Imagine this scene. You've put your heart and soul into a marketing brochure that is
certain to send your product over the top this year. Your printer has met the deadline
and everything looks good. You retrieve the finished project from the printer and haul
them over to the direct mail facility that's promised to squeeze you in. You return to
your office to find the dreaded message on your voice mail. It's from the mailing
people who inform you: "We took another look at your job after it was delivered
and found a few problems that are going to make it very expensive to mail your piece.
Didn't anybody tell you about the postal regulations?!"
Strategic Advantages
It's a scenario that's easy to avoid now that Acorn Press has expanded its capabilities
to include full-service mailing. "Mailing is a logical extension of what we do," says
President Scott Reighard. "And as printers, we can bring customers significant strategic
advantages over traditional mail houses." Until the expansion, Acorn could handle
a print job through the bindery process, but then it would be up to the customer to
establish a relationship with an outside mailer.
Now, the printed material remains in-house at Acorn, avoiding the time and
expense of sending it to an off-site mail house. Many customers simply e-mail their
completed address lists to Bill Tipton, Mailing Services Coordinator, and the
process is underway. Once the printing and addressing functions are complete,
Acorn personnel assure that the pieces are properly packaged and delivered to
the post office. It's a painless, turnkey approach customers greatly appreciate.
One of the most important advantages of the new service is that pieces can be
designed from the beginning to take maximum advantage of postal discounts.
Despite the ability of graphic designers to create handsome pieces that are effective
in the marketplace, many designers are unfamiliar with postal regulations. Lacking
knowledge of the impact of design on the cost of mailing, they can unknowingly
lead customers in wrong--and costly--directions.
Acorn Bindery Supervisor Steve Calkins explains that the U.S. Postal
Service essentially rewards customers for preparing mail that is highly compatible
with the service's automated equipment. Those rewards come in the form of
discounts that can be as high as 50 percent for mail that can slide through
the automated equipment without a hitch. For the postal service, it's less costly
to use machines than people to "read" and sort the mail.
Beware of the Pitfalls!
A variety of factors can affect the cost of mailing--everything from the position of
a fold (if a fold is at the top of a piece, it cannot be automated, for example) to
the size, weight, and the presence of tabs--those small stickers used to close
pieces not mailed in envelopes.
Probably the most critical factor is the way the address label is printed.
Again, because it's less costly for machines to handle mail than human beings,
the postal service has strict requirements for how an address should be printed.
Bill explains: "When an address list comes in, I run it through our Postalsoft
Desktop Mailer software which basically cleans up the list, correcting misspelled
city names and adding the last four digits to zip codes." Any addresses with
problems the software cannot handle are flagged. For example, if an address has
a zip code that is completely wrong, that piece will be rejected and must be sent
out at full cost. "The cleaner the list we get from the customer, the more likely it
is that discounts will be applicable," Bill says.
He adds that preparing a clean list is not difficult and the results are well
worth the effort.
Bill can help Acorn customers establish a system that will help them
create a list that is as clean and error-free as possible. Once the list is complete,
it is linked to a powerful ink jet printer, the Buskro 640. This high-speed printer
prints the labels and attaches them to the pieces which are then sealed, tabbed
and sorted by ancillary equipment. The Postalsoft computer program is so
sophisticated that it will even specify which types of bins or boxes the post
office requires for a particular job. "By maintaining control of the project from
design and pre-press through completion of the mailing, the customer is assured
of consistent quality control and the strictest adherence to deadlines," Scott adds.
Case in Point
Scott says Acorn customers have responded enthusiastically to the new mailing
services. "We recently had a job in here of well over 100,000 pieces from a
long-time printing customer. They've been doing a particular mailing for years
with outside vendors. But the job is quite complicated and the mail house had
made some serious errors in past years. They were delighted with the job we did
for them and said they'll definitely use us for future mailing projects."
For more information about turning over your mailing headaches to the professionals at Acorn, call your sales rep. at (800) 356-3264.