS mailing promotion that gives a 5% postage discount on follow-up mailings sent to the same addresses as an initial mailing. It applies to USPS Marketing Mail letters and flats and Nonprofit Marketing Mail letters and flats; First-Class Mail is not eligible. The initial mailing pays full postage, and each follow-up whose content builds on the earlier piece without duplicating it earns the 5% discount. Registration runs February 15 through December 31, 2026, the promotion period is April 1 through December 31, 2026, and mailers get their pieces pre-approved through the My Products Portal on the Business Customer Gateway. Adding the Informed Delivery and Sustainability add-ons brings the discount to 7%.

Official references: 2026 Continuous Contact Promotion guidebook (PostalPro) and USPS Promotions and Incentive Programs (usps.com).

The guidebook frames it as a discount for follow-up mailings that repeatedly deliver qualifying Marketing Mail letters and flats to the same address, each of which must complement or build upon, but not duplicate, the initial mailing. The discount is calculated in PostalOne! and applied to the postage statement at the time of mailing against the normal Notice 123 prices; it cannot be rebated later. Only one promotion discount can be applied to a mailpiece, and up to two add-ons can be claimed on top of it.

2026 Dates, and How Much Runway Is Left

The dates below are from the USPS 2026 promotions calendar and the guidebook. Every mailing in the series, the initial and all follow-ups, has to take place inside the promotion period.

A mailing accepted and paid for before April 1 cannot anchor a 2026 series, and nothing finalized after December 31 earns the discount; plant-verified drop shipments verified and paid during the window are accepted at destination facilities up to 15 calendar days after the end date. For a mailer starting now: portal access and pre-approval in September, an initial drop in October, follow-ups in November and December, each with its own related content and its own pre-approval if it was not in the original Service Request.

What Mail Is Eligible, and What Is Not

The guidebook's eligible list is short: USPS Marketing Mail letters and flats, and Nonprofit Marketing Mail letters and flats. The ineligible list is longer:

• All First-Class Mail pieces
• Periodicals, Bound Printed Matter and Media Mail
• Mailings that duplicate the initial mailing
• Any piece carrying a mail diversion message, which the guidebook says makes the mailing ineligible regardless of anything else on the piece

Letter versus flat matters for the postage math, not for eligibility. A letter is no more than 11-1/2 inches long, 6-1/8 inches high and 1/4 inch thick, and anything larger is a flat (DMM 201), so a 6 x 9 card mails as a letter and a 6.25 x 9 card is a flat. The promotion adds no minimum of its own; the standard Marketing Mail minimum of 200 pieces or 50 pounds per mailing still applies (DMM 243).

Payment method is where EDDM comes in. The guidebook lists permit imprint, precanceled stamp permits, meter permits, official government mail, and Every Door Direct Mail deposited at a Business Mail Entry Unit as eligible postage payment methods, and it states that EDDM Retail mailings are ineligible.

The Same-Address Rule, as USPS Actually Enforces It

The guidebook does not set a percentage-match threshold. It sets an allowance for new addresses: in an audit, USPS will request documentation confirming that follow-up mailings include recipients from the original mailing, and mailers may add up to 10 percent new addresses on a follow-up. Its three sample scenarios all start from a 100,000-piece initial mailing:

• All repeat recipients. A follow-up to 50,000 of the original addresses with no new additions qualifies, so a follow-up can go to a subset of the original list.
• New additions within the limit. A follow-up to the 100,000 original addresses plus up to 10,000 first-time recipients qualifies.
• New additions beyond the limit. The 100,000 original addresses plus 1,000,000 first-time recipients does not qualify.

So you can prune between drops, since suppressions, movers and non-responders can come off the follow-up without affecting eligibility, but prospecting names have to stay under the 10 percent line. Running NCOA and CASS between drops keeps the repeated addresses deliverable, which is standard data processing on every MPA mailing. Keep the records: the guidebook names the job number, postage statement and mailing dates as documentation, allows 15 business days to produce a sample and the approved Service Request, and lets USPS reverse the discount if the proof is missing.

The Content Rule: Related, Never Identical

Each follow-up must be related to but not identical to the initial mailing, and the content should iterate, or build upon, the initial message as well as any prior mailings. The guidebook's own example opens with golf clubs, follows with a sale on sporting apparel, and closes with a new golf tournament: three related pieces, none of them a repeat. Its ineligible examples are just as specific:

• A follow-up identical to the initial mailing, meaning no creative change, no copy change and no offer change.
• Follow-ups identical to other follow-ups.
• Content unrelated to the marketing objective of the initial or previous piece, such as kitchen knives after golf clubs.
• Content tacked on to make unrelated pieces look connected; the overall piece must be related.

How to Register and Get Pre-Approved

Two USPS systems are involved: the My Products Portal, which usps.com notes was formerly called the Mailing Promotions Portal, handles mailpiece pre-approval and questions, and the Incentive Programs section of the Business Customer Gateway handles enrollment. The steps below combine the guidebook with the USPS My Products Portal guide.

1. Get portal access. Log in to the Business Customer Gateway, open Mailing Services, scroll to My Products Portal and click Get Access. USPS says the approval email arrives within four days.
2. Submit samples for pre-approval. Choose Submit Mailpiece Pre-approval, open a Service Request, and upload at least two pieces, the initial mailing and one follow-up, with a description of how the follow-ups relate to the initial piece and where the pieces are mailing from. Later follow-ups go in a new Service Request once they exist. USPS responds within four business days, sometimes with revisions, by email and in the portal.
3. Enroll in the promotion. Sign up for the 2026 Continuous Contact Promotion under Incentive Programs at least two hours before the mail is presented. Every participating CRID must be enrolled before the first mailing that claims the discount, and one of the parties in the By/For fields of the postage statement must be registered.
4. Claim it on the electronic postage statement. Mailings are submitted through Mail.dat, Mail.XML or Postal Wizard, with the mail owner and preparer identified in the By/For fields. The Component Characteristics Record (CCR) carries the code CC, with Type C for the initial mailing (no discount) and Type I for a follow-up (5%); add-ons are claimed at the same time with their own Type A codes. Discounted pieces in a combined or commingled mailing go on separate postage statements or mailpiece versions.
5. Keep a hard copy. Retain a sample of each mailpiece for 90 calendar days after the promotion ends; USPS runs random audits.

Two rules deserve plain statement: if the prototype is not approved in writing before the entry date, the mailing will not qualify, and any final mailpiece that deviates from the approved samples is subject to the loss of the discount. The approved sample is the piece you have to print.

Savings Math at 2026 Rates

The discount comes off the postage you would otherwise pay, so the savings track your postage rate and piece count. The figures below are the Mixed presort tier from USPS Notice 123, effective July 12, 2026 (Notice 123); Marketing Mail flats are quoted per job because the price depends on weight and preparation.

Example: 50,000 Marketing Mail letters, initial plus three follow-ups

• Postage per drop at the Marketing Mail letter rate of $0.467: $23,350.00
• Initial mailing: no discount
• Each follow-up at 5%: $1,167.50 saved, so $3,502.50 across three follow-ups
• Each follow-up at 7% with both add-ons: $1,634.50 saved, so $4,903.50 across three follow-ups

Example: 20,000 nonprofit letters, initial plus two follow-ups

• Postage per drop at the nonprofit Marketing Mail letter rate of $0.257: $5,140.00
• Each follow-up at 5%: $257.00 saved, so $514.00 across two follow-ups
• Each follow-up at 7% with both add-ons: $359.80 saved, so $719.60 across two follow-ups

Actual postage depends on presort level, weight and entry point, so every MPA job is priced in an itemized written quote that separates printing, data, mail services and postage. The discount applies to the postage line only.

Add-Ons: Getting From 5% to 6% or 7%

USPS offers two add-ons in 2026, documented in the 2026 Add-Ons guidebook. They cannot be claimed alone; they ride on a promotion you have qualified for and claimed, and you may claim up to two. Both are available all year in 2026, so they cover the entire Continuous Contact window.

Informed Delivery add-on: 1%

The mailer earns 1% for pairing an eligible follow-up (Marketing Mail and Nonprofit Marketing Mail automation letters and flats, or DDU-entered carrier route saturation flats) with an Informed Delivery campaign that has a full-color ride-along image with a call to action, a live target URL, and a representative image of the mailpiece (required for flats, optional for letters). Pre-approval goes through the My Products Portal, the add-on is registered under Incentive Programs at least two hours before mailing, and the campaign must be in Submitted or Active status, with mailing dates inside the campaign window, when the postage statement is filed. Separately, the eDoc submitter can register a permit for a 0.5% incentive paid to whoever submits the eDoc.

Sustainability add-on: 1%

The mailer earns 1% by demonstrating that the paper came from a certifiable, responsible source. The guidebook accepts Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Forest Stewardship Council, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, Bureau Veritas, SCS Global Services and PrintReleaf certifications, or a certificate submitted for review with a URL, through the portal for pre-approval, with the add-on registered before mailing.

Other 2026 promotions do not stack

Integrated Technology and First-Class Mail Advertising are the other promotions still open this fall; Tactile, Sensory and Interactive and Catalog Insights both ended June 30, 2026. Only one promotion discount can be applied to a mailpiece, so a follow-up claims either Continuous Contact or one of the others, never both. For the full calendar, see our guide to USPS direct mail promotions in 2026.

Campaign Shapes That Fit the Promotion

Three patterns fit cleanly when every drop lands inside the April 1 to December 31 window and the content develops from piece to piece.

Nonprofit cultivation series

An appeal, an impact report showing what the gifts did, and a year-end renewal is three related mailings to the same donor file. The initial piece pays the nonprofit rate; the two follow-ups pay 5% less. Donor files are usually stable between drops, so the 10 percent limit on new addresses is rarely a constraint, and lapsed-donor reactivation names can be held for a separate mailing. See our nonprofit direct mail page.

Patient recall and service reminders

A practice that mails a Marketing Mail reminder in spring and again in fall to the same patient list qualifies as long as the fall piece is not a reprint; a recall notice sent as First-Class Mail does not. Change the offer, the call to action or the message and it is a follow-up; run the identical piece and USPS treats it as a duplicate.

Neighborhood farming

Monthly postcards to the same neighborhood fit with two conditions: the series starts on or after April 1, so an April initial mailing followed by May through December pieces gives eight discounted drops, and each month's piece builds on the last rather than repeating it. Our real estate farming postcards guide covers the farming approach in detail.

How MPA Fits In

MPA is a direct mail and commercial printing company in Lakeland, Florida, in business since 1989. For a Continuous Contact series we print the pieces, digital on our Xerox Iridesse and Xerox Versant presses or offset for longer runs, process the list (NCOA, CASS and presort) so the addresses repeat cleanly from drop to drop, and enter the mail at the USPS Business Mail Entry Unit with the electronic postage statement that carries the CC code and the initial or follow-up type, on whatever cadence the series calls for.

The pre-approval and the enrollment sit with the mailer in the Business Customer Gateway; our team will tell you at quote time what USPS needs from you and when, so the samples, the enrollment and the mail dates line up. Schedule a consultation to map a series before the first drop, or see our mailing services page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the USPS Continuous Contact Promotion 2026?

The USPS Continuous Contact Promotion is a 2026 USPS mailing promotion that gives a 5% postage discount on follow-up mailings sent to the same addresses as an initial mailing. It covers USPS Marketing Mail letters and flats and Nonprofit Marketing Mail letters and flats. Registration runs February 15 through December 31, 2026, and the promotion period is April 1 through December 31, 2026.

How much can I save with the Continuous Contact Promotion?

Each follow-up mailing saves 5% of its postage, or 7% with the Informed Delivery and Sustainability add-ons. On a 50,000-piece campaign at the Marketing Mail letter rate of $0.467, postage is $23,350.00 per drop, each follow-up saves $1,167.50, and three follow-ups save $3,502.50. The initial mailing pays full postage.

Is First-Class Mail eligible for the Continuous Contact Promotion?

No. The 2026 guidebook lists all First-Class Mail pieces as ineligible, along with Periodicals, Bound Printed Matter and Media Mail. Only USPS Marketing Mail letters and flats and Nonprofit Marketing Mail letters and flats qualify.

Do the follow-up mailings have to go to exactly the same list?

No. USPS requires that follow-up mailings include recipients from the original mailing and allows up to 10 percent new addresses on a follow-up. A follow-up can also go to a subset of the original list.

When do I have to register and get pre-approved?

Before you mail. Samples are pre-approved through the My Products Portal, and a mailing will not qualify if the prototype is not approved in writing before the entry date. Enrollment under Incentive Programs on the Business Customer Gateway must be done at least two hours before the mail is presented, and every participating CRID must be enrolled before the first mailing that claims the discount.

Does the first mailing get the discount too?

No. The initial mailing is identified as CCR Type C and pays full postage. The 5% discount applies to each follow-up mailing, identified as CCR Type I, that meets the content and same-address rules and mails inside the promotion period.

Can nonprofits use the Continuous Contact Promotion?

Yes. Nonprofit Marketing Mail letters and flats are eligible, and the 5% comes off the nonprofit postage price. At the nonprofit Marketing Mail letter rate of $0.257, a 20,000-piece follow-up saves $257.00.

Can EDDM mailings qualify for the Continuous Contact Promotion?

Partly. The guidebook lists Every Door Direct Mail deposited at a Business Mail Entry Unit as an eligible postage payment method and states that EDDM Retail mailings are ineligible. An EDDM series still has to meet the content rule and be pre-approved and registered, and the guidebook does not say how the same-address documentation applies to simplified-address saturation mail, so ask USPS through the My Products Portal before planning one.

Can I combine Continuous Contact with another 2026 promotion?

No. Only one promotion discount can be applied to a mailpiece or mailing, so a follow-up claims Continuous Contact or one of the other promotions, never both. The add-ons are different: you can add the Informed Delivery add-on (1%) and the Sustainability add-on (1%) on top of Continuous Contact, for a maximum of 7%.

Capture the Discount on Your Next Series

If you mail the same audience more than once a year, the series you are already planning probably qualifies. Contact Mail Processing Associates with your piece count and drop dates and we will model the savings and plan the follow-up drops inside the 2026 window.