Today, we just added our 11th digital production press. Out 3rd Xerox DocuColor printer. This one, called the “8002″ is the latest and most technologically advanced 80 page per minute digital color production press available today. It’s new chemically-produced toner eliminates the usual shiny or glossy look that typically comes from digital color printers. The finish on this printer makes it very hard to tell if the image was digitally produced, or, off-set printed.

The new Xerox 8002 also comes with a new enhancement called the “ACQS” (Automated Color Quality System). This new advancement uses an in-line spectrophotometer to compare each image being produced to the original image. If it finds any variation in color, it re-adjusts the CMYK percentages, on the fly,  to compensate for the variance.  This insures exact color accuracy from the 1st print to the last, regardless of print quantity. 

We have now installed multiple in-line high-speed tabbers from Kirk-Rudy that makes it possible for us to inkjet addressee information and place multiple tabs on any side of a booklet mail piece all in one high-speed pass !

The new equipment acquisition not only puts us in compliance with the new US Postal Service regulations, but, gives us a distinct advantage over other mailers who must perform multiple ink jet and tabbing passes to accomplish the same result. This means we are able to process more jobs much quicker than our competitors!

Complete “Current-Versus-New” Pricing Analysis

Overall, it looks to be the standard 3 to 4 % increase over last year. However, a few very big changes are worth noting:

Like last year, Flats again seem to be the hardest hit. The 3-Digit sortation level of First Class automated Flats increased a little over 13%. Standard Automated Flats at the AADC level saw a little over 11% increase in postage.

Perhaps the hardest hit, though was a restructuring of sortation levels on Not Flat Machine-able (NFM) Flats eliminating 5-digit and 3-digit sortation categories altogether unless mailers are willing to foot the trucking charges to ship the mail to it’s BMC, SCF or DDU destinations. This restructuring of sortation levels effectively increased the cost of this type of mail piece as much as 92% for standard mail regular and an astounding 148% for Non-Profit Mail.

On the up side, two categories actually decreased in cost by 4 to 6% - Non-Automated, Non-Machine-able Standard Regular and Non-Profit Letters.

Below is a line-by-line analysis of last year’s versus this year’s postage rates for the most commonly used mail categories. This analysis only shows the non-destination entry rates. 

Consumers Like Cards !!!!!

We’ve noticed a significant increase in the number and quantity of mail pieces that we are generating that includes a plastic, credit-card-sized promotional card. There are several ways to produce this effect, ranging from personalized cards that have to be hand matched and glued to the inside pages of a brochure, to pre-mounted cards that can be lasered with the required information. These cards are called “DocuCards” and can be ordered in virtually any configuration with as little as 1 card on a form to as many as 6 cards to a form.

We also have a card “tip-on” unit that can affix generic cards to mail pieces at a high rate of speed.

The cards are extremely effective as it gives your mail piece a sense of “exclusivity” as well as giving the recipient something to remove from the mail piece and place in their purse or wallet.

Direct mail remains one of the most effective response-driven media channels available to marketers. It offers advantages few other mediums can match — in target ability, measurability and almost limitless creative possibilities. By being more environmentally focused and becoming environMAILists in producing and implementing direct mail campaigns, companies will continue to benefit from the power of mail while increasing its value and reducing its impact on the planet.

A new survey of 1,000 consumers revealed a large gap between the perceived eco-impact of direct mail and its actual influence. “They widely overestimated direct mail’s impact on the environment,” says Michael Critelli, executive chairman of Pitney Bowes, Inc which co-sponsored the 2007 DMNews/Pitney Bowes Survey of Consumer Attitudes. Critelli says he expected a disparity between perception and reality – “but not nearly as much as we saw.”

For instance, asked to estimate the amount of municipal waste created nationwide by advertising mail, 48 percent of respondents thought direct mail accounted for more than half of it. Thirty-six percent said it accounted for more than a third. In fact, direct mail generates just 2 percent of all U.S. municipal waste according to a DMNews article about the survey.  However, many opportunities exist to lessen it’s impact even more.

Taking advantage of the digital print-on-demand technology we offer instead of printing large quantities and warehousing them until they are needed is one way to lessen direct mail’s impact on the environment.

Have you ever had an application where you needed to insert multiple personalized, targeted documents into an envelope? These types of applications are normally used in a “fulfillment” environment.

Let’s suppose, for a moment, that your application entailed responding to requests

from potential tourists about what types of activities exist in and around the Orlando area.  

Inquiry number 1 needed to know about area golf courses and any golfing discounts that can be taken advantage of. Inquiry number 2 was interested in theme parks and Inquiry number 3 needed to know about area fishing charters.

Traditionally, these three inquiries would be fulfilled by pulling pre-printed brochures and coupons relative to their area of interest , inserting them into an envelope, addressing the envelope and mailing it back to the potential visitor. Along with the brochures and coupons, you would also want to insert some type of personalized letter thanking them for their inquiry along with a strong appeal to entice them to come and stay here in Orlando.

Ok, so, inquiry number 1 gets a personalized letter, 6 brochures (1 for each golf course in the area), some greens fees coupons from a couple of the courses, a couple of discount coupons for motels and resorts that are near the courses, and maybe a coupon for golf equipment from one of the equipment manufacturers all inserted into an envelope.

Inquiry number 2 gets a personalized letter, along with brochures and coupons relative to theme parks, while, inquiry number 3’s package would be relative to area fishing charters, professional fishing guides, discount coupons from bait and tackle shops, and so on.

Along with the tedious work of hand-inserting all the correct individual pre-printed brochures and coupons, one also has to keep up with the on-hand quantity of each brochure and coupon you have left in inventory so you know when to reorder the printed material.

The new “envelope” streamlines, simplifies, and automates the entire process by printing an on-demand facsimile of each of those brochures, personalized letters and coupons all in one pass and then binding them into a “booklet” that is then wafer-sealed and mailed immediately. No inventory to keep up with, no hand intervention, and no possibility of inserting the wrong information into the wrong envelope.

The inquiring tourist perceives a higher value by receiving a professional looking, fully personalized, and fully targeted booklet containing all the exact information requested.

It’s also less expensive, overall, to produce these “new envelopes”.  Since all the pieces are printed “on-demand” from blank paper, you have no money tied up in inventory. You don’t pay for for warehouse storage and also don’t waste money by throwing away and re-printing existing inventory due to current changes that render the original brochures or coupons obsolete (new theme park rides, changes in rates, etc).

These printed-on-demand, digital, variable image, variable data booklets are being used more and more each day for everything from insurance enrollment kits, 401-k investment fund reports, stock and investment portfolios, to travel itineraries and resort reservation confirmations. It’s the wave of the future, the “New Envelope” and, it’s available right now at Fulfillment Partners – Millennium Marketing Group! Call today for more information.

Whether you are mailing First Class or Standard (bulk advertising) mail, the US Postal Service assesses postage rates, in part, by the “processing category” of your mail piece.

Knowing what category your mail piece will be placed, is extremely important when designing your mail piece. We see instances all the time where, a very slight change in the height or width of your mail piece (usually 1/8^th of an inch or less) would result in postage savings of as much as 10 to 15 cents each! Also, each of the different processing categories have different postal regulations as to eligibility for special bar coded postage discounts and preparation requirements. So, here’s the scoop on how the post office will assign a processing category to your mail.

When you read the word “post card” in the DMM (Domestic Mail Manual), they are referring to the official definition of a USPS “postal card”. The rest of us think of a “post card” as a single sheet of card stock with color, text or pictures on the front and back of the card with an area to put the name and address of the person you are mailing to. In order to qualify for a presorted first class “post card” rate (as, there is no “post card” rate for standard mail), the size and dimensions of your mail piece must be at least 3 ½  inches high and 5 inches long, but not more than 4 ¼ inches high and 6 inches long.

Most of your standard mail (advertising mail) post cards will exceed those dimensions and will be categorized by the post office as a “letter” sized piece. For instance, if you design a large postcard that is 6 inches high and 11 inches long, it will be assessed a “letter-rate”.

A “letter” sized piece is defined by the post office as a mail piece that is at no more than 6 1/8 inches high and 11 ½ inches long. “Letter” sized rates are the most common for standard mail. If your piece is taller than 6 1/8 inches, your mail piece will be placed in a much more expensive postage category called “Flats”. So, be careful!. I can’t tell how many pieces we’ve seen come in at 6 ¼ inches high (1/8 of an inch too high). In most cases, the aesthetics of the piece would not be affected by shaving off that 1/8 of an inch. Especially if it saves you an extra 10 to 15 cents per piece in postage.

“Flats” are the more expensive postage rate and consists of any mail piece that is taller than 6 1/8 inches high or wider than 11 ½ inches long.

So now that you know the way that the Post Office will categorize your mail piece, you can use that information during your mail piece design stages to insure the best possible postage.

Four-color variable image mail is, hands-down, proving to be the single most successful innovation in mail advertising since the invention of the envelope. With success stories of mailers who have received response rates as high as 80% and return on investment rates in the one-thousand-percent range, advertisers everywhere are beginning to take a serious look at this new technique.

“How do I get started?” Actually, it’s easier than you think.

The ability to vary pictures, images and text based on what you know about the recipient all starts with taking a good look at the data file that you will use in your mailing.

For instance, is the recipient male or female? If “male,” you may want to design your images, text, and motif for a male or masculine point of view. Whether working with tools in the garage, cars and trucks, or maybe even a sport such as football, basketball or baseball. If “female,” you’ll want to tailor your images, text and motif to more of a feminine angle, possibly, with images of shopping, family, health and fitness, and so forth. 

If “gender” isn’t one of the stored columns in your database, there are several software packages that we can use to assign gender, based on the prospect’s first name. Keep in mind that you will need a “default” non-gender-specific motif for instances where the recipient’s first name could be either male or female such as “Francis” or “Jackie.”

Of course, the more information you have about a recipient, the easier and more effective your message will be. But, lack of information is not as detrimental as you might think. More often than not, the information is there; it just takes a little imagination to capitalize on it.

For instance, the city, state and zip can give you a lot of information, if you think about it. Does this person live in upscale Metro-West, downtown Orlando, or out in rural Eustis? If you are mailing in the middle of winter, does this person live near the beach in Florida or in Green Bay, Wisconsin? Is the address type an “SFDU” (single-family dwelling unit) or an apartment complex? All these little pieces of information can fit together to allow you to produce a variable image and text mail piece that is targeted specifically toward that person. Your message and offer becomes relevant and personal to the recipient, which results in much higher response rates.

Remember, designing successful variable image advertising campaigns starts with your data file. Try and put yourself in the shoes of your prospect and what they deal with on a day-to-day basis.