Entries Tagged 'Format Tips & Advice' ↓

If you mail flats — which is defined as a mail piece measuring 6-1/8″ x 11-1/2″ or larger — than you already know that the USPS increased the postage on this format by 40%.

In light of this postage hike, there was an article not too long ago in DM News called Creative Ways of Optimizing Flats.

In the article, 4 experts shared their advice and it was an interesting read…so we’re going to re-publish some of the content here…and also share our thoughts.

One last thing to note — on January 28th we’ll be releasing another industry report — this report will focus on what formats marketers surveyed will be testing in 2008.

We’ll be posting a link to the report on this blog so if you’re interested in reading it, please subscribe to our RSS feed or enter your email address in our opt-in box up top to the right.

OK, back to the DM News article…here are the pointers the 4 experts shared:

Mike Dietz’s Takeaway

“Package planning is key to making your direct mail flats a success.” Mr. Dietz recommends not building a mail piece to the maximum or minimum requirements. He also recommends developing a live paper sample and then making sure it’s in compliance with USPS limitations.

Victor Benson’s Takeway

“Effective envelope creative motivates consumers to open your piece.” Mr. Benson recommends mailing No. 9 and No. 10 envelopes (that mail out at letter rate). He also suggests that “Free gift inside” is a very effective envelope message to use…for the gift part, he’s found that free mailing labels work well.

John Cayne’s Takeaway

“Alternative formats can help you qualify for lower postage rates.” Mr. Cayne recommends taking tangible results from creative and messaging tests and applying them to alternative formats that qualify for letter rate.

Jim Stewart’s Takeaway

“Value-added postcards can help mail get attention.” Mr. Stewart recommends testing over-sized postcards for consumer mailings.  You can mail a postcard up to 6″ x 11″ and still qualify for letter rate.  He also recommends testing geo-targeting if it’s relevant to your product or service.

Ballantine’s Advice

We see a lot of clients that previously mailed flats taking their artwork and shrinking it down to letter rate. For example, one of our clients that was mailing a 9″ x 12″ envelope is now mailing the same exact artwork, but shrunken down to a 6″ x 9″ package. The piece still looks great and saves them a ton in postage dollars.

Free Format Suggestions

If you want us to take a look at your flat and suggest alternative formats that would qualify for letter rate, please email Ryan Cote: ryan (at) ballantine.com.

Popularity: 48% [?]

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Tags: Direct Mail Flats, Direct Mail Formats, Flat Rate, Letter Rate, Postage, USPS

Double-postcards are effective because they’re relatively cheap, simple to print and make it pretty easy for your target audience to reply back to you (meaning, they tear off the one half and mail it back).

We produce a pretty healthy amount of double-postcards for clients and one recent mailing prompted us to write this blog post.

It was your standard double-postcard (folded dimensions of 4 1/4 height by 6 inches width, wafer-sealed closed), but tucked inside was a yellow, folded business return envelope…and the BRE was glue-tacked down so it didn’t fall out.

The client we produced this for is a magazine publisher so obviously they’re trying to increase cash/check orders (called pay up). This technique, however, is applicable to most any company using a double-postcard to sell a product or service.

It also makes the double-postcard a little puffy which further increases the odds of the recipient opening and reading the mail piece because they want to see what’s inside.

It might be a mail piece worth testing for your company.

Lastly, here are some postage stats regarding a double-postcard (current as of 12/4/2007):

It mails out at the first-class postcard rate of roughly 22 cents per piece if the one half is a returnable reply card. Otherwise, it mails out at the standard-class letter rate of roughly 25 cents per piece.

So by designating one half as a reply card, you save roughly 3 cents per piece on postage, and the delivery is both quicker and better (first-class versus standard-class).

In the case of the mail piece above, one half was a reply card that you tear off, but since it had a BRE tucked inside, it had to mail out at the standard-class letter rate.

The mailing was just sent out, so no results just yet…but if the client agrees, we’re going to feature them in an upcoming direct mail case study newsletter.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Tags: Double-Postcards, Postage, USPS