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9060 Sutton Pl Hamilton, OH 45011 Phone: 513-870-5060 Toll Free: 800-237-7914 Fax: 513-870-5062 Email:call |
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5 Steps to Producing Direct Mail
(In House)
If you’re new to direct mail, Butler Mailing Services can provide everything you need to complete steps 1, 2, and 3. We will provide guidance for step 4 and knowledgeable assistance when step 5 turns into a problem because the clerk misinterprets (or doesn't know) postal regulations.
If you’re an experienced mailer, Butler Mailing Services can help with step 3 when an employee gets sick, is fired, goes on vacation or just walks out the door.
1. Postal Expertise
You can’t make a bulk mailing without learning the policies, processes, procedures, and rules the Postal Service uses to regulate the mail stream. You can find everything you need to know with a trip (or two) to your local post office and by developing a thorough knowledge of the DMM. Unfortunately it takes years of experience working on the front lines of the direct mail industry to acquire the mailing competency necessary to effectively design, address, sort, and enter into the mail stream a customer’s direct mail campaign. Without some postal expertise, you simply can not make a bulk First Class or bulk Standard mailing.
2. Software
It is possible to prepare and enter a limited amount of direct mail with little knowledge and no software. It’s called single piece First Class Mail. Put an address on the piece, apply a postage stamp for the correct postage, and give it to the appropriate postal employee. In fact, First Class single piece mail is the most economical and efficient method for generating small quantities of direct mail.
There are no minimums, no sorting, no tabbing, and no address hygiene required. It’s also the most expensive postage available. First Class postage is $0.44 for a one ounce letter. A three ounce Standard Mail letter could cost as little as $0.139. But it takes knowledge of postal service regulations and quality postal software to qualify a mailing campaign for the $0.30 per piece savings.
To qualify for a mailing for the lowest possible postage cost requires multiple software programs. First, addresses have to be imported into a compatible format. They then need to be standardized per postal conventions, zip+4’s applied, delivery point validated, and checked for address changes through NCOA processing. The addresses are then presorted based on mail piece design, the concentration of the addresses and rate requirements. After completion of data prep, a print file has to be produced and the appropriate documentation generated. If you want to supply postal documentation on-line or track your mailings as they are processed, there are more programs needed to achieve these goals.
Though postal expertise is the first requirement for making a mailing, postal software will be your first major purchase.
3. Data Prep
To be effective in data prepping a mailing list you need to be able to work with various database programs, be proficient with multiple postal software programs, and have the postal expertise to pull it together in the production of a print file and all necessary documentation necessary to qualify a mailing for the lowest postage costs. Data processing requires an evaluation and sampling of mail pieces so that software required information is inputted correctly.
Software packages have come a long way since the early 80’s, but they still require a person to know if a mail piece is a letter, flat or parcel. Will the mailing be First, Second, or Standard Mail? How will the move update requirements be met and is the job going to be drop shipped. Someone has to tell the software package how postage will be paid. Will it be a permit mailing, meter applied postage, or will pre-cancelled stamps be used?
And you were told (and believed) an expensive software package would do it all for you!
4. Mail Prep
Mail Prep is the actual, physical preparation of mail pieces for entry into the postal system. Mail prep is applying addresses to the piece per postal specifications. It’s inserting into an envelope or tabbing along with bundling, traying, bagging, and palletizing. It’s knowing the proper position and placement of permits, addresses, return addresses, endorsements, tabs and barcodes.
Mail Prep is taking the output from data prep and matching them up with the actual mail pieces.
5. Delivery and Acceptance
Now the fun begins. Acceptance by a postal service employee of a mailing into the mail steam starts with a review of the documentation for the mailing. If the documentation is not in order the mailing can be rejected or charged a higher rate.
After reviewing the documentation the acceptance clerk reviews the mailing to see if it matches what they believe the postal requirements are for the class and rates claimed. If the clerk approves of the preparation, the mailing is accepted. If not it can be rejected or pay higher postage rates.
The mailing is then weigh count verified to see if the number of pieces presented match the number of pieces claimed in the documentation. If the piece count doesn’t match the documentation it may mean paying higher postage costs, reworking the documentation or reworking the mailing.
If the documentation is in order, the piece qualifies for the class and rate claimed, mail prep meets postal regulations, you presented the correct number of pieces, and there is money in your permit account the clerk will accept your mailing and it will (finally) be entered into the mail stream.
