Post Office to Increase Postage on Competitive Products

The Post Office is holding the line on the items it delivers most, namely "Mail". Pieces that it competes with UPS and FedEx on will increase an average of 3.3%. I've seen the increases that UPS and FedEx are implementing, though they are listed as 6%, with the hidden fees in fuel surcharges, the increase appears closer to 12%.

Also, one of my favorite delivery methods: The flat rate envelope has come down in price: From $4.95 to $4.90. This 1% reduction, though not significant, is better than an increase!

Simply stated, there is a good chance that the United States Post Office will be your most economical delivery method in 2010:

New prices for USPS Shipping Services: Express Mail, Priority Mail, Parcel Select (Destination Entry only), Parcel Return Service, Global Express Guaranteed, Express Mail International and Priority Mail International will go up on January 4, 2010

As a comparison, USPS shipping prices will increase by 3.3 percent, on average, but other competitors have announced price increases of nearly 6 percent. Unlike other shipping companies, the Postal Service does not impose surcharges for fuel, residential delivery, or Saturday delivery.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: First-Class Mail.
First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, Periodicals, Parcel Post prices are not changing in 2010 and the retail price for the Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope will be reduced from $4.95 to $4.90.

Great Postal News

This is the first good Postal news that I have ever received.

The USPS has determined that for every increase that has been imposed in additional postage, volume has decreased enough to more than negate it. With this realization the USPS has committed to holding rates on "market dominant" products though 2010.

"Simply stated, there will not be a price increase for market dominant products including First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, periodicals, and single-piece Parcel Post. There will be no exigent price increase for these products.

This is the right decision at the right time for the right reason. Promoting the value of mail and encouraging its continued use is essential for jobs, the economy, and the future of both the Postal Service and the mailing industry."

The full letter can be found here:
http://directmag.com/postal/1016-postal-pmg/

Yea!

Major Help for Designers Spec'ing Paper

There is a continual churn of new papers coming into availability, other papers going out of availability that is further complicated by the Renaming / Changing specs (brighter, higher opacity) / and Paper Mill buyouts. As someone in the Printing business, I have difficultly keeping up - though have a great deal of resources to draw upon.

For the average person specifying paper, a partnership discussion with their Printer will give them some excellent ideas on the best paper for the job: Uncoated, Coated, Gloss, Dull, Satin, Colored, Brightly Colored, Textured with Linen finish, Laid Finish, Columns, Duplex. As well as the many different paper weights. I personally love helping with paper. I started as an Estimator 12 years ago and love drawing on that experience to find the least costly, best fit for a job.

If you are specifying multiple papers per day, or looking for ideas in multiple creative pitches, you may want to have your own resource. This website offers access to 4,300 different papers from more than 70 paper mills: http://www.paperspecs.com. There is a fee of about 15 per month to be a member, and they do offer a 1 month trial membership. It may be just the thing for a busy paper spec'er.

J

Ideas Save $33,000 per year

Its all about ideas. One project comes to mind that ideas were able to save a total in excess of $30,000 per year! This is about 40% of the total job. What were these ideas? Below is a list:


1) Use bleed tabs instead of heavy paper tabs that extend past the edge of the book = $10,000 per year savings
2) Mail in a Polywrap instead of a Tyvek envelope = $2,500 savings per year.
3) Special negotiated international mailing rate = $15,000 savings per year + $1,300 shipping savings = $18,000 savings per year
4) Paper switch - changed to a lighter weight paper that cost a little more, but saved money on postage. Net savings = $4,200 per year

Total idea savings = $33,000 per year.

Yes, there are ways to save money on your projects as well.

Free Conference Calling

Its all about communicating smarter. If you need to set up a conference call, this is a really great service. There is no cost to use it, there is no advertising to listen in order to access the site, you can also get a recording of the call.

Check out this link if you want to conference at no cost:
http://www.freeconferencecall.com/

FaceOFF

This is something I've never said before: "There is a really cool envelope product now available called Face-Off Envelopes. These are re-usable envelopes, and they really are easy to use.

Previous samples of re-usable envelopes that I've seen are complicated and seem as though they would decrease response rate by frustrating recipients. Not so with this FaceOFF product.

Cost is said to be 18% lower than printing seperate sending and response envelopes, and open rates are higher because the envelopes look so cool. Here is a link to the site. I can get samples for you if you e-mail me your address:
http://www.remailmedia.com/home

National Geographic gets Personal

The next issue of National Geographic called "My Shot" is the first ever issue completly devoted to photography submissions. The issue features over 100 editor chosen photos from over 150,000 submissions.

In addition National Geographic has parnered with Consolidated Graphics to offer a custom cover for anyone to put on the book. The magazine with the custom cover can be purchased for $10.99 at this link.

A complete story is here:
http://www.foliomag.com/2009/national-geographic-taps-digital-press-demand-your-shot-covers

Get yours here:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/custom-cover-home

Hand Addressing

Whenever I get a piece of mail I inspect the address line, return address, and postage method. Yes, I admit this scrutiny is a bit unusual. There is one thing that everyone inspects though, that is the address line. If something is handwritten, it is deemed more personal, and has usually has a higher open percentage.

This is the logic behind a company called, "Think Ink Marketing". Think Ink employs people that hand address direct mail pieces in blue ball-point ink. I consider it a basic form of Variable Data, and one that could be very effective. The company's web-site is http://www.thinkinkmarketing.com/.

Mailing list sources

Ever wonder why all of your warrently cards mail to the same place?
What about all of that Census data? Is it really that private?

The fact is that there are enormous amounts of data on each of us available. You can capitalize on this to make your next mail or E-mail campaign most effective.

Target mail lists. Analyze your current customers and find as many common charactistics as possible. Lists can be purchased with as many as 300 different sort criteria. If you have a high end product. Purchase with categoriaes such as Age, Gender, income level, ownership of multiple single family dwellings, like fine foods. 1,000 names can be bought for around $150. 5,000 names for about $350. Check out these sites:
www.infousa.com
www.usadata.com
We even have our own list source: http://maillist.cgx.com/

Size Matters!

Did you know that the average print project costs more to mail (in postage) than it does to print?

Take this into account in design stage:
If you can change from a Flat to a Letter size, you can save about 48% in Postage costs!!

What is a letter?

At least 3-1/2 inches high X 5 inches long X .007 inch thick
No more than 6-1/8 inches high X 11-1/2 inches long X 1/4 inch thick
Maximum weight of 3.5 ounces
Length is the dimension parallel to the address.

What is a Flat?
Any piece exceeding 6 1/8" in height or 11 1/2" in length.
Or any missing criteria above.

Mail Letter Rate + Save Money!

Postage Hikes

Yesterday I received a 4 X 6 Postcard in the mail advertising pool opening, closing and maintainence. The opening line was "Dear Pool Owner,".

You may expect my next comment to be, "They should have used Variable Data to grab my attention", and maybe they should have. More importantly, this postcard showed a lack of up front job planning:

How my name was obtained for this mailing? I do not have a pool, and thus am not a qualified prospect. By doing list profiling along with the list purchase, this could have been discovered and the printing and postage costs would not have been spent.

This 4 X 6 postcard was mailed 1st class with $0.42 of postage. It could have been mailed at the same class for $0.27 each. $0.15 of postage adds up very quickly.

Yes, postage is going up again. This means that, more than ever, you need to make sure you are examining your upfront planning. Consider all your options and invest wisely in your marketing progams.

Soon I'm going to post some size ideas and related printing and postage savings.

Hey that pool looked nice, maybe I'll get one!
Jason

Print Green and Save Green (money!) - Distributed Print

The traditional model of printing is Print and Distribute: to print in one location and then send to the location of its intended use. You may be printing in Maryland for a conference in Seattle. Or, you may be printing many pieces, then distributing throughout the country. The Distributed Print method is simply the act of sending the electronic file rather to a location closer to its end use. This Distribute and Print method has the potential to save money, save time, and also can be more environmentally friendly.

How can you save with Distributed Print?

You can save money by eliminating the need to pay shipping costs. It costs nothing to send a digital file from one computer to another. If you are using electronic proofs, there is no cost difference between across the street and across the world. The savings realized by reducing or eliminating final shipping can be very significant.

You can save time by reducing shipping time. One of our clients recently had a conference in San Diego. They were relying on information from member volunteers to put together the final conference proceedings. The information finally came together on Tuesday, and the conference began on Saturday! The production schedule was so tight that the only way to get the materials to the conference would have been to Air Freight all of the materials overnight from Ohio to San Diego. We made the switch to Distributed Print and sent the electronic file to one of our facilities in San Diego. By using PDF electronic proofs and eliminating the day of shipping, we actually gained a day in production time AND saved the client thousands of dollars in shipping costs.

You can save the world. Ok, saving the world may be an exaggeration, but it does hold some truth. The act of sending the file to the location where it will print eliminates the necessity to ship it there. This eliminates the consumption of gas and oil required for shipping, and reduces greenhouse emissions emitted in shipping. Its something you can promote to your clients, or if you are an association, your members. You can now tout your sustainability initiatives and proactively voice your green initiatives at your meeting or on your web site.

Whether your needs are Domestic or International; we’ve got you covered:

Automated Graphic Systems is one of 70 Consolidated Graphics Companies (check out the map above). That means you have access to printing facilities in most places within the United States that you would consider having a meeting, and we share technology from plant to plant. All of this can be accessed from one point of contact also. You can feel confident sending your files to me and printing in Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago or any of our other locations. For a list of all locations, e-mail me.

We are also part of the International Printers Network. Together, we harness the power of Distributed Print in 189 cities around the world!

Reduce Costs #2 – Reduce Inventory

Have you ever examined the total of ownership of your documents? According to a study by CAP Ventures, for every $1 spent on document output, $9 is spent on other costs including: Procurement and Facility costs, end-user interaction time, IT and document management. According to the study, the highest costs are: $2.50 Document Production and $5 Document Management.

We all are conscious of the cost investment to create content, and also keep a close eye on the 10% spent to print the document. Are the materials being used promptly and efficiently? Do we consider obsolescence and inventory cost along with evaluating cost per unit when printing? Examining the amount of material that is eventually destroyed due to obsolesce, and combining the cost of storage, may significantly outweigh the lower cost per unit that was realized by printing in high quantities.

You may find that this cost of storage and obsolescence could make printing digitally – either short run, or on demand a better solution. This also may open up new doorways for Variable Data Printing.

Case study:

A large insurance company prints out large quantities of Provider Directories that cover several regions. Printing in large quantities allows them to reduce the cost per unit to a very low amount. These materials are held in a warehouse and fulfilled as new clients are acquired and policies are renewed.

Every now and then, some language makes it into the directories that require them to be reprinted, or places the company in a bad light due to an improper explanation of benefits. These huge, one-size-fits-all, directories contain much more information than the individual needs. They take up more space and are less relevant than they could be. They cost a lot of money in postage due to their heavy weight.

We created a front-end database system that creates custom provider directories and prints each On-Demand. Provider directories are now customized to the individual recipient. Policy information is relevant to that policyholder and is up-to-date. This has become a useful reference tailored to the individual recipient, rather than a large book containing information that was mostly irrelevant.

Further, a warehouse the size of a supermarket has been eliminated, inventory obsolescence does not exist, and cash flow is improved.

Do you have materials in a warehouse? Are you getting value for everything you produce? Focus not only on the $1 used to print the document, but also in the $9 to manage it.

Reduce Costs #1 - Print On Demand

Every day is a great day to reduce costs, while still providing the same value.

Print On Demand is often considered a misnomer. The very defininition of Print On Demand (POD) implies, "When you need it, Print it!" While true POD is not only possible, but indeed a great advantage with many projects, it is not always the best way to produce a project.

Let's start with a book example first: The old way of printing would require a setup, proofing, and minimum of 1,000 printed books to become anywhere near efficient. Printing digitally has allowed us to print much smaller quantities of books: say 20 - 100 efficiently. There is still some setup cost and spoilage in printing that requires an extra 3-5 books to be printed in order to get 1 good book done: trimming, laminating, and binding makready. For this reason, with a Perfect Bound/Paperback book you may be best off printing in very short quantities in order to maximize the setup efficieny: Orders of 5-20 books are a lot better than 1,000.

The next layer of cost that can be addressed is Administration. Employees require pay to get them to keep coming to work. Traditionally, the same amount of administrative work has been required for printing 5 books, or 5,000 books: A call to the Sales Guy, an Estimate Request to the Estimator, Writeup on Company Letterhead by the Sales Secratary, Entering and Tracking through Production by the Customer Service Representative. Wow! That's a lot of people! AGS has created an automated system that reduces this Admininistration to zero, thus making your project cheaper to print: From Concept to Shipping. Since the printing in this method is not always Print On Demand, its called: Virtual Publication Management (VPM for short).

VPM may be the perfect solution to get your book printed for promotion, test marketing, advance copies, or an older book for which demand has diminished, but not gone away.

e-mail me with the words, "Send me the Grid", and I will send you a link to check out costs to getting your book printed with great quality and "On the Cheap".