It’s the biggest problem in Direct Mail. How do you get people to open and read your letter? In this article, we’ll discuss some of the various techniques used.

The first thing you have to do is stand out in the mailbox. There are a lot of ways to do this.

An unusual size envelope can be a good attention getter. Using a 6×9 envelope, or a #9 instead of a #10 envelope will make your letter different. You will stick out from the crowd. You have to be careful in playing too much with size. Non-standard envelopes cost more. If you get too large, or make your sizes out of proportion, the USPS will charge you a non-automation penalty, or worse.

Everyone loves pictures. A cute cartoon, exciting photo, or even an unusual logo can sometimes be enough to catch your prospect’s eye and draw them in. Color is a close relative. While the right black and white photo can be just the dramatic touch you need, there are a lot more choices with color.

So you can play with size, and add photos. What about envelope color? A light blue or yellow envelope will certainly be different from most of what they’re looking at. While most colored envelopes are more expensive than white, they’re a lot cheaper than 4-color printing of photographs. A manila envelope (the tan “official mail” ones), can be effective too.

On the more artful side, there are a lot of things you can do to make your letter appear more “personal”. This can often be much cheaper than the bold techniques previously discussed. Using a handwriting font for the mailing address is a good start. If your mailer can apply pre-cancelled stamps instead of a postal indicia, that can help too. These allow you to have a stamp on the letter, but still pay the bulk postage rates. Selecting an invitation or greeting card style envelope can work well with this strategy.

Before you go too far, you need to make a critical decision. You must choose, up front, whether you’re going to go for the flashy or the subtle approach and stick to it. You can mix techniques some (perhaps using color with a handwriting font to make it look like an ink pen), but if you go too far, you’ll just turn off your prospect. That’s the biggest challenge. Finding the right balance between building interest and looking like a scrapbook (assuming you aren’t in the scrapbook business).

We hope this has given you some ideas. Remember, the best tool in your arsenal is your individuality. By using your own creativity, you can come up with something that will be truly different, and therefore effective.

Have fun!

What we do in these cases is switch to Standard Mail with drop shipping. The Standard Mail rates are lower, and by dropping the mail closer to its destination, we’re able to overcome the timing issues.

First, your piece has to qualify for Standard Mail. This means you can’t have any personal information inside, such as account balances. You also won’t get returns or forwarding services with Standard Mail without incurring additional charges.

Second, to gain a benefit, you must have a need for First Class style timing, and a piece that weighs more than one ounce. Alternately, a First Class flat or parcel would also gain by using this technique. If you’re not particularly interested in the timing benefits, you can just change to Standard Mail and realize a large savings anyway. By the use of pre-canceled stamps and other techniques, you can avoid the perception issues some associate with Standard Mail.

Once you’re past these hurdles, here’s how it works. We sort the mailing list for Standard Mail and identify geographic regions with large concentrations of mail. this can be an individual post office (DDU), a 3-digit zip Sectional Center Facility (SCF), or a regional Bulk Mail Center (BMC). Those destinations are then separated and forwarded to the appropriate center by truck or other carrier, or by Priority Mail sacks. This eliminates a lot of the sorting and travel time that would be incurred inside the USPS transportation system, and shortens the delivery window. The difference between the First Class and Standard Mail rates, plus discounts received by dropping into these centers results in charges that are about the same as the one ounce First Class rate. For a 2 or 3 ounce piece, this can be a substantial savings.

To illustrate the savings, one example customer had the habit of sending advertising letters in #10 envelopes weighing less than a pound by First Class. At current rates, their average postage per piece was 35 cents. When they shifted to a 6×9 envelope, with additional material weighing 2.5 ounces, the First Class rate would have been 60 cents! Their base postage for a Standard Mail letter weighing 3.3 ounces or less was 24 cents. This plus the shipping and processing charges, less the DBMC, DSCF and DDU discounts came to an average cost of 37 cents, a savings of 23 cents off the First Class rate. In all, they saved $6,325 off the postage they would have paid if they continued using First Class. Delivery times were equivalent and predictable as well.

Besides the obvious need to stay in line with USPS mailing policies, there are many compelling business reasons to comply, even if your primary class of mail isn’t effected, yet.

The USPS goal is to reduce the amount of Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA) mail. In 2006 alone, over 9.7 billion pieces of mail were sent out with addresses that could not be delivered. This cost almost $1.9 billion to process, forward, return, or destroy.

There are several factors that lead to a mailpiece being undeliverable. The recipient may have moved. The address could have a typo and be invalid. A rural route address may have been replaced with a “911″ street and number type address. All of these can be corrected by different processes.

The USPS has already moved to make DPV (Delivery Point Validation) a requirement for all Automation Rate mailings, which includes First Class, Standard Mail and Periodicals (like magazines). Now, during the CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) process, an additional database is used to insure the address is an actual point that can be delivered. For example, Main Street may have address numbers ranging from 100 to 500. If a record has a number of 550, it would be rejected by DPV. By catching and correcting these pieces before printing and mailing, postage and processing delays can be saved.

The latest development is in the area of NCOA (National Change Of Address). Whenever you fill in a change of address card, or go to the USPS Change Of Address web page,  a record is generated in the NCOA master database. By comparing addresses against this database, a mailer can find the new address when someone has moved. Originally started as an optional service, NCOA is now required for First Class Mail. In November, NCOA will also be required for Standard Mail. Most people expect it to become a requirement for Periodicals next year. Another change occurring in November is that the mailing list must have been processed through NCOA within 95 days of the date of mailing. Previously, the standard was 185 days.

Normally, when a list is processed through NCOA, it is also run through LACS (Locatable Address Conversion System). This converts rural route addresses to street name / box number type addresses (911 addresses). This is often included with NCOA for no additional charge.

Mailers failing to comply with the Move Update rules stand to lose their automation discounts. This would apply to all the pieces in a given mailing, not just those pieces which couldn’t be delivered. Obviously any violation would also invite increased scrutiny of future mailings.

In the future, Compliance will be easier for the USPS to track. With the advent of the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB or OneCode), every piece will include a mailer ID field. Currently, USPS facilities close to the mailer can easily determine and track back to the mailer. With IMB, they will be able to identify the mailer at any level.

The IMB isn’t all bad news when it comes to Move Update. The Address Correction Service (ACS) is cheaper and easier to implement when you implement “full service” IMB. Each piece is assigned an unique ID. When the USPS forwards or fails to deliver a piece, and electronic letter is returned, which you can use to update your mailing list.

Besides the threat of losing automation discounts on current and future mailings, there are other reasons to use the Move Update resources. If you clean your list to include current, non-duplicate, deliverable addresses, you will mail fewer pieces, qualify for automation discounts, and your items will be delivered more quickly and accurately. These reasons alone will more than repay your efforts.

Originally, the plan was to force the mailing industry to drop the old Postnet bar code and change over to the IMB in January 2009. Even though they have adjusted their schedule, you should begin planning. There are already many benefits you may wish to take advantage of. Currently, you can continue using Postnet  until May 2010. It will still receive the base Automation discounts available with “Basic” IMB. “Full Service” IMB will receive an extra discount beginning in May 2009.

We’ll pause here for some definitions. Postnet is the old postal bar code that’s been  around for years. This is the pattern of tall and short bars underneath the address, or down in the lower right corner. If you wanted to do tracking, you could also add a Planet bar code. This  looked the same, but was usually placed on top of the address. If you wanted to use ACS (Address Correction Service),  more codes, in text, had to be placed above the address. If this sounds ugly and crowded, it was.  A lot of people avoided these advanced services for that reason alone. Here is an example address with Postnet, ACS and Planet codes. It’s not the sort of thing designers like to see on their artwork.

There are a lot of details to iron out. For example, the amount of discount between Full Service and Basic IMB is yet to  be defined. It is widely assumed, but hasn’t been confirmed, that Postnet will receive the same discount as Basic during the transition period. At this time, there is no implementation schedule for Business Reply Mail or Package Services. All this and much more will be decided in the coming months. A good place to learn more, and keep up with the latest developments is the dedicated USPS OneCode information website, located at http://ribbs.usps.gov/onecodesolution. We’ll also update this posting as more facts are revealed.

Developing a mailing list by from your current client database is one of the best ways you can use direct mail. Even if you don’t already have the addresses, there are steps you can take to start capturing this information.

Sending a mailing to people that have done business with you in the past is the best way to get a high response rate. They already know who you are, hopefully had a good experience, and perhaps only need a reminder. A simple newsletter or promotional flyer can generate new interest in these old friends.

If you’re in retail, you may think you can’t develop a list. It can be more of a challenge. Most people won’t want to give out their address and other information. However, some will volunteer if you place a comment box, catalog request form, or newsletter signup sheet near your checkout. Another good technique is to use contests. We’ve all seen the boxes where you drop your paper to win a car or trip. A large percentage of folks will sign up if they have a chance to win something. You don’t have to spend a lot to do this either. We’ll talk about prize insurance and travel certificates in future articles, but a quick Google search will get you started.

The main issues you run into when creating your own mailing list are…

• Data entry
• Address format
• Address quality

If you don’t want to do the data entry yourself, there are several service bureaus that can handle the task. Hiring a professional may save you more time and money down the road with the other issues too.

The address format can mean the way you store the list. If you don’t have a list manager program Excel is good. Avoid using Word to enter the list. When entering the records, you should use the available fields in the same way. Store names as First Name, Last Name on every address, or the other way around. Just do it the same way all the time once you decide how you want it. It is very important to have separate fields for City, State and Zip. Most of the time, you can get away with one address line. If you are building a business to business (B2B) mailing list, you will probably want to have a place for company name and job title.

Address quality begins will good data entry, but it doesn’t stop there. Once you have your list prepared, you should have it run through NCOA (National Change of Address) and LACS (Locatable Address Correction Service). Most classes of mail require you to do this within 95 days of a mailing anyway, but it’s in your interest to have the address as correct as possible. If you use First Class Mail, you should edit your list for any returned mail or address corrections you receive. The more accurate your list is, the less you’ll pay for postage, and the more likely you are to reach your target audience.

Getting started in developing your own list may seem like a lot of work. Once you get started, you’ll find the benefits far outweigh the costs. In the end, you’ll know more about your customers, be better able to reach and serve them, and you might even develop a mailing list you could sell yourself.

With dropping volume in letter mail, the USPS has been emphasizing their packages services in recent years. They have been particularly aggressive with flat rate Priority Mail boxes, targeted at eBay sellers, and Express Mail services. 

Two rule changes allow them to become even more competitive in the package services (shipping) market. They will now use zones to calculate the postage on  shipments that formerly had fixed prices, and they are now able to offer discounts based on mailing volume and source of sale (online shipments for example). 

Here are some of the details of the new shipping rates…

Here are the major changes to Priority Mail:

• Customers can pay less by buying online.
• Flat-Rate boxes are now offered in a new, 50% larger size, designed for businesses.
• A new, reduced Flat-Rate box price for APO and FPO (military) addresses.

The USPS has always been very effective in high volume situations. New prices will
leverage and expand this advantage.

Parcel Select is shaping up to be a very interesting service. We’ll concentrate on it further  in future discussions. In the meantime, you should check it out if you ship a lot of small parcels.  Bound Printed Matter has always been a very efficient method of shipping books. Parcel Select will spread the cost savings to other types of parcels.

Normal pricing will continue to apply to customers who come to the Post Office, but now they’ll find lower prices if they pay online, use corporate accounts, or meet minimum daily volumes.

Previously, USPS prices were a higher than other shippers for short distances and a lot lower for some long distances. With the move to zone-based pricing, their prices  will be more attractive for short distances — where most of the volume is — and still have a price advantage for more distant points. 

For pieces up to 5 pounds, USPS prices are better than FedEx for every zone. Express Mail is the only product with Sunday and holiday delivery (for a $12.50 premium). Unlike other shippers, the USPS has no Saturday delivery surcharge.

There are so many more subjects, there will have to be more articles. To summarize, the USPS is redefining itself to not only handle its traditional role of letter carrier, but to expand services to include package services, returns processing, and international shipping. They’ve always performed these tasks. They’re just shifting the balance of  their pricing and marketing to reflect the changing business environment.

By way of example, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the related tourism  industries are fairly close to our location. January and February are extremely down times in their market. Here, we’ll outline some of the ways we’ve developed to help businesses use Direct Mail to combat this.

 Membership cards are particularly well suited to this market. They allow these vendors to offer a “locals discount” without having to risk the tourists getting in on the act. By mailing the cards to local customers, they control the distribution, build affinity and loyalty with their neighbors, and boost their revenue when they need it most.

Mailings of time-limited coupons to the same customer list is also useful and effective. The expiration date has the added benefit of limiting the discount to the off months.

The use of specialty mailing lists and/or highly tuned selections on standard lists can be another good way to speed up a slow sales period. Often partnerships are formed between complementary companies to co-sponsor a mailing. For example, a winery might want to do a mailing to the subscribers of Wine Connoisseur magazine. By teaming up with other wineries they can offer a “wine tour”. They also couple this with a special promotion from a nearby hotel. Now, the  cost of the mailing has been split four ways, and the reasons for the consumer to be interested  are multiplied. Add in fun passports and prizes, and you’ve created an event!

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Play around with them and see what you can  come up with. Remember the main strengths of Direct Mail…

 Targeted Audience - You mail to the exact people you want to reach
 Controlled Geography - Effort and expense isn’t wasted on people who can’t reach you.
 Measurable Results - Coupons, discount cards and offer codes tel you where they came from.
 Tangible Presence - You’re giving them something to touch, read and hang onto.

With the recent changes by the USPS to move to shape based rates, Bound Printed Matter is becoming more attractive to catalog mailers, who previously used Standard Mail. Even without the cost saving techniques we’ll be discussing, BPM is now a better option for anyone that mails a large catalog.

One of the quickest, easiest ways to start saving money is to change your bar code. Many shippers are accustomed to using the “Postnet” bar code for all their mailings. This is appropriate for letters, periodicals (magazines) and most Standard Mail shipments. However, for the package services, there is a different bar code. Simply by using the Parcel Bar Code, the USPS will give you a 3 cent discount per piece. This may not sound like much at first, but if you mail 100,000 pieces, it will save you $3,000. Further, this is a simple change that can be implemented by your printer operator in less than an hour without involving any changes to your mail presort files or programming.

 Most classes of mail offer discounts for “drop shipping”. This is a process whereby you prepare your mailing, then use Priority Mail, UPS, LTL truck, or other shipping methods to move the items closer to their final address. The USPS then gives you “destination entry” discounts. Bound Printed Matter also offers a DBMC (destination Bulk Mail Center) discount. However, since BPM is based on a “zoned” rate, you can save much more. The DBMC discount becomes simply icing on the cake. This map will explain what zones are, and how they can be used to save money.

While it’s really a subject unto itself, but Mail Manifesting deserves a mention here. If your shipments consist of a number of small mailings, you might want to consider mail manifesting. By placing a unique identifier on each piece and tracking the pallets, you can combine the mailings, and obtain bulk postage rates and drop shipping discounts on even your smallest shipments. This can also be combined with the use of a consolidation service.

That’s a lot of information in one paragraph. To put it another way, instead of shipping one book out at the single piece rate, you can combine it with other shipments and treat it as part of a bulk mailing. If our example package above were mailed at single piece rate, it would cost $2.62. wouldn’t it be better to pay the same $1.23 you do for a bulk parcel?

Most mail houses that understand how to process Bound Printed Matter fall into two categories. They are either publishers that do their own shipping, or printing and distribution plants. Since we are not affiliated with any particular publisher, printer, or distributor, we can offer this service in a vendor-neutral environment.

Either as stand-alone mailings, or as part of a mail manifest, our system is able to analyze the distribution of your addresses and products, and create an optimized drop shipping plan. Regional centers with too little volume to stand alone can be combined with other nearby destinations and still generate postal savings. In the end, an easy to follow sort is developed that balances postage savings with freight and labor costs to maximize all your efforts. The output is then tailored to fit seamlessly into your existing fulfillment operations.

If you’re a publisher, we can help you learn to do this yourself or teach your favorite shipper to properly handle the procedures. You can expect to receive the same level of maximized postage savings wherever you ship. If you’re a printer or distribution center, together we can develop a valuable new resource for your customers and a potential new revenue stream for you.

Here are some examples of how this process has worked at other locations.
 

1 - A mailing list is sent in (or purchased). All the necessary presort processing is performed, and a sorted file is returned, along with all the relevant postal paperwork. This output list is used for printing the addresses (by inkjet, etc) at the shipper’s location. We can pre-format the file so it’s ready to be used by most production inkjet and label printers.
 
2 - A list of orders is sent in. After presort processing, labels or invoices (label bills) are printed and processed. These are sent to the shipper, who applies them to the books.
 
3 - All printing and shipping operations are performed by the shipper on site (usually with remote setup and support). A data file is transmitted providing the information needed for manifesting. This information is used to create the manifest documents, data files and paperwork used by the USPS to verify the mail.
 

There are a number of combinations of these basic patterns in production. As you can see, the procedures are very flexible. It’s also much easier to perform the actual sorting of the books than you might think. With the materials we provide, any shipper or mailer can learn to process Bound Printed Matter in the most efficient way possible.

The IMB, also known as the 4-state barcode, is a replacement of the older Postnet barcode used to assist the post office in routing First Class, Standard Mail and Periodicals based letters, flats and some parcels. You probably have already received mail using the new IMB code. Where Postnet had short and tall bars that were level on the bottom, the IMB “sticks out” on both the top and bottom. The reason for this is to increase the amount of data that can be stored in the code. In the original implementation plan, mailers were to be required to switch over to the IMB by January 2009. While there are still many reasons for mailers to convert as soon as possible, the new plans are more flexible.

Here is the text of the letter from the Postmaster General…

Thank you for your feedback on January’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register concerning the implementation of the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB).

Your comments were thoughtful and thorough. I am encouraged by the number of responses received and the support of the IMB vision of true transparency, visibility and real-time data. It is all about increasing the value of the mail.

You also raised a number of implementation concerns that we need to address. Implementation of the IMB is so important to our future that I am taking the unusual step of giving you advance notice of some of the changes you can expect in the Proposed Rulemaking we plan to publish in the Federal Register next month.

Here is a preview:

• Many of you told us that January 2009 was too soon. We will propose a May 2009 implementation, concurrent with our next annual price change.
• We understand from you that many factors will drive the choice between the basic and full-service options. The May 2009 implementation will include separate prices for the full-service and basic option.
• The Postnet Barcode will remain eligible for an automation price until May 2010. Those prices will be announced with the May 2009 change.
• The proposal will include new options for mail owner identification.
• We are removing the requirement for green color bars on the container label.

Again, thanks for your responses. I encourage you to continue your implementation efforts and to comment on our next notice. Let’s work together to make the IMB vision a reality.

These examples are meant to give you a “first glance” of the amount of increase for major rate categories. It is not meant to be exhaustive. Your results may be different.

Details by rate. Unless otherwise noted, automation, bar coded rates are assumed.

• First Class Letter (.75 oz),  2.66%
• First Class Flat (4 oz), 1.01%
• First Class Parcel (4 oz), 2.28%
• Standard Mail Letter (.75 oz), 2.18%
• Standard Mail Letter (3.5 oz), 0.8%
• Standard Mail Letter (4 oz). 0.67%
• Standard Mail Flat (5 oz), 5.31%
• Standard Mail Mach Parcel (14 oz), 5.34%
• Non-Profit Letter (2 oz), 1.03% Decrease
• Non-Profit Flat (4 oz), 0.03%  (5 digit and 3 digit rate decrease)
• Standard Mail Enhanced Carrier Route (1.5 oz), 1.13%
• Non-Profit ECR (2 oz), No Increase
• Bound Printed Matter (3.3 pounds, 96.5% drop shipped DBMC), 3.44%

We will add other classes and examples as we continue to check the new rates. If you want us to look at a class of mail not listed, please ask. If you have a particular mailing file you’d like analyzed, please contact us.