This post will serve has a follow up to our recent video on how to cut postage costs on catalog type mailers.

We want to expand on a few points so our cost-saving suggestions are complete. Please watch the above video before continuing so our points below make sense.

In the video, we spoke about cost-effective solutions for cutting postage on booklet or catalog type mailers. We mentioned the postage cost savings could be as high as $0.25 per piece. This savings does not include the additional costs to produce the options we’ve noted in the video.

For example, on the slim-jim piece, you will incur the cost of the (2) wafer seals required to mail at letter automation rates which is usually around $10.00/m. Another factor in moving from the full-size mailer to the slim-jim is the decrease in the amount of creative real estate. You will generally need to add 4 to 8 pages to make up for this lost space. Despite these two additional costs, the savings are huge because of how much postage you’re cutting.

The other option we spoke about is printing a full-size mailer but refolding (or soft-folding) the piece to 8.5 x 5.5. There are two additional costs associated with this as well.

First is the cost to refold the piece which generally runs about $500 depending on the equipment of your printer. The second is the cost to apply (2) wafer seals to close the piece and qualify for letter automation rates. As was the case above, even with these two factors considered, the cost savings are huge.

On a side note, the post office is reevaluating the use of the slim-jim format to make it run better on their letter sorting equipment. As it stands right now, many of the slim-jim pieces do not run well on their equipment and, as a result, have to be either hand sorted or run on their flat sorting equipment.

Stay tuned for an update on this ruling.

###

Thank you for reading our blog. If you enjoy the content and want email updates, please subscribe below. You also get the free direct mail whitepaper pictured left.

It’s time for a new blog video!

If you mail out a catalog type mailer – catalogs, magalogs, booklets, etc. – this 3 minute video will give you 2 ways to cut postage costs significantly.

And if you have any comments or questions, we encourage you to fill out the form below the video.

Do You Want Samples? Please email your request to Ryan:
ryan (at) ballantine.com

There’s a new service created by the National Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation and the Ecology Center that lets consumers specify which catalogs they wish NOT to receive.  Over 20,000 people have already signed up.

Clearly the reasoning behind this new service is purely environmental.

We see 3 things happening as a result of this…especially with the recent postage increase:

1. Variable data printed catalogs will grow in popularity.  A lower volume of catalogs will be sent out with less pages, but extremely targeted based on the individual’s purchase history or demographics.
2. Maybe #1 seems like a stretch, but what will definitely happen is catalogers will get smarter about how they market and who they market to. 
3. More focus will be put on driving traffic to the cataloger’s website including search engine optimization and paid search.

And we also think more and more catalogers will start using recycled and certified virgin paper, and become more environment-conscious. This will likely happen within the industry as a whole because it’s becoming more and more important to consumers.

When it comes down to it, all of this is positive for the industry. Less paper wasted, more targeted offers and smarter marketing.