The U.S. Postal Service wants small businesses to send more direct mail to help the beleaguered agency expand its revenue stream by hundreds of millions of dollars.

In a campaign called “Every Door Direct Mail,” the Postal Service is touting a year-old online tool to help small businesses micro-target direct mail. The Web tool allows firms to tap customers by neighborhood or zip code without names or addresses.

The cost to small businesses is 14.5 cents per mail piece. The Postal Service spent virtually nothing to create the online service, tapping existing staff and resources to pull it together, said Paul Vogel, president and chief marketing officer for the Postal Service, at a presentation Tuesday

“We believe it could be a billion-dollar product for the Postal Service by 2016,” Vogel said.

The online direct mail program has been in existence since last April, generating $153 million in revenue through December. The Postal Service estimates the direct mail program will bring the struggling agency some $750 to $800 million in 2012.

The Postal Service reported a $5.1 billion loss for the year ended Sept. 30. The loss was caused by an ongoing decline in its core revenue driver, regular letters and bills known as first-class mail, as well as a legal mandate that the agency prefund health care benefits for a legion of future retirees.

The Postal Service has made headlines recently with cost-cutting moves to get out of the red over the next few years. The agency is working to close more than 200 postal plants that may cost 32,000 jobs, to cut Saturday service,and to delay delivery of some first-class mail .Separately, officials may also consider a hike in the price of a first-class stamp by a nickel to 50 cents.

No closures will happen until a self-imposed deadline of May 15, when a moratorium on postal service facility closures expires. Postal advocates for are pushing Democrats and Republicans to come up with a bipartisan plan to prevent the closures, but so far little progress has been made.

In the meantime, the Postal Service is looking to expand other revenue streams, including this direct mail program.

The Postal Service has weathered criticism for keeping the price of advertising mail low while raising the price of first class mail, when direct mail volume outnumbers first-class mail. In 2011, advertising mail volume was 84.7 billion pieces of mail and total first-class mail was 73.5 billion.

To promote the direct mail, the Postal Service unveiled three new television commercials — one features a dancer in a chicken costume that will air on CNN, local news, CBS’ “60 Minutes” and some sporting events, postal officials said. The commercials will start appearing this week.

ROME, Ga. — The state launched an investigation after a government employee sent a package to a metro Atlanta cleaning company with a profane word in the address line.

“I looked at the envelope and my jaw dropped,” Rug Suckers manager Pepper Powell.

Rug Suckers is a family-owned carpet cleaning business based out of Rome. Last month, the business received official forms from the Georgia Department of Labor sent in an envelope with an official seal.

“Our company name is Rug Suckers and there was a foul word in place of the Suckers,” Powell said. “I’m upset. One, my kids saw it. Two, the state of Georgia is not going to issue a business license like that, and three, that she tried to blame it on me,” Powell said.

The Department of Labor employee who addressed the envelope left Powell a voicemail blaming the error on miscommunication.

“I understood you to say that the company’s name was rug *uckers,” the employee said. “I asked you twice and you replied, ‘yes it was.’ I don’t talk like that, but I am apologizing if I got that wrong.”

Powell disputes the employee’s story.

“I did not say it and even if I did, she should have gotten a second opinion from someone,”Powell said.

The Department of Labor is investigating this situation and has suspended the worker involved. An official said they take the issue very seriously.“It went through post office people’s hands and others saw it. It was kind of an embarrassment,” Powell said.

Rug Suckers management told Philips they don’t necessarily want to see the state worker lose her job. Department of Labor officials said they’ll take whatever action they deem necessary at the end of their investigation. In the meantime, they’ve apologized to Rug Suckers at least twice.