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
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
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:
We'll It looks like we are going to make it out of 2009 alive, 
kicking and screaming. From a mountaintop I want to yell out to the world that we made it. I have been in direct mail since about 1987 so to say that 2009 was the most interesting year for me is not to be taken lightly.
The economic downturn of 2009 was like a sucker punch to the entire business world so we were by no means alone. But after a record growth in 2008 it was a much sharper decline for us since our eyes were completely in investment mode at the time.
I feel Thankful and blessed for the whole experience but I'll get to that shortly.
You see we have a very unique direct mail business that has grown very rapidly due to our very distinct skillsets and driving passion. Not only do we have 6-10 very unique service offerings for our industry but we also just invented some of the first US Mail Tracking Systems in 2008 for Bulk Mail in America.
Between our new systems and our almost legendary variable data print driven database marketing; we have been booming for the last decade. We truly thought we were invincible.
We'll as I said in the opener, I am just happy to have survived this year. We are much more grounded thanks to the 2009.
That is a blessing actually! We have always been humble hardworking servants to our clients and smiled every day that a client gave us a goal or a technical challenge for us to beat and shine for them. We really have been thrown back to our roots this year. This is a very big blessing.
Actually I think that is the most interesting part of our entire business struggle and economic transition in 2009. Like a Laser we were forced to cut every wasted marketing dollar and every non-productive personnel. We were forced to decide what was working for us and our customers and what was pride and endulgence.
We were forced into becoming one of the most productive and cost effective muscle-bound bull dog, strong, tight, lean and fast companies we could ever hope to be. Our marketing has never been so dollar-wise and never has it been this effective either.
For this I am so very truly thankful.
So what's next?
I have to tell you I still have so many ideas and plans for 2010. My first and foremost goal is to show my employees and my customers how much we appreciate them. Not by giving free money and 12 months off; but by showing them I see their hard work and give raises to those that have proven they are truly part of my core team. A Blessing like this is to be shared. (wwjd).
I want to continue to invest in them as they have invested in "us".
Sure, I have equipment I want to buy and people I would like to hire for growth but that is not the most important thing. The most important thing to do is help my customers and employees reach their personal goals and help them get back on their feet. We have stopped the losses that plagued us in 2009. Now, our growth strategy is to invest in our teams and our customers.
If any of you reading this need help with your direct mail project to help get that extra bang or response; just let me know. Do you need someone to help you sponsor an event or an event mailer? Let me know! If you need someone to help you work your special event to keep your costs down... Let me know!
We are all here to help with every ounce of effort we can provide.
YOUR SUCCESS IS OUR SUCCESS and I live to prove that 365 days per year.
I'm writing this under the headline "Direct Mail Statistics" because I do think this represents a slice of statistics for us all in the direct mail field in 2009.