The July PCC Newsletter is out.
Click on the image to open it -->
Michael Hemphill from CSG Direct was last months guest speaker. He taught the local market about the USPS Business Gateway.
The Northern Nevada PCC is one of over 200 PCC chapters across the country. The PCC’s mission is to provide a professional environment where both the USPS and local business mailers can interact and learn from each other. Our Lunch & Learn events provide information on current topics and the opportunity to network directly with colleagues and USPS representatives.
Direct Mail for iPhone v1.2 Released
After the launch of CSG Direct Mail for iPhone in April we received a lot of feedback about the features you crave most. So we went back to the data lab and built them!! Pivoting around our US Mail Tracking datasets some really robust features were born.
With the release of Version 1.2 we have added CUSTOMER LOOKUP.
This is a very unique feature where you can look up your own customers based on your own inhouse account numbers or player id's.
Once you have found the client you are looking for you can see instantly which mailings you have sent him in the last 90 days.
Then select one of those mailings and you will see the actual piece tracking from our tracking system.
We display the dates times and locations of every time the US Postal Service processed your mailpiece anywhere in the country.
This is direct live feedback about the path that individual mailpiece took to get to your client with dates and times from each stop along the way.
I have never been so excited about ANY postal related service I have ever seen created in 20 years.
This is the evolution of mail.
Look Smart, be in control and have all your direct mail information at your fingertips. You are now prepared for those crazy questions you know you are going to be asked.
How many times have you been in a meeting and someone told you that somebody didn't receive their mailpiece? Plenty!
Now you can look them up without getting up.
This tool answers all those common daily questions you have never had answers to before.
Find CSG DIRECT MAIL in the iPhone app store and we have Android and Palm mobile versions as well. Best of all, it's free to our customers.
Consider switching to CSG Direct today, The Greatest Value in Direct Mail
Direct Mail Printing: Our 5th Digital Printing Press is here, installed and running.
Here is our new Kodak 2500 VP. (Variable Printing)
We are a large direct mail printing company and one of Nevadas largest direct marketing companies.
It's very interesting to have Canon, Xerox and now Kodak presses running side by side. Each digital press has it's strengths and weaknesses. We bought the Kodak because it can print in 5 colors and the others cannot. Not that anyone is asking for the 5th color but we like to add unique services that other people cannot offer.
"Dimensional Printing" is the process of printing the 5th color without blending it in with the other colors. With Dimensional printing the 5th color is CLEAR. The idea is to lay down very precise spot coloring of clear to make for a raised feel. The raised feel is the dimensional (as in 3D) feel. It is pretty cool.
The growth of our digital printing department has been nothing short of historical. I think we owe it all to printers that decided to get into mail (because they thought it was easy) and then lost customers due to screwing up major projects.
With so much print being direct mail oriented our customers find great comfort in have us (being in direct mail since birth) handling the print too. In the age of print being commoditized, this makes a lot of sense.
Anyway, you really should get a print quote from us, digital is the bomb on price, efficiency and speed; and we have 5 presses. The direct line is 800-881-2150 x12 or you can get a direct mail or print quote online.
Postal Service Proposes New Postage Rates for 2011
Current Postage Rates Link
(Repeated from usps here)
WASHINGTON — A new Forever Stamp image will be available as part of a pricing package that would add less than 13 cents a month to the average American household’s budget.
The U.S. Postal Service Governors recommended increasing the price of a First-Class stamp 2 cents to 46 cents and authorized the production of a pane of four evergreen tree branches as the newest image for Forever Stamps. The price of a postcard would increase 2 cents to 30 cents.
The Postal Regulatory Commission must approve the recommended price changes. The increases would not go into effect until January 2, 2011. It would be the first stamp price increase in almost two years.
Holiday Evergreen Forever Stamps will be available to the public in October at the current rate of 44 cents. Once purchased, the stamps are valid literally forever – despite any future price changes. No additional postage will ever be needed.
Faced with plummeting mail volume traced to the recession and increased use of the Internet, the Postal Service is projecting a deficit of nearly $7 billion for the next fiscal year. Despite eliminating millions of work hours and reducing expenses by more than $1 billion every year since 2001, a budget gap remains.
The proposed price changes, if approved, will raise about $2.3 billion for the first nine months of 2011. Postmaster General John E. Potter said he does not want customers to bear the burden of dramatic price increases. Instead, Potter announced in March that pricing would be one in a series of solutions the Postal Service is pursuing to become financially sound.
“There is no one single solution to the dire financial situation that the Postal Service faces,” Potter said. “These proposed rate adjustments are moderate and part of a fair and balanced approach to insuring mail service for all Americans well into the future.”
Other actions outlined in March included changes to delivery frequency, restructuring prepayments of retiree health benefits, creating a more flexible workforce and expanding access to products and services to places more convenient to customers.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
Complete details of today’s filing can be found on
usps.com . No prices will change before 2011
Growing up I remember waiting with anticipation for birthday cards and other sentiments to arrive in my mailbox from family and friends across the country. It was and to this day remains a great feeling to know that someone cared enough to send me a personal note via the United States Postal Service. Nowadays with email being so fast and free some of that personal touch is gone and it really is a shame. Given the speed of email versus the slower delivery times of USPS mail, sending a letter or card via the USPS has now commonly been referred to as sending “Snail” mail (slow to deliver). Well for some of us it still has a special meaning so I prepared this short list of 10 reasons to still use snail mail:
1. It’s exciting to receive a personal letter or note. Whether it’s a love note passed in class under your desk or a carefully written letter from a loved one, reading a personal letter or note has always been exciting and feels special in direct proportion to the effort the sender went through to get it to you.
2. You can add confetti or creative designs to your letter or card. This again points out the time and effort that can be relayed by snail mail much more easily. For birthdays and other special events I like to fill the envelope with stars or confetti so if you get a letter from me be prepared for a surprise inside!
3. There’s more privacy to snail mail. Unlike with email it is much less likely that a letter or communication sent via postal mail will get intercepted and read by another party. It’s possible but unlikely and the recipient can generally tell of the letter has been opened.
4. Emails can get lost in junk mail filters. While it’s possible that a letter sent via snail mail can get lost in shipping it happens far less than emails getting lost in the abyss that is the modern day junk mail filter.
5. Emails are prone to quicker judgments and rash decisions. It’s so easy to send an email that we can write something in haste and send it before we actually take enough time to think it through. That is generally not the case with postal mail unless you work in a post office and have direct access.
6. You can send more variety of items via snail mail. Sort of like my confetti trick above you can also add pictures or other personal touches to a snail mail all the way up to complete packages, boxes, etc. So far we haven’t found a way to transport something like that through our computers.
7. People tend to elaborate more with snail mail. In general, people drop the abbreviations when they are handwriting a letter so instead of (LOL, ROFL, OMG, etc.) people tend to actually write out their words and thoughts. If nothing else, sometimes it’s just good to know that you can still do that.
8. There’s no virus attached. Generally speaking there are no viruses attached to a snail mail that you can catch on accident by previewing the snail mail before opening it. I’m not saying that someone couldn’t send a virus via snail mail it’s just far, far less likely.
9. It’s too easy to forward your email content to thousands of people worldwide (on accident). With a few clicks of the button, you can send it to everyone on your list, which is dangerous if the content is important. Unfortunately there is no undo button for sending email in most cases so you are stuck with the consequences of your actions.
10. The check is in the mail… yes it still works. One of the most important reasons to use snail mail is for cash management purposes if you need to pay a bill but have a couple of days until you are going to get paid or have the money, then snail mail is much more effective for you that online bill payment. You can simply call the provider/vendor and let them know “the check is in the mail”.
So these aren’t the only reasons but they are some good one’s. An honorable mention that didn’t make the list is the excuse that you can always use for a greeting being late (birthday card, graduation card, etc.). You can say you had trouble getting to the post office or that your letter was lost in the mail, but be careful with that one though as most people are smart enough to look at the postmark date.
shared by our friends at changeofaddress.org
Hi Michael,
We would love to share with you an article that we just posted on our own blog! “Top 10 Reasons to Use Snail Mail” (http://www.changeofaddress.org/blog/2010/top-10-reasons-to-use-snail-mail/) would be an interesting story for your readers to check out and discuss on your blog, so we hope you will consider sharing it!
Thanks so much for your time, and have a wonderful day!
Sheryl Owen
CSG Direct Mail continues to evolve direct mail into the service it was always meant to be. At CSG, Direct Mail is responsive, accountable, trackable and now it is also completely mobile. CSG Direct Mail is now available in the iTunes App Store.
We put all our CSG Direct Mail Tracking tools on the iPhone. CSG Direct Mail for iPhone was released into the iTunes App Store May 7th 2010. You can now track every aspect of your direct mail projects with DIRECT MAIL by CSG Direct, Inc.
Track Your Projects:
The #1 question in the direct mail industry is "Did my mailing going out", so in 1999 CSG Direct built the very 1st direct mail project portal. Our portal has been modernized many times and new services continue to be added. Now available on your iPhone and iPad.
In our direct mail portal you have always had LIVE tracking of every project from start to finish. Then as each project is delivered to the post office you get an automated notice to let you know. You always know when it is expected to mail and what steps are left, Folding, Inserting, Addressing and more. Every Step is tracked. You get Live Access to all this information.
Track Your Individual Direct Mail Pieces:
That's right! Direct Mail has Evolved at CSG Direct, Inc.
After we complete your direct mailing and take your mailing to the US Postal Service, you can track the movement of your mail pieces en route to their individual destinations.
In 2008 and 2009 we invented a whole series of tools, widgets, maps and reports around the new 
IMB barcodes and the USPS Confirm services in order to let our customers track individual mail pieces. This innovation was long overdue.
This was our DIRECT MAIL DREAM and we made it a reality!
These newest innovations are built on our proprietary Direct Mail Tracking Systems. Now available for iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Now you can easily tell when pieces are arriving in-homes and have all your direct mail project information with you when you need it most.
Check on your projects in your marketing meetings when you are called on. No need to look things up after the meeting and look unprepared while in the meetings. Show people you run the direct mail and you have your fingers on the pulse at all times with CSG Direct Mail for your Smartphone.
With our US Mail Tracking innovations we have millions of records and we have lots of unique ways we plan to give you this data. I have goosebumps on what is still coming. Get CSG Direct Mail for your iPhone so you don't miss out on our next planned updates too.
We continue to redefine the Direct Mailing industry!
We are The Greatest Value in Direct Mail
(More Smartphones coming soon)
PCC of Northern Nevada Lunch and Learn Series
Guest Speaker: Michael Hemphill of CSG Direct, Inc
The US Postal Service continues to 
modernize and automate steps to keep postage low and better serve its clients. Come learn about the new Business Customer Gateway from the US Postal Service.
The Business Customer Gateway gives you a single, unified landing point to access the Postal Services' online business offerings. These channels consist of the products that support intelligent Mail Full Service Mailing. This includes PostalOne!, FAST (Facility Access and Shipment Tracking), CLDS (Customer Label Distribution System) and Mailer IDs (MID).
Here is the USPS Business Customer Gateway Powerpoint (trimmed)
Speaker: Michael Hemphill of CSG Direct, Inc
Topic: Business Customer Gateway
Location: Atlantis Casino, 3800 S Virginia St, Grand Ballroom 5
Date: Thursday May 20, 2010
Time: Registration at 11:30 am, Lunch served at 12:00
Cost: $20
Reserve your seat by contacting Cindy Cornelison at 775-788-0690.
Call early to request a vegetarian meal.
Here is a scanned copy of the postcard invite from the PCC:
Strategy #5) Tracking and Reporting for Success
Every sale in your company should be recorded where the sale came from. EVERY SALE!! If you miss this trick you will throw 3/4 of your annual direct mail marketing dollars in the trash.
I know it feels like you drive your own fate and 'shoot from the hip' with your 'gut instincts' but don't be so vain that you don't track the number of sales and value of each from every thing you sell.
This applies to direct mail as well. Every redeemed piece should be recorded in your CRM tools. CRM tools you say? If you don't know what they are or don't have them in place you and your job are at serious risk. It's the year 2010 - get serious.
The strongest businesses around got there by using math, reports and tracking sales. So how are you going to come anywhere near them if you don't know where your wisest marketing dollar was last year.
Here are some things you should be tracking.
What brought the customer in? Did they see your sign or did a friend tell the to check you out? Did they see your ad n the paper or were they just at the store next door and liked your window display. Whatever it is you want to focus some effort there.
How much did they spend? If the people than randomly walk by your store spend an average of $20 per visit, but the people that drive to your store directly spend $100; you'll want to spend more time on your direct mail and print ads since they earn you more money.
Who are your multi-trip customers? If you have customers that return to your business time and time again would you know who they were? Identify loyalty and reward it! Then give them an offer for them to bring a friend. Birds of a feather do what?
Who are your top spenders? If they like your products why do you wait for them to randomly come in? Personally invite them for something they would like. It's really simple if you take action.
Your best Direct Mail Marketing strategies start with you understanding your clients and learning how to market to each type of client. If you are not tracking anything how will you ever do that?
Step up; it's not a game you want to lose.
I'm sitting down with a client the other day and we are discussing the direct mail giveaway offer and the size of the mailing list. One of the people at the table says, "We'll if we're mailing 10,000 people we need to reduce the size of the offer, we cannot afford to give that much away". This is a typical answer from a newbie.
Strategy #4) Don't be stingy with your offer
The entire idea is to make sure you offer everything you can to each individual where you maximize profit and results. This is what personalization is all about. If one guest is worth offering $20 to get them in and another person is worth offering $100 to, you can do that easily with variable data printing. If you only offer $20 to both people you usually eliminate the response from the $100 guest and your company is full of $20 guests.
As far as "Everyone showing up" You have to ask yourself how many people are really even paying attention to your offers. Direct mail is a numbers game and the more you water down your offers the fewer the number of people that really even care.
Let's say for example I was giving away a free car and I mailed 1000 people to give them away. I would only likely have to give away 50-60% of those at most. First off there are a huge percentage of people in your database that don't read direct mail at all. The there would be skeptics, then people that forget to respond, etc. So you might get a 50-60% response with a free new car.
So when you take your $50 offer and decide to lower it to $15 you are likely taking your 3% and cutting it down to 1% or less. You are also drawing in a much cheaper crowd. If $15 is important to someone they are not likely wealthy enough to be a good customer buying all your goods and services, are they?
Make sure you use your customer historical sales to manage to offer everybody the most you can, based on what they average to spend. Then you get sales from all levels of your customers and not just the cheaper ones. Don't guide your business smaller and smaller by catering to your cheapest of customers by getting cheap on your offers.
But then again don't offer the best you have to your cheapest customers either. I hope you are tracking your customer sales and building offers based on their value. I truly hope you are!
We just received final written confirmation from the US Postal Service that any mailing that has not had addresses move-updated will be charged a $0.07 per piece more.
Scan of letter here
The Deadline is January 4th, 2010.
Move Updating is the process of comparing your database to all the change-of-address forms on file with the US Postal Service. This is done electronically by CSG Direct during the mailing process. However, we are not able to process it for you if you have not submitted the required PAF form to us.
We help our customers earn discounts all the way from .44 each down to .067 per piece. All Direct Mailers are now required to Move-Update their mailing list within 95 days of mailing to get these discounts. We can help you with that process!
We've been an National Change of Address vendor for over 5 years now. These requirements have been coming for a long time now and they are finally upon us.
From the text of the letter: "On January 4th, 2010, we will treat both First-Class and Standard Mail to the same assessment for non-compliance. Both classes will be assessed a $0.07 per piece additional charge on pieces determined at acceptance to have an error rate above a 30% tolerance level, based on sampling."
More NCOA information
even more NCOA information
