Mailing Systems Technology Nov/Dec 2018

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2018 MailingSystemsTechnology.com

ADDRESSING FOR SUCCESS — BEST PRACTICES TO IMPLEMENT. PAGE 16

IS THE NEXT GENERATION

OF DIRECT MAIL BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO MARKETING CAMPAIGNS? PAGE 18

INFORMED DELIVERY FOR MAILERS: 5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW. PAGE 20

What Could 2019 Look Like FOR THE MAIL INDUSTRY?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2018 | VOLUME 31 ISSUE 6

16

18

DEPARTMENTS 05 Editor's Note

Preparing for the Year Ahead

By Amanda Armendariz

06 Real-Life Management Welcome Aboard!

By Wes Friesen

08 Connecting Point

Spotlight on the USPS Change of Address Process

By Anita Pursley

10 Inkjet Info

PRINT 18: Building a New Print Tradition

By Pat McGrew

11 Postal Affairs

20

22

Following these best practices can reduce your mailing costs, increase the effectiveness of your mail piece, and improve your overall operations.

By Christine J. Erna

18 The Next Generation of Direct Mail

Technological innovations, such as augmented reality, are bringing new life into direct mail campaigns.

By Dr. Charles Weiss

20 Informed Delivery for Mailers – Five Things We Learned If you’re not yet incorporating Informed Delivery into your mail strategy, here are five solid reasons why you should.

By Dan Browne 4

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

By Bob Schimek

12 Software Byte

FEATURES 16 Addressing for Success

Marketing Mail Forecast: Thunderstorms Likely

Preparing for the Worst

By Jeff Peoples

22 Moving the Mail Center Forward

If you want your mail center to thrive, it’s crucial to dig deeper and understand the reasoning behind your operation's actions.

By Chris Kula

24 The State of the Industry: Part Two

Our annual survey takes a look at the industry’s attitudes towards mail, challenges facing the mail center, and much more.

By Amanda Armendariz

28 The #1 Way to Save Money on Postage

Presort services are a valuable resource for many mailers; here’s a breakdown of the cost savings you can expect from a partnership with one.

By Adam Lewenberg

13 The Trenches Unearthing Value Hidden in Customer Documents

By Mike Porter

14 Direct Mail Evolution

Top 5 Resolutions for Direct Marketers in 2019

By Brad Kugler

15 Say What?

EDITOR’S NOTE VOLUME 31, ISSUE 6 MAGAZINE STAFF President Chad Griepentrog Publisher Ken Waddell Editor Amanda Armendariz amanda.c@rbpub.com Editorial Director Allison Lloyd allison.l@rbpub.com Contributing Writers Dan Browne, Christine J. Erna, Wes Friesen, Brad Kugler, Chris Kula, Adam Lewenberg, Pat McGrew, Jeff Peoples, Mike Porter, Anita Pursley, Bob Schimek, Dr. Charles Weiss Audience Development Manager Rachel Chapman rachel@rbpub.com Advertising Ken Waddell 608.235.2212 ken.w@rbpub.com Design Kelli Cooke

PREPARING FOR THE YEAR AHEAD

BY AMANDA ARMENDARIZ

RB Publishing Inc. PO Box 259098 Madison WI 53725-9098 Tel: 608.241.8777 Fax: 608.241.8666 Email: rbpub@rbpub.com SUBSCIRBE Subscribe online at MailingSystemsTechnology.com.

Subscriptions are free to qualified recipients: $20 per year to all others in the United States.

Subscription rate for Canada or Mexico is $40 per year, and for elsewhere outside of the United States is $45. Back issue rate is $5.

SEND SUBSCRIPTIONS TO: Mailing Systems Technology, PO Box 259098, Madison WI 53725-9098 Call 608.241.8777 Fax 608.241.8666 E-mail rachel@rbpub.com Online at MailingSystemsTechnology.com.

REPRINT SALES ReprintPro 949.702.5390 www.ReprintPros.com All material in this magazine is copyrighted ©2018

by RB Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Any correspondence sent to Mailing Systems Technology, RB Publishing Inc. or its staff becomes property of RB Publishing Inc. The articles in this magazine represent the views of the authors and not those of RB Publishing Inc. or Mailing Systems Technology. RB Publishing Inc. and/or Mailing Systems Technology expressly disclaim any liability for the products or services sold or otherwise endorsed by advertisers or authors included in this magazine.

MAILING SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY (ISSN 1088-2677) [Volume 31 Issue 6] is published six times per year (January/February, Annual Industry Buyer’s Guide, March/April, May/June, September/October, November/December) by RB Publishing Inc.,PO Box 259098 Madison WI 53725-9098, 608-241-8777. Periodical postage paid at Madison WI and additional offices.

POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Mailing Systems Technology PO Box 259098 Madison WI 53725-9098

I

t will be exciting to see what 2019 brings for the mailing industry. The USPS once again has, thankfully, a few seats filled on their Board of Governors, so even though it’s not a complete board with the usual nine members, it is at least a functioning one. This is good news for the mailing industry, especially when it comes to the postage-saving promotions the USPS has offered in the past, but was unable to offer in 2018 due to lack of a board (a functioning board is required to grant approval for any suggested promotions). There have already been some promotions announced for mail pieces that incorporate certain initiatives, like Informed Delivery, so it would behoove mailers to research these promotions and implement as many as they are eligible for. After all, mail is one of the most effective communication methods available to us, and if mailers are able to save two percent or thereabouts on postage while increasing customer response rates, it’s a win/win for all involved.

Package delivery continues to grow and bring in a substantial amount of revenue for the Postal Service, although this income does not, unfortunately, completely offset the loss of revenue resulting from the decline in First-Class Mail volumes (or the requirement that the

USPS pre-fund retiree health benefits).

And marketers continue to see results from the integration of physical and digital communication strategies. Of course, on the downside, the USPS’s bottom line is still suffering from the pre-funding requirement mentioned previously, and when you add in the declining volumes of mail (and the sometimes associated lack of trust that accompanies this decline), it means that the new year isn’t all rosy.

But yet, I’m optimistic. If you take a look at our survey results on page 24, you’ll see that, for the most part, mailers have a fair amount of confidence in the USPS, they see good results from their mail pieces, and the higher-ups in their organizations recognize the value that mail provides to their companies. So while nothing is perfect, it appears that the new year could be a great one for our industry, especially if mailers capitalize on the USPS offerings available to them.

I’ll be excited to see what 2019 holds!

As always, thanks for reading Mailing Systems Technology.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

5

REAL-LIFE MANAGEMENT

WELCOME ABOARD!

BY WES FRIESEN

“Pay attention to your culture and your hires from the very beginning.”

— Reid Hoffman, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn

O

ne of the most important keys to the success of any organization or team is to have a strong onboarding process in place. New employee onboarding is the process of integrating a new employee with a company and its culture, as well as getting a new hire the tools and information necessary to become a productive member of the team.

Why is onboarding so important? Effective onboarding has a measurable return on investment (ROI) not only through decreased turnover costs but by increasing employee productivity and improving customer satisfaction. Furthermore, studies have shown that companies that invest in onboarding experience 2.5 times the revenue growth and 1.9 times the profit margin of companies that don’t.

Studies have also shown that 22% of employee turnover occurs during the first 45 days on the job, and approximately 70% of new hires decide whether to stay or leave within the first six months of joining! Given the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, Baby Boomers retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day, and the willingness of Millennials to leave organizations if not treated well, we need effective onboarding programs!

6

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

The importance of effective onboarding is further evidenced by Bureau of Labor stats that show nearly six million hires are being made every month (mostly to replace people leaving, but also due to an increase in overall jobs). This begs the question, what are the best practices for effective onboarding programs?

Suggested Best Practices for Effective Onboarding A very important principle is to make our new employees feel valued! Maya Angelou wisely said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you make them feel.” Here are some suggestions that will help new employees feel valued and appreciated.

1. Have a structured onboarding program defined in advance. The reality is that a lot of onboarding is done inconsistently and on the fly, versus following a thoughtful pre-planned program. One suggested best practice is to have a structured program with goals, assigned roles (i.e., roles for HR, direct manager, co-workers), checklists, and procedures that cover the key elements listed next. Also,

we should periodically review and refine our onboarding program, but how? One way is to survey new hires after they have become established and ask them what they thought were strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement with the onboarding process.

2. Reach out to new hires before their first day. If new hires are getting the silent treatment between accepting our offer and starting the job, we’re already sending the wrong message.

Our onboarding program should be welcoming and clarify the process prior to first day — whether it’s an email from HR walking through what to expect or a phone call from their new manager welcoming them to the team. Whatever the method, we should reach out to new hires before they begin, so they’re not going in completely blind. They need to know we value them!

Also, Kathryn Minshew, CEO of career advice resource The Muse, advises, “Sending them [new hires] benefits information and your employee handbook ahead of the first day gives them a chance to get acquainted with the culture before they step in the door.”

3. Have the new employee set up before they arrive. New hires should arrive with their new workplace and necessary tools and equipment ready to go. They should be set up ahead of time as much as possible on all relevant security, HR, payroll, IT, and other relevant systems. Consider touches like name plates and business cards (or a form to order business cards).

Not all jobs require having business cards, but for many, they are a status symbol and are a sign of being appreciated and honored.

4. Make their first day memorable. We only get one chance to make a first impression, so we want to ensure their first day is a positive experience. Ideas for the first day include taking the new employee around for introductions to all relevant co-workers on the team and others the team engages with. Have some team members take out the new person to lunch (and have the entire lunch paid for by management). Consider a welcome package that could include some gifts and/or messages from

team members and management.

Have a welcome banner or other decorations to show they are special.

5. Set expectations early and check in regularly. Spend time with the new employee, giving them direction and attainable action items from the beginning. Consider working with them on developing a 90-day plan that outlines key goals and an action plan to help them learn and become an integrated and productive team member. Check in with them regularly, both informally and in regular one-on-ones, to ensure they are feeling comfortable and engaged.

6. Assign a team mentor (i.e., a buddy).

One best practice is to assign an experienced team member as a mentor to help show the new person the ropes and serve as a go-to resource person.

The mentor can help the new person with simple questions like various lunch options in the area, and they can also help with more difficult tasks, like navigating the corporate culture and

expected norms. The mentor can also play a key role in the training process.

7. Create an employee playbook. This is a creative idea that few have done, but it’s worth doing. Develop a playbook that can include a simple overview of your organization or team and show any vision and mission statements, values, and key strategies and initiatives. This can include a copy of your team’s latest scorecard and related performance reports. Another idea is to include pictures of all team members, perhaps with a fun fact for each person, to help the new hire become acquainted with the folks he or she will be spending much of his or her time with. Also, consider developing a FAQ list that they can easily refer to.

8. Don’t overwhelm them early on.

The first few weeks at a new job can be an overwhelming adjustment for an employee (we should remember that we were once the newbies on a team!). “You don’t want to overload them with too much work before they

are ready,” counsels Deb LaMere, Vice President of Employee Experience at Ceridian. You can’t expect an employee to pick up on all nuances, buzzwords, and procedures after one quick run-through. Jack Hill, Director of Talent Acquisition at People Fluent, reminds employers that even new hires with industry experience should be given a chance to digest all the information they have been given.

Our employees are truly our most valuable resource and are the key to success for any team. Hiring good people and onboarding them well sets them — and us — up for success.  Wes Friesen is a proven leader and developer of high-performing teams and has extensive experience in both the corporate and non-profit worlds. He is also an award-winning university instructor and speaker, and is the President of Solomon Training and Development, which provides leadership, management, and team building training. Wes can be contacted at wesmfriesen@gmail.com or at 971.806.0812.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

7

CONNECTING POINT

SPOTLIGHT ON THE USPS CHANGE OF ADDRESS PROCESS

BY ANITA PURSLEY

T

he United States Postal Service has a mandate to protect both the mail in general and the privacy of its customers. Considering the growing risk of identity theft with the current change of address (COA) service, the Postal Service continues to evaluate a variety of additional controls to enhance the security of the USPS. A recent development raised the awareness of this potential area of vulnerability. As reported by the Chicago Tribune earlier this year, a manual COA form was filed, claiming that UPS had moved its headquarters from a business park in Atlanta to a tiny apartment in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

According to the article, “Not only did the change go through, but it also took months for anyone to catch on. In the meantime, so many thousands of pieces of First-Class Mail meant for UPS poured into the apartment.”

What’s the Magnitude of the Potential Risk?

Let’s put this into perspective. In FY 2017, the Postal Service processed 36.8 million 8

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

COA requests; 20.6 million were hard copy requests, while 16.2 million were processed online through the Mover’s Guide platform. Roughly 96% were residential changes, while only four percent were business changes.

Jim Wilson, USPS Manager of Address Management, leads the change of address support group in Memphis. This group is dedicated to responding and investigating all COA-related questions.

According to Wilson, in FY 2017, 46,200 COA-related complaints were handled by this support group, with 92% resolved as valid changes and the remaining eight percent, or 3,557 COA requests, treated as “unauthorized COA” and handed over to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

According to the USPS Office of the Inspector General, the Postal Inspection Service has received nearly 25,000 COA complaints since January 2016, including 8,900 in 2016, 11,000 in 2017, and 5,000 in the first three months of 2018 alone. It appears that the problem is growing each year. So, the question must be asked — what is the Postal Service doing about it?

Improving Processes At the October 2018 Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meetings, Wilson provided an update on additional security measures that are currently implemented or being considered. Some of these include: } Requiring all business COAs to use the online Mover’s Guide and establishing minimum lead times prior to the move. } Adding business partner addresses to the COA watch list. The Postal Service’s Business Alliance team is then alerted when COAs are detected so they can conduct a local review. } Use of further pattern analytics. } Implementation of a disaster response option on the COA website. They also activated an emergency COA function that allows USPS personnel to submit COAs for persons temporarily living in shelters. } Adding a rapid key process to the online COA, which resulted in significant improvement in the quality of customers’ input data. } Directly reaching out to customers who input invalid addresses. } Implementing COA retail kiosk stations to assist people in filing their requests. } Developing a USPS webpage to allow customers to view, update, or cancel their change requests. You can find that website here: https://managemymove.usps.com.

Also, MTAC will be initiating a workgroup to focus on details surrounding business COAs. The workgroup will focus on needs, features, and capabilities that may impact business customers with an overall objective to provide recommendations that improve the COA process for these customers and Hold Mail for businesses.

Wilson is committed to continuing to look for additional security measures, including the utilization of Informed Visibility, eDocumentation, and the Full Service IMb to assist them in analyzing issues around the change of address process.

So, What More Can Be Done?

In August of this year, the USPS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued an audit report titled, “Change of Address Identity Verification Internal Controls” (Report Number MS-AR-18-005). The audit was self-initiated but was fueled by concerns expressed by Congress,

customer complaints, and news outlets.

Concerns were raised about the security related to the COA service and the conceivable risk that the service could be used for fraudulent activities.

In the report, the OIG recommended that USPS management develop and implement a national policy requiring customers to present a government-issued form of identification when submitting a hard copy, in-person COA request. The Postal Service agreed with this recommendation and committed to this policy with a target implementation date of March 31, 2019.

The OIG also made a recommendation to develop and incorporate certain changes into its online COA process.

Although parts of the audit report are redacted, as it’s likely that the specific security measures would be rendered ineffective if they were made public, an example of a commonly used practice like requiring a customer to enter a ran-

dom eight-digit code sent to a separate email or cell phone account linked to that customer was presented. This OIG recommendation was also accepted by USPS management, and a target implementation date was set for September 30, 2019.

What About Non-COA Moves?

Although industry-provided COA solutions don’t lend themselves to the same security concerns, the data can be an invaluable resource to keep up with people who do not file their move information with the Postal Service. It is estimated that nearly 40% of US moves are not filed in a timely manner, if at all.

Competition for marketing budgets requires organizations to produce measurable results for their customers. Ensuring a customer’s data is compliant with USPS regulations by utilizing CASS and NCOALink is now only the first step, which is why some software providers provide data

quality tools that allow mailers to correct addresses and locate move information from private, third-party resources. These tools allow you to go beyond compliance to ensure you have the most complete, correct, and current data available, making a measurable difference in improving campaign performance and increasing your return on investment.

Be on the lookout for these new policies and updates to the change of address process as 2019 progresses. 

As Senior Manager of Industry Affairs at BCC Software, Anita Pursley is entrenched in major industry events and associations, representing BCC Software and advocating on behalf of its customers. She has a breadth of industry experience and expertise, including serving for two years as the Industry Co-Chair of the Postmaster General’s Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) and similar roles at some of the industry’s largest and most influential companies.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

9

INKJET INFO VANGUARD WINNERS

PRINT 18: BUILDING A NEW PRINT TRADITION

BY PAT MCGREW

T

he era of the large, regional, multi-hall print trade show may be over. Today, regional shows are finding a new “right size” that allows print providers of all types to meet with both the vendors they know and new ones who can help them flourish. It was in that vein that the Association for Printing Technology (APT) convened at PRINT 18, the rebranded GraphExpo, in Chicago from September 30 to October 2. The three-day show started with a brand-name keynote, Seth Godin, and featured a variety of learning experiences in dedicated, educational sessions and on the show floor. Replacing the perennial Must See ‘Em awards this year was the Red Hot Technology Recognition Program, which was a chance to focus attention on the vendors supporting PRINT 18 and their new technology. Vanguard Awards are the new recognition for game changers in the market in three categories: Breakthrough, Collaborations, and Pioneer.

What Was on the Show Floor?

The stars of the show are always the hardware, software, and services vendors who bring their best solutions. BlueCrest, Canon, Epson, HP, Konica Minolta with MGI, Ricoh, RISO, Xerox, and others were all present with print solutions focused on creating innovative print. Memjet was well-represented across the show floor, including the Superweb WebJet in the Konica Minolta booth, and in their own booth, where they were demonstrating 10

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

the difference between their original VersaPass technology and their new DuraLink platform. Missing this year were regular exhibitors EFI and SCREEN. Whether you were looking for a new electrophotographic device or curious about inkjet, there were vendors to talk to, print samples to review, and connections to make.

If finishing and mailing solutions were on your shopping list, there were dozens of options to review. Standard Finishing always brings a large contingent of Hunkeler and Horizon equipment, and this year the new entrant, BlueCrest (formerly the DMT group at Pitney Bowes) brought their mailing and inserting solutions.

Software was well represented, with teams from Rochester Software Associates, Enfocus, Chili Publish, Solimar, and many others exhibiting software for every step in both transaction and commercial print, both in-plant and print for pay. Software platforms are becoming more common, as they give their developers opportunities for more partnerships and open the door to expanding into new markets. Both Enfocus SWITCH and HP’s PrintOS have been in the market long enough to gain a following, and indications are that they will continue to grow as they expand their marketplaces and gain more partners.

What Should You Do Next?

Even if you could not make it to Chicago, there are action items to pursue. Start by reading as many of the show reviews as

Breakthrough:  Color-Logic Touch7 Neon Suite for working with extended gamuts.  Enfocus PitStop Pro 2018 for capturing and displaying user analytics.  Ricoh USA RICOH Pro VC70000 for 1200 x 1200 dpi inkjet printing with new inks that boost the gamut.  Tilia Labs Phoenix 7.0 for print and postprint management from a single source for roll-fed and sheet-fed print.

Collaboration:  Avanti Systems Slingshot Integration with BCC Mail Manager for linking Mail and Print MIS.  ChromaChecker Corp for Connectivity to HP Indigo ColorBeat, the new HP monitoring tool for color.

Pioneer:  AccuZIP AccuEngage for enabling USPS Informed Delivery  Xerox Iridesse Production Press for six color printing including gold, silver, and clear iridescent effects.

you can find. What solutions gained a mention? Could you improve your business by adding a new device with expanded gamuts or a new finishing or mailing device to add differentiation to your products? Have you done a workflow assessment or production assessment lately? If you have, you may have discovered gaps in your toolset. Check the list of exhibitors at https:// www.printtechnologies.org/events/print18/ to see who was there. You may still be able to take advantage of show specials while upgrading your capabilities.

And, finally, make plans to get to PRINT 19 next year in Chicago. The show is changing things up by moving to a Thursday to Saturday format from the Sunday start we’ve seen for so many years. The Association for Print Technologies is making strides in creating a platform for learning and networking that will be worth your time.  Pat McGrew is Senior Director, Production Services, Keypoint Intelligence. If you have stories to share, reach out to her! @PatMcGrew on Twitter, on LinkedIn, or Pat.McGrew@KeypointIntelligence.com are the best ways to contact her.

POSTAL AFFAIRS

MARKETING MAIL FORECAST: THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY

BY BOB SCHIMEK

A

ugust 23, 2018 started out as a typical, uneventful day. No one would have predicted the lightning strike that the Postal Service was going to hit the mailing industry with that day. Out of nowhere, a Federal Register Notice was published in which the Postal Service noted they were contemplating making changes to the content standards for their largest product (in terms of volume): Marketing Mail letters and flats. In an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, the change would limit regular and nonprofit, letter-size and flat-size, to content that is only paper-based/printed matter; no merchandise or goods of any type would be allowed, regardless of value.

Since that massive lightning strike, the thunder has been rolling across the entire mailing industry. Two industry associations wrote letters to the Postal Service, noting the severe impact a change like this would have on the mailing industry and asked that the Federal Register notice be withdrawn. Discussions also took place among Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) leadership and postal leadership, again noting the amount of concern that was being generated. Feedback asserted that additional clarification was needed to ease concern around such a massive and sweeping proposed change.

On September 20, 2018, the Postal Service did issue an industry alert, which provided clarification to the proposed

rulemaking concerns. The alert noted that the Postal Service was seeking broad industry feedback to be able to make an informed decision and no decisions had yet been made. It also noted that if any changes are made to content standards, the earliest they would be implemented would be 2020. The goal was to ease the mailing industry’s concern; however, for some, it seemed like a second lighting strike. This time, the thunder it triggered was for those who are not actively staying informed; for them, they could interpret the 2020 date as the deadline to get out of the mail industry.

Based on the concerns that continued to echo across the mailing sphere, on September 28, a letter signed by 18 industry association executives and the MTAC Industry Chair was submitted to the Postmaster General. It again asked that she rescind the pending advanced notice of proposed rule as published in the Federal Register. Rarely does the mailing industry see this level of solidarity when it comes to postal issues. Unfortunately, the Postal Service has made the decision that they will not be pulling the Federal Register notice, and the comment period remained open until the October 22 deadline that was originally set.

At the MTAC meeting the week of October 1, the Postal Service noted that they had already received over 3,600 comments. While many were form letters, they noted that there were over 100 unique

comments and feedback that had been submitted. All of this feedback is providing the Postal Service better insight into how mailers are using Marketing Mail as a critical part of their businesses.

In total, over 4,000 comments were received by the October 22 deadline. The question now becomes, what happens next? At this point, the focus will shift from the turmoil that the proposed Federal Register notice created to working on the issue. The Postal Service and the mailing industry need to work collaboratively on this critical topic. This is where MTAC will help facilitate the process moving forward through the use of a task team and work groups.

MTAC task teams are small targeted teams whose members are approved by the MTAC executive committee. The task team will review the Postal Service categorization of the comments and the initial responses based on design and content described in the comments. The goal of the task team will be to work with the Postal Service and identify areas of Marketing Mail that will not be changing and (ideally) quickly mitigate the concerns for those categories of mail.

The task team will also identify areas of Marketing Mail where further discussion with the mailing industry is required around possible changes to content requirements. These items will then be moved to one or more MTAC work groups.

MTAC work groups are open, and anyone from the mailing industry can participate in these discussions. It will be critical to ensure that these MTAC work groups receive broad industry participation to make sure the Postal Service understands the impact any proposed changes in content would have across the entire mailing industry supply chain.

If changes to Marketing Mail content would impact your business, it is strongly recommended that you share your concerns with the mailing industry associations that you are members of.

Additionally, make sure that when these MTAC groups are announced, your company gets involved with the discussions that will be taking place so that you can be a part of the recommendations that are ultimately created.  Bob Schimek is Senior Director of Postal Affairs at Quadient. He is a member of PostCom, Idealliance, and the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC). Contact him at b.schimek@quadient.com.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

11

SOFTWARE BYTE

now, productivity-wise? When did you last test your ability to restore your data from a backup?

As a software provider, we see this happen all too often. Clients contact us for assistance after a server crash, a virus attack, or other failures to mechanical or electrical devices. In cases where clients have no disaster recovery or backup plans, the road to recovery is very long and very painful, not to mention costly.

Invariably, the clients who had no plan deeply regret that they did not spend the time to put plans in place.

PREPARING FOR THE WORST

BY JEFF PEOPLES

E

arlier this fall, the news was full of reports regarding disasters impacting thousands of people here in the United States.

Hurricanes, tropical storms, and the many fires devouring acres of land in the western part of the country were constantly covered in the national news. Our thoughts remain with the many people impacted by these disasters, as well as the emergency responders and volunteers who provided assistance.

Situations like these should also cause us to pause to consider how well our businesses would withstand such emergencies. Does your company have a disaster recovery plan? Does your mailing operation have a back-up plan for your business data? Surprisingly, in many cases, the answers to those questions is “no.” Yes, these plans involve a lot of work, but should disaster strike, wouldn’t you rather be prepared?

Have a Plan Whether you have plans in place and need to re-evaluate them or you are starting 12

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

from scratch, you should be asking yourself, what exactly is involved in backup plans? Here are a few tips: } Back up your business data. } Test your backups regularly to be sure you can restore them. } Rotate your backup media off-site so that a theft or on-site fire or water damage don’t render your backups useless at the time you’ll need them most. } Document your backup and restore process so that you can restore systems quickly even though your IT guru may not be available. } Investigate, plan, and implement realtime disaster recovery for your business data, particularly if your business model has little downtime tolerance.

Why Bother?

Many mailers pooh-pooh these efforts as unnecessary work. But consider this: If your most important database (mailing or otherwise) disappeared right now, how would that impact your business? How would you recover? How long would it take to get back to where you are right

Better Sooner than Later Being human, we tend to ignore backups until we need them. Unfortunately, this puts your job, your business, and your clients’ business at risk. That, in turn, puts the security of your clients, your employees, your clients’ employees, and the families of all these people at risk.

The recent natural disasters are great reminders that we need to plan ahead for just these types of situations. Downtime due to mechanical, electrical, or other failures is almost impossible to predict, so it is critical to put plans in place before disaster strikes, regardless of its form.

Think of it as a storm shelter or an insurance policy: It may cost you some time and money up front, but your business’ life may depend on having it in place.

Resources Your IT staff or contractor should be able to assist you with putting your disaster recovery and backup plans into place.

During this process, make sure that they consider your mailing and shipping hardware, software, and data in those plans.

Specific to the recent storm events, the USPS offers frequent communication regarding the status of services and facilities through its USPS Service Alerts.  Jeff Peoples is President, Founder, and CEO of Window Book. With over 20+ years of innovative solutions that make using the Postal Service easier and more profitable for mailers and shippers, he has done presentations at industry events, GraphExpo, MAILCOM, the National Postal Forum, Postal Customer Council meetings, Harvard Business Expert Forum, and other industry and direct marketing events.

THE TRENCHES

UNEARTHING VALUE HIDDEN IN CUSTOMER DOCUMENTS

BY MIKE PORTER

D

ata mining sounds geeky and complicated, but document service providers can use information extracted from their clients’ print image files to improve messaging, lower costs, or make documents user-friendly with little to no client effort required.

Documents often combine data from different internal systems to produce bills, statements, and other transactional material. These documents can provide the data necessary to improve customer experiences by making the communications more relevant and personal, and print/mail service providers can make it happen.

Where to Look Are there groups of customers you can define as segments that should receive special treatment? You might print documents for high-billing customers on more expensive paper or in color, for instance, communicating their value to the organization. Perhaps your clients would be interested in a way to identify likely targets for upgrades, based on their longevity as customers and current level of engagement.

Key data values extracted from the pages can increase the impact and effectiveness of the documents without requiring your clients to perform any extra steps.

Information found in print lines for individual documents might reveal opportunities to flag accounts with late charges.

You can selectively insert a notice promoting auto-pay so customers avoid future penalties. Other useful information found

in detail lines about individual document recipients might indicate the products or services customers are using. Would you impress your clients if you told them you could offer their customers relevant accessories or cross-sell products according to the information you can extract from bills and statements?

In some businesses, certain transactions, such as unusual fees or surcharges, always trigger an increase in customer inquiries. Conditionally added explanatory text, a special insert, or links to an explainer video can reduce costs and raise customer satisfaction when the troublesome transactions appear on customer-facing documents.

Improve Understanding and Lower Costs Another way to make documents more relevant and effective is turning textual data into graphical information. A chart or graph can make a bigger impression than a list of numbers. Pictures of products, vacation destinations, or photos of company employees with whom the customer had contact can make a lasting impression and personal connection with customers. You can often add these items using codes or descriptions found within the documents.

Most bills include options for customers to pay online or via automatic bank drafts. If paper invoices are marked auto-pay, flag those accounts and cease sending them remittance envelopes. Your clients will thank you for saving money on envelopes that customers don’t need.

Print and mail service providers usually concentrate on moving the paper — often with little regard for what the documents actually communicate. The key to higher profitability and customer retention is adding value to documents, but it requires a little more effort. If you can help clients achieve their customer relationship goals, increase sales, or lower costs without requiring them to revise their internal systems, they will gladly pay more to create better documents.

Raw Data or Print Image?

If you are receiving raw data from your clients and are composing the documents yourself, you already have access to the data you need to make document improvements like the ones described here. Print/mail service providers working with print image files will need document re-engineering software to pull data from the pages to modify content, layout, fonts, colors, or images.

Several companies offer software built for these purposes. Check them out. Most software vendors will convert one of your files to demonstrate their products. Present before and after images to your client to show them how you can improve the way they communicate with their customers. Most will appreciate your efforts to increase the return on their investments in printed and digital transactional documents. Outreach attempts such as this can spur conversations about identifying even more ways you can improve customer communications for your clients.

During my years in the service provider business, we were passive about the documents we printed for clients.

We sold our services as a way to reduce printing and mailing costs. If we could save a client on production, printing, inserting, and postage, we had a good chance of getting their business. But that was in the 1980s and 1990s. I don’t think that’s a practical strategy for print and mail service providers today.

Service providers should be spending some of their time analyzing the potential impact of the transactional customer communications they are printing. They often contain unrecognized opportunities for improving customer relationships.  Mike Porter at Print/Mail Consultants helps his clients create strategies for future growth and implement new technologies. Follow @PMCmike on Twitter, send a connection request on LinkedIn, or contact Mike directly at mporter@ printmailconsultants.com.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

13

DIRECT MAIL EVOLUTION

TOP 5 RESOLUTIONS FOR DIRECT MARKETERS IN 2019

BY BRAD KUGLER

A

s 2019 quickly approaches, we all need to take some time and start creating those lists of goals, changes, and resolutions for the new year. This is also the perfect time for annual marketing strategies and budgets, so let’s do this together and see if we can sharpen our pencils a bit in terms of marketing in 2019. I have done this drill about two dozen times in my almost 30-year business career, so I’ve learned a thing or two. Here are my top five suggestions for direct marketers as they head into the new year.

1. Assume an Omnichannel Approach to Everything A single, laser-focused campaign works when targeting your audience, but I wouldn’t recommend it when talking about channels. A single-channel campaign is really shortsighted these days. Consumers and customers are everywhere… print, social media, traditional media, and so on; it’s important for you to be everywhere, too. To add to this, advice is to do it concurrently, not linearly. This multiplies and expands your reach and has the power to put repeated messages in front of your audience in a short period of time, allowing information to be remembered and acted on.

14

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

2. Try New Channels and Methods.

Experiment! Technology is in hyperdrive. Consumers are fickle and change where they focus their attention, much like children do. Don’t be afraid to try some new channels, like Snapchat, Bing, and Twitch, to find your audience. There are also new types of print and augmented reality.

The bottom line is, a little gamble can sometimes pay off in big ways.

3. Don’t Abandon What Has Worked Before We’ve all heard the age-old line, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If you’ve hit your stride with a particular campaign, audience, or channel, don’t abandon it! Milk it for what it’s worth because we all know the audience and/or the channel is fluid and fickle.

Honestly, I’d probably pour more resources behind this success and scale it up as much as I could until I saw it wasn’t working any longer. And even when success starts to drop, I would probably still give it a bit of time. I certainly wouldn’t just change it up at the first dip in engagement or response.

4. ImproveYour Data Quality — Pinpoint Your Target. The biggest improvement technology has brought to marketing

is the ability to quickly and directly hone in on a specific target market or audience. Never before has the data been as complete and deep. Never have any marketers been able to target so precisely. In this day and age, if you are not narrowing your target to an increasingly specific target market and making that message relevant to that target, you are wasting precious marketing resources.

5. Improve Your Creative and Message.

Clarity and creativity of message cannot be neglected. Even if you are on-point with all other marketing angles, if you miss this one, you’ll likely crash and burn. There is so much advertising noise out there that you have to do something to stand out. Oftentimes in the creative sphere, less is more.

Simplicity of message with an easy to understand call to action is usually the most important. You have a couple of seconds to make that communication in the digital world before the audience scrolls by or hits the delete button.

Inspiring and interesting creative is key to that. Don’t overthink it, but do try to think outside the box. Ask yourself what ads or creative you have found interesting, and tailor your strategies using those as examples.

One thing is for sure: The pace of change is not going to slow. It behooves all of us to continually educate ourselves on what’s next. I make it my own personal responsibility to spend hours per week reading, learning, and studying the world of digital marketing, where it’s going, and why. The more you know, the better chance you have at being a success. That being said, don’t let yourself fall into analysis paralysis. Get out there, market, and make 2019 the best year yet!  Brad Kugler is the CEO of DirectMail2.0, a fully integrated marketing solution for the clients of printers/mailers that combines the proven success of direct mail with in-demand features like online advertising and automated campaign tracking. Visit www.dm20.com or call 800.956.4129 for more information.

SAY WHAT?

THINK ABOUT IT

According to the USPS Office of the Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service has received nearly 25,000 COA complaints since January 2016, including 8,900 in 2016, 11,000 in 2017, and 5,000 in the first three months of 2018 alone. It appears that the problem is growing each year. So, the question must be asked – what is the Postal Service doing about it?

— ANITA PURSLEY

Much like QR codes and barcodes, AR uses a printed trigger to launch a digital interaction on a cell phone or tablet using a downloaded app.

Unlike a QR code or a barcode, however, AR uses imagery and/ or text and is not restricted to using a defined code made up of lines or boxes.

— DR. CHARLES WEISS

The Move Update address quality standard is in place to reduce the number of mail pieces that require forwarding or return by the Postal Service. Mailers who claim presorted or automation prices for First-Class Mail or USPS Marketing Mail must ensure their mailing list includes the correct address for any customers who moved 95 days (at least) before the mailing date. Addresses that are not updated may impact your overall address quality measurement.

IN THE COMING MONTHS, THE USPS WILL BE PROMOTING [INFORMED DELIVERY] AND FOCUSING ON USER ACQUISITION THROUGH DIRECT MAIL, ONLINE ADS, AND GRASSROOT EFFORTS. TELEVISED ADVERTISEMENTS WILL NOT BE FAR BEHIND. THE POSTAL SERVICE PLANS TO INCREASE PARTICIPATION TO 20 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE NEXT 18 MONTHS. ONCE THIS CATCHES ON A LITTLE MORE, THE RESPONSE RATE AND CLICK-THROUGH NUMBERS WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE.

Data mining sounds geeky and complicated, but document service providers can use information extracted from their clients’ print image files to improve messaging, lower costs, or make documents user-friendly with little to no client effort required.

— DAN BROWNE

— MIKE PORTER

— CHRISTINE J. ERNA

Technology is in hyper-drive. Consumers are fickle and change where they focus their attention, much like children do. Don’t be afraid to try some new channels, like Snapchat, Bing, and Twitch, to find your audience. There are also new types of print and augmented reality. The bottom line is, a little gamble can sometimes pay off in big ways.

— BRAD KUGLER MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

15

ADDRESSING FOR SUCCESS

By Christine J. Erna

Following these best practices can reduce your mailing costs, increase the effectiveness of your mail piece, and improve your overall operations.

T

he Data Warehousing Institute reports that most organizations believe that their contact data quality is fine. However, the United States Postal Service consistently releases news that contradicts this assumption — and this misguided complacency could have a significant impact on mail operations. Consider that:  23.6% of all mail is addressed incorrectly  The quality of stored US addresses decays at a rate of 17% per year  Undeliverable-as-Addressed (UAA) mail costs the USPS nearly $2 billion each year

Corporate data governance (or lack thereof) related to mailing addresses is suspect, challenging, confusing, and damaging to organizations trying to communicate with their clients and prospects.

It is not difficult to get the correct mailing address data through commercial address cleansing software that performs Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) and National Change of Address (NCOA) functions. What is difficult is getting this correct, complete, and updated information into a company’s database or system of record (SOR).

There is a lot of misinformation in our industry surrounding the “legality” of updating an address record in a company’s database.

In my experience, these misconceptions are prevalent across most industry verticals: banking, insurance, tech/energy, and healthcare. Compliance and risk assessment are extremely important in every business.

Equally important is educating compliance and risk departments about address quality. Recognizing the difference between actual laws restricting an update to a client’s address and corporate policies that restrict this because of an organization’s desire to protect against any type of risk or liability for having made such changes is crucial. The fact is, there are very few laws governing or preventing a company from updating its SOR. There are many policies that companies and organizations have in place that restrict them from maintaining quality data records for their clients and prospects. Laws are definitive, but policies are not, and they could (and should!) be reviewed and changed to establish a quality data governance process that can protect an organization.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MEASURING ADDRESS QUALITY The USPS finally has the tools to measure address quality, and, luckily, they are doing so. Their tools are accurate and sophisticated enough to support the monthly fines and assessments they began sending to mailers in April of 2018. Educating organizations

Here is an example of the impact of not reaching your target audience:

Value-Added Selling

Express the Address

Volume

100,000

% of address errors

16%

# of affected mail pieces 16,000 Response ratio

1%

# of affected returns

160

Closing ratio

50%

Lost sales

80 pieces

$ Value of sale

$50,000

Sales loss

$4,000,000

4 times per year

$16,000,000

5-year plan

$80,000,000

This is a simple equation to do with your respective volumes, response rates, and value of sale data. What is unfortunate for many is, with solicitation mail, it typically is sent as USPS Marketing Mail (formerly Standard Mail) without an endorsement, and if these mail pieces are undeliverable, they are recycled by the USPS. The marketing team never knows they were not delivered, leaving them scratching their heads about why their response rates (and ROI) are so low. about Move Update compliance and, specifically, their compliance and risk departments about these requirements is essential. The impact of poor address quality, UAA mail, and a lack of corporate data governance processes has been measured in the tens of billions of dollars annually to corporations across the country.

You may be asking, “Tens of billions of dollars? How is this possible? It’s just an undelivered mail piece….”

Research has revealed that the average cost for an undeliverable mail piece is $3.00/piece for any organization. This figure accounts for the per piece cost to print, post, handle the return, research to find an updated address, and remailing (which often incurs the production costs again).

Further analysis shows that if the undeliverable mail has an associated receivable with it, the cost of that returned mail piece skyrockets based on the value of the unpaid receivable. Is it an outstanding utility bill for $50.00? A car payment of $425.00? How about a mortgage payment of $1250.00, or a healthcare provider or hospital invoice for $1,500.00 or more?

Furthermore, the flipside impact of undeliverable mail is in your marketing to existing clients (to upsell and cross-sell your services or products) and reaching new prospects.

DATA GOVERNANCE – BEST PRACTICES Get It Clean  Correct and standardize addresses  Analyze and correct addresses that do not match USPS data  Your goal is complete, correct, and current addresses Keep It Clean  Continually maintain addresses using USPS-certified software  Periodically review, analyze, and improve the quality of addresses Keep It Current  Establish a confidence level for the delivery of each address  Enable the mailer to determine if the mail piece will get delivered and decide if the mail piece should be printed/produced at all  The data will guide these decisions

USPS MOVE UPDATE COMPLIANCE The Move Update address quality standard is in place to reduce the number of mail pieces that require forwarding or return by the Postal Service. Mailers who claim presorted or automation prices for First-Class Mail or USPS Marketing Mail must ensure their mailing lists include the correct address

for any customers who moved 95 days (at least) before the mailing date. Addresses that are not updated may impact your overall address quality measurement. Accurate names and addresses in your mailing result in several benefits, including improved return on investment, enhanced mailing visibility, and reduction in undeliverable mail.

The USPS validates Move Update address quality through an automated process. As mail pieces bearing an Intelligent Mail barcode are processed on sorting equipment, all name and address information from the mail piece is compared against the Postal Service’s NCOA database to identify mail pieces that have not been updated with a new address.

Quality is measured across a calendar month, and any pieces exceeding the .5% tolerance level will be charged $.08 per piece. Loss of access to presorted rates could also result if the data shows egregious errors that point to total disregard for the Move Update standards. Results of this evaluation process can be found by going online to review your Mailer Scorecard.

ENTERPRISE POSTAL GOVERNANCE By having all the process metrics come into a central management view, a core set of processes and analytics, and, finally, enabled and engaged postal and company experts to ensure overall postal compliance with the USPS, company regulations and guidelines that are protective, compliant, and effective will result. In addition to monitoring individual mail streams, this facilitates monitoring and evaluation across multiple mail streams to further promote compliance and best practices across the entire organization.

It is critical to have a company-wide view of mailing operations related to USPS postal compliance and regulations. Just one mail stream being out of compliance can (and has) cause the USPS to initiate an audit of an entire company’s mailing operations. The metrics, reports, and information gathered and stored as part of postal governance provide an organization the data needed should an audit occur.  Christine J. Erna has extensive expertise in postal affairs and brings more than 25 years of experience in direct mail marketing, design, analysis, and training, including 18 years with the United States Postal Service as a mail piece design analyst and educator. She combines extensive knowledge of postal rates, USPS regulations, and technology with Six Sigma process improvement strategies to help clients analyze and improve their end-to-end mailing processes. She can be reached at cjeconsulting@comcast.net or 603.974.1169.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

17

THE NEXT GENERATION OF DIRECT MAIL Technological innovations, such as augmented reality, are bringing new life into direct mail campaigns.

By Dr. Charles Weiss

irect mail has certainly changed since its inception. Before, the sole purpose seemed to be to catch your attention so the mail piece could relay some information. Today, that’s still the ultimate goal, but direct mail can go even further, until a customer literally feels immersed in an experience, rather than just aware of it.

For example, imagine getting a postcard in the mail advertising new discounts for purchasing season passes at your local zoo. Not only does the postcard offer a discount on your pass, but there is also a cute photo of a prairie dog on the front. In addition, the text of the postcard lets you know that if you download an app to your smart18

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

phone, you can see the prairie dog come to life. So, you download the app and scan the image of the prairie dog. Suddenly, the screen of your phone has multiple adorable prairie dogs running around their habitat at the local zoo. You then call your spouse — and maybe even your kids — over to show them the cute prairie dogs.

The direct mail piece has you hooked, and before you know it, you are using the app you just downloaded to buy a season pass for you and your family. This is one scenario in which augmented reality (AR) might be used to enhance a direct mail campaign.

Over the years, direct mail has been an integral aspect of many successful marketing campaigns, but it has changed

dramatically, and it will continue to do so as digital technology envelops an even larger portion of our lives. The first examples of direct mail in the modern age were generic postcards and had limited results. Basically, companies paid to send out generic mailings in hopes a potential customer might just need what the direct mail piece offered. This generic mailing led to the next generation of mailing, which included basic personalization, and, eventually, more specific marketing geared towards the recipients. This personalization led to better results, but it still did not reach the goals many companies wanted. The latest generation of direct mail includes much more robust personalization, as well

as specific marketing intended to get the direct mail piece to the correct customer.

This latest generation of direct mail also includes technological enhancements, such as AR. Direct mail is still a relevant piece of any marketing campaign today; it just needs to be modernized to match up to the digital society we all inhabit.

Much like QR codes and barcodes, AR uses a printed trigger to launch a digital interaction on a cell phone or tablet using a downloaded app. Unlike a QR code or a barcode, however, AR uses imagery and/ or text and is not restricted to using a defined code made up of lines or boxes.

AR interactions can be added to existing designs or be a part of a new marketing campaign. This advancement provides an innovative way to reach customers while still using a printed piece to launch the digitally enhanced interaction on the screen of the smartphone or similar device, like a tablet.

THE DIGITAL EVOLUTION According to the Pew Research Center, 77% of Americans owned a smartphone in February of 2018, as opposed to only 35% in 2011. Additionally, the percentage of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 who own a smartphone is 94%, and the percentage of adults between the ages of 30 and 49 who own a smartphone is 89%.

Americans love their smartphones, and that love is not going to go away anytime soon. Therefore, integrating the capabilities of today’s smartphone along with a

direct mailing campaign makes for a great partnership, and that is where AR comes into play.

AR has the capability to differentiate your direct mail campaign from your competition and give you the edge you need to increase your ROI. AR can create some excitement around existing campaigns, as well as create new and even more successful campaigns and help increase your profit margins. Remember: AR is not meant to replace content; it is meant to enhance it.

AR interactions can be as simple as launching a website from a printed mailer, or as complex as launching a three-dimensional image of a car or even a house from a catalog. The digital actions of an AR experience are viewed on a screen and are really only limited by what can be seen on the device. If your consumers’ digital capabilities are extensive, the sky really is the limit when engaging with potential customers.

Take, for example, a mail piece that is part of a campaign whose goal is to increase furniture sales. The consumer would get a postcard in the mail, notice that it has an AR component, and then view the AR component through an app in order to see a complete three-dimensional model of a couch on his or her digital screen. The recipient would then be able to link this visualization to a hyperlink for more information, or even a shopping cart if they wanted to take that final step. One of the great aspects of AR interactions is that their usage provides easy tracking capabilities and can link a customer directly to a shopping experience.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF AR IMPLEMENTATION While exciting and innovative, AR still must be used strategically and as part of a bigger marketing plan. Don’t just add an AR component because you can; you must have a plan as to what the AR interaction will do and how it will help your business. AR campaigns have to be directed at the right audience, as well. My 81-year-old mother is probably not going to download an app to view a cool AR experience, but my 20-yearold college students probably would.

The experience also has to be simple and have an obvious reward for the customer. This reward could be the digital interaction itself, or maybe a coupon or discount embedded within the interaction.

Before sending out an AR-enhanced direct

mailer, do some research on your target audience and make sure they are the type of customer that would be more inclined to view the AR component.

AUGMENTED REALITY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BREED NEW LIFE INTO STAGNANT DIRECT MAIL CAMPAIGNS — AND TO BRING DIRECT MAIL INTO THE DIGITAL AGE OF SMARTPHONES. One of the greatest limitations of an AR interaction is the need for the customer to download an app in order to see the digital interaction. For this reason, the experience has to be a rewarding one for the customer. The directions to use the AR experience also need to be plainly worded so it is easy for customers to see the benefits they will receive by downloading a specific app. Just stating that your mailer is enhanced with AR is not enough. Customers need to be clearly told how to interact with the printed content in order to see the digital content on their device.

If you are not versed in the world of augmented reality, I would highly suggest you start looking into it. There are many major companies that are currently using AR as part of various print campaigns and many firms that specialize in creating AR-interactive content. AR has the potential to breed new life into stagnant direct mail campaigns — and to bring direct mail into the digital age of smartphones.  Dr. Charles Weiss is Associate Professor of Graphic Communications at Clemson University. In addition to teaching, Charles has also worked as a graphic designer, a layout artist, and a customer service representative at a commercial printer. He has more than 15 years of teaching experience, and he has instructed a variety of courses that include offset printing, screen printing, digital printing, photography, multimedia, graphic design software, variable data printing, and the commercial aspects of printing. His research focuses on hybrid learning, augmented reality, and design.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

19

INFORMED DELIVERY FOR MAILERS – FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED If you’re not yet incorporating Informed Delivery into your mail strategy, here are five solid reasons why you should. By Dan Browne

I

f you missed this year’s National Postal Forum in San Antonio, the theme was Informed Customers — Customer Experience Delivered. One of the newer technologies the United States Postal Service (USPS) discussed was Informed Delivery. As many of you know by now, this is a free service where mail 20

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

recipients can view what will be delivered to their mailboxes each day. Enrollees receive an email called the Informed Delivery Daily Digest, which contains digital images of their mail pieces. These images are also accessible through the USPS online dashboard or via a mobile app. Registration is easy, and you can start realizing

the benefits immediately. Sounds good for consumers, right? However, many of you may be asking, “But what does this service do for mailers?”

Plenty, as it turns out. The benefits include: } The ability to generate multiple views from a single mail piece via email, online portal, and mobile app

} The ability to drive responses with interactive content } A potential increase in ROI from mail spend } The capacity to reach consumers digitally, even if you only have mailing addresses } A high email open rate of opted-in users To date, there are 13.1 million registered users of Informed Delivery, and this number increases weekly, at a rate of approximately 140,000 new users. Of the 13.1 million users, 8.4 million are subscribers to the Daily Digest email. The remainder either log in to the USPS dashboard or look at their accounts within the mobile app.

A REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE We recently analyzed a customer who currently uses Informed Delivery in their campaigns. We looked into the first one million records they mailed over a onemonth period and found that 3.51% of all mailed records were enrolled in Informed Delivery. Of those, 46% subscribed to the daily email and 65.4% of subscribers opened the email. Yes, over 65% of the email recipients opened the email to look at what was in their mailboxes that day!

Everyone agrees that this large number represents an excellent opportunity to capture the attention of the prospect, but what do you need to do to capture their attention? Here are five things mailers should know about Informed Delivery campaigns.

Add color to stand out – The standard image the USPS captures and sends to participants is grayscale. This can be very discouraging for marketers that use plenty of color and artwork in their mail pieces; however, the USPS offers mailers the opportunity to replace the grayscale image with their own colorful representative image. Mailers can also add a free digital experience by inserting a related ride-along image. Here, more creative artwork can be used, and a target URL sending recipients to a website or landing page is included.

With the free digital experience, your mail piece image gets higher priority than the grayscale images and moves to the top of the daily email each recipient receives.

This means that when the USPS email is opened, your offer will be the first item

seen. The recipient can click on the image, visit the landing page with your offer right away, and hours later receive the physical mail piece in their home mailbox. The email is an extra touchpoint and a win for the mailer.

JUST ANNOUNCED! THE USPS WILL HAVE AN INFORMED DELIVERY

Convey a clear call to action in the email – Now that your offer is the higher priority in the email, make sure you have a clear call to action for the viewer. You want to use actionable words like “Click Here,” “Apply Now,” or “Buy Now” to grab their attention and route them to your landing page. You want to make sure your recipients’ steps to follow are clear so they do not miss the opportunity of the click-through.

PROMOTION IN 2019.

Design your landing page to be consistent with your mail piece – Now that you got them to click and go to your page, don’t confuse them by having the landing page look and feel completely different than your mail piece. You want them to know, without question, they are seeing the same offer that is generated through the original mail piece, and that they are on the right page, getting the right offer.

A few months back, I noticed one of my mail pieces looking for monetary charitable donations had a ride-along image showing an offer for 20% off my online purchase.

Why would a charity be offering a 20% discount on a purchase? When I clicked through, the page was selling religious books and had a connection with the charity. In the end, the two were related, but the initial experience left me confused.

Don’t make this same mistake.

SEPTEMBER 1 THROUGH

Customize the landing page – Carry your offer through to the landing page and try using personalized pages (PURLs) so you can track the responses to the exact Informed Delivery users. PURLS are currently being tested and are expected to be live shortly. The purpose here is to track who is clicking through and responding to the Informed Delivery piece, not someone that just falls upon your site.

Having valid information will confirm or negate the true response rate of Informed Delivery conversions.

THE PROMOTION WILL OFFER A TWO PERCENT DISCOUNT OFF POSTAGE FOR MAILINGS THAT INCORPORATE INFORMED DELIVERY FROM NOVEMBER 30, 2019.

WATCH FOR MORE DETAILS IN THE COMING MONTHS.

Test to increase response – Test your offers and call to action statements. Test to make sure you are using the correct verbiage and the artwork is attracting the customer to click through. Just because one option didn’t yield great results doesn’t mean another offer won’t.

In the coming months, the USPS will be promoting this service and focusing on user acquisition through direct mail, online ads, and grassroot efforts. Televised advertisements will not be far behind.

The Postal Service plans to increase participation to 20 million people in the next 18 months. Once this catches on a little more, the response rate and click-through numbers will continue to increase. Studies show that direct mail campaigns have up to a 30% lift in responses when email is used. When the email is being sent free of charge through Informed Delivery, it sounds even more appealing — a definite win for mailers.  Dan Browne is Product Manager, SourceLink. He can be reached at dbrowne@sourcelink.com.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

21

MOVING THE MAIL CENTER FORWARD If you want your mail center to thrive, it’s crucial to dig deeper and understand the reasoning behind your operation’s actions.

By Chris Kula

Y

ou’ve heard that experience is the best teacher, but learning by doing can lead to a mail center that works adequately but is rife with inefficiencies and outdated processes, delivering a bad recipient experience.

The solution, liberal arts professors will be happy to hear, is critical thinking. Beyond asking “what works?”, it is incumbent upon a good manager to ask questions to dig deeper.

THE QUESTIONS BENEATH THE QUESTION To get past “what just works,” you have to start asking the questions beneath that question. Think of it as a more sophisticated — and actually quite useful — variation on some young children’s tendency to ask “Why?” once, then keep asking it about every subsequent answer.

Some examples you can use to interrogate your processes and drive a better, 22

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

more efficient, and more effective mail center include: } How could this work better? } Why does it work, and will it continue to work just as well as our operations evolve into the future? } How will this task or process be done in one year? Two? Five? } What problems have my workers encountered with these processes? } What problems have my customers, recipients, or senders encountered with my work? Where in my processes do these issues occur, and how can I address them? } What services do my customers and recipients expect from me and my organization?

These are not the only questions you should be asking. But these examples do reflect a curious and critical mindset that can help today’s managers understand and anticipate the challenges their mail centers face — or could face down the line.

A BRIEF EXAMPLE If this sounds like a lot of sitting around and thinking when you could be working, that’s understandable. But let’s look at a common example that drives home the value of this approach: Business Reply Mail (BRM). For many mail center managers, the BRM question is binary: You either use it, or you don’t. But did you know there are four levels of BRM, each with its own parameters and pricing? If you didn’t, you might be missing out on improved efficiencies and better margins. } Basic BRM – This is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the perfect option for mailing operations with lower BRM volumes, although once you get up to more than 930 returned BRM pieces annually, high-volume BRM becomes a more cost-effective choice. } High-Volume BRM – In many industries, higher volumes open up opportunities

Source: United States Postal Service Price List.

ume option. If your mail center handles more than 614 QBRM-qualified letters and/or 591 QBRM-qualified cards per year, under current pricing models, high-volume QBRM is the cost-conscious way to go. In fact, high-volume QBRM remains the go-to cost-effective option until it achieves rough parity with regular high-volume BRM, at 42,727 pieces or more quarterly, or 170,909 pieces annually. for bulk savings. The same is true in BRM. While the pricing formula (in the upper right corner) may seem daunting, know that the cost savings really start to add up once you’re above 930 returned BRM pieces per year. For a more complete picture of your mail center’s potential volume-driven cost savings in BRM, consult with an expert who can show you the ins and outs.  Basic Qualified Business Reply Mail (QBRM) – QBRM frontloads the costs for cards and one- and two-ounce letters, significantly cutting the per-piece charge, while forgoing the option for parcels up to four ounces, which is available through regular BRM. If your mail qualifies, this becomes a more cost-effective option than basic BRM at return mail volumes of more than 805 annually.  High-Volume QBRM – QBRM, of course, brings with it its own high-vol-

Do you know which choice is best for your operations? Is that same choice still going to be the right one next month? What about next quarter or next year? By making an audit of your BRM practices part of your monthly budget review, you can uncover opportunities for cost savings and efficiency gains that may have been missed entirely by a manager strictly concerned with “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

ONE MORE THING: DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP Maybe you were already asking all of these questions, or now that you’ve started, you’ve realized you can answer all of them.

If that’s the case, congratulations on your perfectly optimized mail center!

What’s more likely, however, is that there is an opportunity for improvement you’re overlooking. It can serve you well to

remember that your own operations aren’t the only ones you should be curious about.

Look outside of your organization. Explore how others in your position drive efficiencies, such as cutting-edge return mail operations; at consumer expectations, such as mail notifications via email, text message, and other channels; and learn what industry experts see as both the best practices today and the technologies and processes that will help you succeed in the rapidly approaching future.

Don’t be afraid to seek help, whether from peers or third-party consultants, to provide a fresh and knowledgeable perspective. These answers are not always — or even usually — obvious. But exploring the questions, ideally with the help of a knowledgeable partner, can help deepen your understanding of your mail center and prepare it for growth and change.

Are you ready to bring your mail center into its optimized future?  Chris Kula, MBA, CMDSM, CMM, EMCM, MDC, MDP, MPC, is Director, Services Programs - Managed Services Operations at Ricoh USA, Inc. His areas of expertise include mail operations, process improvement, customized project delivery, program management, marketing concepts, integrated marketing initiatives, business development, transportation and logistics, marketing plans, and leadership, mentoring, and in-depth training sessions.

MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

23

THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY: PART TWO Our annual survey takes a look at the industry’s attitudes towards mail, challenges facing the mail center, and much more.

By Amanda Armendariz

Overall, there weren’t any glaring changes in this year’s survey results compared to last year’s. Some things were different, of course (such as our respondents’ primary frustration with the USPS operations). But overall, our respondents still think that the USPS provides a fair service at a decent price, and if the bureaucratic red tape can be eliminated when it comes to issues like the pre-funding requirements, the USPS has a good chance of success, even in this age of declining mail volumes.

That’s not to say there aren’t concerns, of course. Only nine percent of our respondents are “very confident” that the USPS is taking the correct steps to increase revenue or, at least, decrease their losses in this increasingly digital age; the remainder are only somewhat or not at all confident — not exactly an encouraging sign, until you take into account the fact that those who did report a high level of confidence increased by two percent compared to last year.

USPS Performance Much like last year, the vast majority of our respondents rated the USPS performance as either “good” or “excellent.” However, fewer people chose “excellent” this year compared to last, so there may be a few more concerns with the Postal Service than there were in 2017. Overall, however, people are satisfied with this organization.

4.35%

Another worrisome statistics is that not even one-third of our respondents report taking part in the USPS postagesaving promotions when they are offered (which they were not this year, of course, due to the fact that we did not have a functioning Board of Governors). These promotions are great ways to reduce postage costs while taking advantage of the proven effectiveness of physical mail and keeping the mail stream flowing, so hopefully these numbers are much higher next year.

On the bright side, the majority of our respondents reported that the higher-ups in their organizations recognize the value that the mail center personnel and mail itself provide to their strategy and mission. Let’s hope that the proven results of mail continue to be demonstrated in 2019, and that the legislative issues hindering the USPS’s effectiveness are resolved.

It’s interesting to note that “inconsistency” became our readers’ number-one problem with the USPS this year. Last year, this option only got approximately nine percent of the vote, so it almost tripled this year. Last year’s top issue — the confusing and burdensome nature of USPS regulations — went down to the number-two spot.

Address corrections Communication/information Delivery accuracy

0.0%

Flexibility

0.0%

Hours of operation

8.70% Excellent Good Fair Poor

67.39%

24

Inconsistency

19.57%

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

0.0% 10.87%

2.17% 23.91%

Mail acceptance

6.52%

Pickups/drop-offs

4.35%

Postal personnel

2.17%

Rates/pricing

2.17%

Regulations confusing or burdensome

17.39%

Reliability

4.35%

Returned mail

4.35%

Supplies availability

4.35%

Timely delivery

8.70%

Tracking

4.35%

None

4.35%

I would like [the USPS] to be able to operate like any other business while still being part of the government. The PRC is not an effective way to make changes.

USPS Legislative and Economic Woes The USPS posted a loss of $1.5 billion for the third quarter of FY 2018, largely due to the requirement to pre-fund retiree health benefits, but also due to a decline in overall mail volume (1.2% compared to this time last year). The majority of our respondents are somewhat confident that the USPS is taking the right steps to increase revenue (or at least offset their losses) in this age of declining mail volumes, followed closely by a large segment who are not at all confident. Only nine percent of respondents reported being very confident the Postal Service is taking the necessary steps to correct this issue.

USPS Innovative Offerings There has been a lot of hype regarding the Informed Delivery (ID) initiative ever since its inception, but it’s interesting to note that of our respondents, over half do not currently take part in this initiative. And a full 37% of respondents have no plan to do so, either.

Not even five percent of our respondents report taking part in this initiative and seeing great results.

4.35% 15.22% 17.39%

36.96%

26.09%

We participate in ID, and we’ve seen great results!

We participate in ID, but I don’t know that we’ve seen any concrete results from it.

Very confident

We do not yet participate in ID, but we plan to.

Somewhat confident

We don’t take part in ID, and we have no plans to.

Not at all

Other

USPS has great savings opportunities for companies, but it is very difficult to easily access these opportunities.

Unfortunately, the USPS’ right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. We end up going with other [lower savings] options due to the frustrations of USPS. Along those same lines, the majority of our respondents think that the USPS is making the correct moves in changing how it does business to respond to the increase in electronic communications and the economy.

When it comes to Informed Visibility (IV), the results are somewhat similar. The majority of respondents have not utilized this offering at all, and 45% have no plans to start.

0%

20.45%

9.09%

45.45% 25%

Yes, and we saw a significant increase in customer engagement/response rates.

We have, but the results are not yet clear.

52.17%

41.30%

YES

NO

6.52% OTHER

No, but we plan to start.

No; we have no plans to time other modes of communication with the arrival of our hard copy mail pieces.

Other MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

25

Going down to Saturday delivery hasn’t been discussed as much in recent years as a viable cost-saving effort, but it’s interesting to note that when we posed this question to our readers, the results were pretty evenly split.

33.33%

35.56%

YES

31.11%

UNDECIDED

NO

Yes, going down to five-day delivery would help the USPS get on better financial footing.

Undecided.

No, the savings would not be significant enough to consider this.

For much of 2018, the mailing industry lamented the fact that the Postal Service was without an active Board of Governors, which meant that the USPS was unable to offer cost-saving promotions like it has in years past.

However, it’s interesting to note that this lack of promotions didn’t appear to affect our respondents as much as I would have anticipated; almost 70% take no part in these promotions at all, even when they are offered.

4.35%

It affected us greatly; we depend on those promotions to help us save money on postage.

26.09%

It affected us, but not much; we have taken advantage of the promotions in the past, but not to the extent that it saves us a significant amount on postage.

69.57%

It didn’t affect us at all; we don’t participate in the USPS promotions.

Back in April, President Trump commissioned a task force to examine the role of the Postal Service in today’s society with the intent of helping the USPS become more financially stable. While the report is now complete, the results have not yet been released to the public. When (or if) they are, our respondents are evenly split as to whether or not the results will have any concrete impact on postal reform.

50% YES

50% NO

A Look at Mail in General Even though mail volumes are down, the majority of our respondents said that they have seen actionable results from using direct mail, and they are firm believers in the strength of this communication method.

47.73% 36.36%

Yes, direct mail is one of the best ways to engage with our customers, and we get great results from it.

4.55%

No, I think mail is going to go by the wayside; we get better results from our digital efforts.

11.36%

Other

They shouldn’t be touting Informed Visibility when 5-digit mail sent to nearly 8,000 ZIP Codes is still untrackable due to limitations in the USPS network.

When it comes to managing a mail facility, issues with managing/ motivating personnel were listed as the number-one issue our respondents53.70% have had trouble with.

Compliance with postal regulations

7.32%

Customer relations

4.88%

Facility is inadequate

4.88%

Inadequate equipment/Equipment maintenance

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

0.0%

Personnel issues (motivation, attendance, hiring, etc.) 19.51% Productivity or efficiency

2.44%

Relationship with USPS employees

2.44%

Safety and security

0.0%

Scheduling

2.44%

Time management

4.88%

Timely delivery of mail

7.32%

Training staff

4.88%

Turnover

2.44%

Understanding by upper management

2.44%

Volume spikes/Changes

9.76%

Workload

2.44%

Other 26

I’m undecided; I think mail is important, but yet we don’t get the results we used to.

12.20%

When it comes to electronic communications, the vast majority embrace this method, even if they have not had any input personally in implementing this style of messaging. It’s good to see that no one is against digital communication methods because they fear for their job. Hopefully, the industry will continue to see that digital and hard copy communications can work together to create a flawless customer experience.

When it comes to purchases, almost half say that the economy has had no effect on their purchasing behaviors.

For those folks who were affected by the economy when it comes to purchases for their mail center, the second quarter of 2019 looks to be the time the majority is planning on being able to buy again.

0%

5.26%

9.52%

13.16% 35.71%

42.11% 23.68% 54.76% 5.56%

15.79%

I embrace e-communications and have taken responsibility at my company to assist in or manage them.

I embrace e-communications but have not done anything at my company to assist in or manage them.

I am against e-communications because I am fearful there will not be a job for me in the future.

I am against e-communications because I personally like information in hard copy format.

No effect Freeze on purchasing all or most products Freeze on purchasing some products Allowed purchases to decrease operating costs Other

DISCOVER SUPERIOR MAILING SOLUTIONS! PROVEN MAIL TECHNOLOGY 3.92% SOLUTIONS FOR 35 YEARS

• Presort Mail Processing • Return Mail Processing • Letters/Flats/Polywrap

• Inbound Mail Sort • Digital Email Delivery • Vote By Mail

www.tritektech.com | 302-239-1638 MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

27

By Adam Lewenberg

THE #1 WAY TO SAVE MONEY ON POSTAGE

Presort services are a valuable resource for many mailers; here’s a breakdown of the cost savings you can expect from a partnership with one.

A

s we head into the new year, many mailers may be wondering how they can quickly and easily save money on postage costs in 2019. While there are many factors, we narrowed it down to a few best practices that you can implement. One of the most successful ways to cut postage costs is by entering into a partnership with a presort service. These companies will pick up your mail daily, weekly, or as needed, and commingle it with other clients’ mail pieces on their sorting systems to get you lower postage rates. These providers will make sure your mail meets all postal regulations, and there is no work involved on your end except scheduling the pickups. These services can save you between three and 54% based on your volumes, densities, weights, and types of mail submitted.

In this article, we will go through the details of how these services work and what items you need to consider to make sure it is the right fit for your company. As I always feel the need to state, I have no

affiliation with any presort service, but in the past, I did run the largest presort program that had over 4,000 users.

HOW DO THESE SERVICES WORK? These providers have one or more sorters that are similar to what the USPS uses in their facilities. These sorters read the address on the mail piece and spray the barcode on the bottom right. They can then sort the mail into bins based on where it is going throughout the country. Presort providers work on a revenue split arrangement with the customer and the USPS. Here is the most common:  First-Class Mail single piece postage rate $.47  Rate the customer meters the mail $.458 ($.012 savings) The presort service sorts the mail as deep as they can into the system. Hopefully, most pieces will be to the highest sort levels the USPS offers (automated area distribution center, or AADC, and five-digit)

These services have become especially important as the USPS allows all presorted mail up to 3.5 ounces to go at the oneounce rate. This means the three-ounce invoice you were paying $.89 to mail could be as low as $.408 with a presort service!

at rates of $.378-.408. The USPS then pays them the difference in a value-added rebate (VAR). This payment by the USPS covers the presort providers’ transportation, operations, and profit.

Higher volume mailers can typically get a larger percentage of the savings as shown on the chart in Figure 1. Items that determine your rate are mail volumes, frequency of mailings, where they are going, machine read rates for your mail (typically determined from a test), and how competitive your local market is with other presort providers.

WHAT MAIL QUALIFIES? First-Class Mail Letters – Most presort services are looking for non-handwritten letter mail up to the maximum weight of 3.5 ounces. There are services that will pick up as little as 400 pieces per day or single pickups of 1,000 pieces or more. Last year, the USPS came out with a program called “Second Ounce Rides Free” to get people to add more content to their mail. This savings only applies at the discounted rates listed on the chart in Figure 1 and creates extra incentive to use a presort service.

First-Class Mail Flats – Many presort services will have flat sorting machines and can process non-handwritten pieces as large as seven to 12 ounces. The client savings and presort service profit is much greater for flats, and they typically can have lower thresholds for pickup. It is best to combine your letter and flat volumes when negotiating rates and determining eligibility.

It is important to note that the USPS does not offer a VAR for flats like they do for letters. This means that you will need to meter your mail at the lower rates (three- and fivedigit), and the presort service will send you an invoice for the difference of your negotiated rate minus the metered price.

Marketing Mail – This is the fastest growing area in this space because Marketing Mail volumes are remaining constant while First-Class Mail is declining. The model is different because the rate is not based on the sort levels, but on destination entry

discounts earned by moving mail closer to its final destination. Most Marketing Mail given to presort services will already be barcoded and trayed by the client. All the presort service is doing is getting it to the right Destination Network Distribution Center (DNDC) or Destination Sectional Center Facility where the mail is going. In exchange, the USPS offers additional discounts (shown in Figure 2) that presort service will share in for doing the work.

HOW DO YOU SELECT THE RIGHT SERVICE PROVIDER? In many markets, you may not have a choice because there is only one presort provider covering your area. In these situations, you still want to look at their reputation in the marketplace and potentially take a tour of their facility to make sure your mail is going to be handled in a secure manner. If you are lucky enough to have a choice of vendors, here are the items you want to consider: Rate/Savings – What savings level are they offering, and do they charge fees for any of the following?  Transportation  Items that cannot be read on their machines  Address corrections and running mail through FASTForward  Other miscellaneous charges MPTQM Certifications – The best run presort services will have this level of certification that shows they meet the highest standards in processing and security.  Security Procedures – Since they will be handling your mail, you need to make sure it is processed in a secure environment. As an example, this mail may Figure 2

Potential Presort Rates (Based on volume, densities, weights, and mail types)

Figure 1 MailingSystemsTechnology.com | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018

29

have financial and medical information that could be harmful if exposed.  What types of mail can they process?

Letters, flats, standard, international?  What other services do they provide?

Metering, fulfillment, etc.

I do not have the exact numbers, but I am going to guess that there are about 100-200 independent presort services throughout the US. Most of these will have one to three sites located in a specific geographic area. Pitney Bowes also created the largest presort network in the US with its acquisition of PSI. They have over 30 facilities and process over 15 billion pieces each year. Because of their footprint, they can move mail between facilities easily, which speeds delivery, as well as pick up mail in areas where they do not have a site, furthering their reach.

WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW? There are specific items you need to understand before committing to a service, such as: Pickup Time – What time can they pick up your mail? Most companies want to sched-

ule for 4:00 or 5:00 pm because that is when the mail is complete. Can they accommodate this schedule, or will it need to be earlier based on when their truck is in your area?

Day Delay – Most presort services will require that you date the mail for the next day because they are going to process it that evening and deposit it into the mail in the morning. Mail moving out of the area can make up some of this time based on it being barcoded and sorted, but this does delay local mail.

Billing Charges – As we discussed above, know exactly what you are paying for. I have seen presort invoices where, once the fees were added back in, the customers were paying more than single piece rates. Low- to mid-volume customers may do best with a no-bill program on their letter mail.

Address Quality Issues – Can the presort provider give you any data on mail that gets changed through their FASTForward system so you can clean up your addresses for the future?

Consider Barcoding Yourself – If you do consistent mailings, you may want to barcode these in-house and not have to

Publisher’s Note: The U.S. Postal Service requires the following statement be published for Mailing Systems Technology (Periodicals Class) mailings only. Mailing Systems Technology has had a (Periodicals Class) permit since January 1989.

U.S. Postal Service STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685 1. Publication Title ................................................................Mailing Systems Technology 2. Publication No. .................................................................1088-2677 3. Filing Date ........................................................................September 13, 2018 4. Issue Frequency .................................................................Jan-Feb, Buyers Resource, Mar-Apr, May-June, Sept-Oct, Nov-Dec 5. No. Of Issues Published Annually .....................................6 6. Annual Subscription Price (if any) .....................................Free 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication (Street, City, County, State and ZIP + 4)(Not Printer) PO Box 259098, Madison, Dane County, WI 53725-9098 Contact Person ............................................................ Rachel Chapman, (608)241-8777 8. Complete Mailing Address of the Headquarters of General Business Offices of the Publisher (Not Printer) ....... PO Box 259098, Madison, Dane County, WI 53725-9098 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Address of Publisher, Editor and Managing Editor (Do not leave blank) Publisher (Name and Complete Mailing Address) .............Ken Waddell, RB Publishing Inc., PO Box 259098, Madison, Dane County, WI 53725-9098 Editor (Name and Complete Mailing Address) ..................Amanda Armendariz, RB Publishing Inc., PO Box 259098, Madison, Dane County, WI 53725-9098 Managing Editor (Name and Complete Mailing Address).......... Amanda Armendariz, RB Publishing Inc., PO Box 259098, Madison, Dane County, WI 53725-9098 10. Owner (If the publication is owned by a corporation, give the name and address of the corporation immediately followed by the names and addresses of all stockholders owning or holding 1 percent or more of the total amount of stock. If not owned by a corporation, give the names and addresses of the individual owners. If owned by a partnership, or other unincorporated firm, give its name and address as well as those of each individual owner. If the publication is published by a nonprofit organization, give its name and address). (Do Not Leave Blank).

Full Name .............................................................. Complete Mailing Address Marll Thiede ........................................................... RB Publishing Inc., 2901 International Lane, Ste. 100, Madison WI 53704-3128 Gregory Rice .......................................................... Executive Management, Inc. 2901 International Lane, 2nd Floor Madison WI 53704-3128 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgages and other Security Holders Owning or Holding one Percent or more of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or Other Securities............... None 12. (Must be completed if the publication title shown in item 1 is a publication published and owned by a non-profit organization). For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at special rates. The purpose, function and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has not changed during preceding 12 months.

13. Publication........................................................................................Mailing Systems Technology

30

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com

share the savings. Look at the cost of staff, software, hardware, and transportation to make the right decision.

Outside Expertise – Third-party consultants may be able to help you get better rates because they can bring their industry expertise in to help negotiate your new agreements. Not only can they help you analyze the items above, but they can develop a strategy to give you greater leverage with new contracts. They can then organize a bid with a defined scope that makes the spends and fees more visible and puts you in more control to make the best future financial agreement.  Adam Lewenberg, CMDSS, MDC, President of Postal Advocate Inc., runs the largest mail audit and recovery firm in the United States and Canada.

They manage the biggest mail equipment fleet in the world, and their mission is to help organizations with multiple locations reduce mail-related expenses, recover lost postage funds, and simplify visibility and oversight. Since 2013, they have helped their clients save an average of 60% and over $43 million on equipment, avoidable fees, and lost postage. He can be reached at 617.372.6853 or adam.lewenberg@postaladvocate.com.

14. Issue Date for Circulation Data ............................................ May-June 2018 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation ......................................... B2B - Controlled a. Total No. Copies (Net Press Run).........................24,660 .......................... 26,660 b. Legitimate Paid and/or Requested Distribution (By Mail and Outside the Mail)

1. Paid Requested Outside-County Mail Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541.

(Include advertiser’s proof and exchange copies) .....22,682 ........................... 23,344 2. Paid Requested In-County Mail Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541. ..................... 0 .....................................0 3. Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales and Other Non-USPS Paid Distribution .............. 0 .....................................0 4. Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS ............. 0 .....................................0 c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation [Sum of 15b (1,2,3 and 4)] ..................................22,682 ........................... 23,344 d. Nonrequested Distribution (By Mail and Outside the Mail) 1. Outside-County as Stated on Form 3541 ........... 618 .................................623 2. In-County as Stated on Form 3541 ...................... 0 .....................................0 3. Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS ............ 33 ...................................33 4. Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail ............................. 663 ............................... 2,105 e. Total Nonrequested Distribution ..........................1,314 ............................. 2,761 f. Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and 15e) .............23,996 ........................... 26,105 g. Copies not Distributed (See instructions to Publishers #4 (page #3) ........................................................................... 604 .................................555 h. Total (Sum of 15f and g) ......................................24,600 ........................... 26,660 i. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (15c/fx100) .......................................................... 94.5%............................ 89.4% 16. Electronic Copy Circulation ..............................................................................Yes a. Requested and Paid Electronic Copies ..................... 4,860 .......................... 4,837 b.Total Requested and paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) .... .................... 27,542 ................................ 28,181 c.Total Requested Copy Distribution (Line 15f) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) ......................... 28,856 ................................ 30,942 d.Percent paid and/or Requested Circulation (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c x 100) ..........................................95.4% ........................ 91.1% 17. Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requester Publication is required and will be printed in the November-December 2018 issue of this publication.

18. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager or Owner: Rachel Chapman, Audience Development Manager, / September 13, 2018 I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).

PS Form 3526-R, July 2014