Mail House Rock!

Looks like prices will be staying the same next year.  This is great news for Direct Mailers!

After 28 years in business, I have seen my share of both good and bad times as far as the economy is concerned.  However, economic downturns have never effected me too greatly. 

Why not?

I occasionally run across interesting statistics on direct mail, the following two are from the May/June edition of one of my trade publications, "Mail:"  I'll try and share them here as I find them.

• More than 8 in 10 recipients review their mail daily and most prefer it to electronic media.  (DMNews survey.)
• Consumers reviewing mail for promotional offers increased 64% in the second 1/2 of 2008. (Pitney Bowes Research.)

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

And a happy New Year!  
May we all have a prosperous and wonderful 2009!

Wishing you the best this holiday season:

I received an email notice from the Post Office today.  They are proposing major changes to the tabbing requirements for booklets & self mailers.  The proposed regulation will require that most booklet and self mailer designs be run through our mail equipment 3 times rather than being able to be done in a single pass.  This will greatly increase the cost of processing this type of mail piece.

Federal Register Notice

The post office is changing the requirements for where you can place the address on a flat sized mail piece (Flats are usually larger than 6-18"x11-1/2")  For most of the magazine style pieces that we produce we will now be required to print the address upside down. 

The new location choices are:  Upside down or sideways on the bottom half of the front cover or right side up or sideways on the top half of the back cover.  The changes are a bit more complex than that, but that is the gist of the change.

We have a bit before this goes into effect, this won't be a requirement till March 29th, 2009.

 Federal Register Notices

Nothing final yet, but the Post Office is looking into changing some of the requirements for booklet style mailers.  If you do a large volume of these types of pieces, you may want to look in to this:

Federal Register Notices

• First-Class full rate 1oz mail will be 42¢ 
• No change in the First-Class Mail single-piece additional-ounce price.
• Lower additional-ounce price for presorted First-Class Mail letters.
• Lower pound price for Standard Mail saturation and high-density flats.

 Select prices 

Express Mail, Priority Mail, Parcel Select, and International Mail prices will be announced in March.

The new ratefold is available here:  (PDF)

See usps.com/prices for additional information.

For a few years now First Class presort mailings have been required to meet a move update standard.  In November the USPS is extending the move update requirements to apply to Standard Mail.  They are also shortening the time frame for how recently the list must have been updated for moves from 185 days to 95 days.

The simplest way of meeting this requirement is to do one of the following:

• NCOA^LINK
• Ancillary Endorsements
• Alternative Addressing

NCOA^LINK electronically processes your file for people who have moved and provides updated addresses where available.  Most quality purchased lists have already received this processing.

Ancillary Endorsements such as "Return Service Requested" provide you with move information that you can then use to update your file so that you meet these requirements.

Alternative Addressing such as "or Current Resident" indicates that you do not wish the piece forwarded and excludes you from these requirements.

This will be a major issue for many direct mailers come November.  Please feel free to leave a comment or contact me to discuss your options.

 See Quick Service Guide 230a for more information.

Most articles I have read on security seem to concentrate on the sensational.  A hacker worms his way in from the outside and voila he has all your personal information, your credit card numbers, your social security number, etc.  Or, a virus opens up your system and starts transmitting all your secrets to some unknown location on the Internet. 

More recently I have seen articles that highlight the fact that you are more likely to loose data due to employee dishonesty than to an external attack.  And while that is likely to be the most devastating type of attack, it is still not the one I've seen the most often.

All of the above are important and you should take steps to ensure that your data is safe from them.  But the number one cause that I have seen for loss of data throughout the years is...   "The ye old snatch and grab. "   Some low life common ordinary criminal breaks into your office and steals the box.

The good news is, he is normally not after your data, he is after the box.  And he may not even have the technical skill to get to any of it, especially if it is properly secured.  The bad news is you can't be sure of that.  So all of the legally required steps that must be taken when data is lost have to be done.

So... What do you do about it?  Physical security of a computer is pretty much the same as physical security for a file cabinet or a cash box.  I like to think of it as three simple steps:

Deter - Detect - Harass

Deter:

Decent locks, business watch groups, alarm systems, security patrols, etc. all act as deterrents.  And, don't forget that most vital part of a security patrol or an alarm system is the stickers and notices that say that you have one.  They do 99% of the work,  so make sure you put them up. 

Visible external bells and light systems are also nice.  They let your potential intruder know you aren't going to take their intrusion lying down.

Also try and keep valuable items out of plain sight, and away from windows.  These items are the reverse of a deterrent, they tend to invite the thief to break in.

Detect:

This is primarily the job of your alarm system.  If the intruder goes undetected he can work at his leisure and you will loose far more of your valuables.  It's also vital for the next step.

Harass:

Annoy him.  Slow him down....  Have a nice loud ear splitting buzzer to keep him constantly reminded that the police are on their way.  Put locks on internal doors, lock your file cabinets, etc.

Cable or bolt your computers and external drives to the walls or desks; but do not cable the monitors, printers, scanners or other valuable peripherals.  Those are easy to replace, your data is not.  Give him something easy to grab and he will likely grab that and run.  Most thieves are not after your data, most wouldn't even know what to do with it.  They want something they can sell quickly and easily, they know they only have a few minutes to work.  So give them something easy and get them the heck out of there.

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Well... that's step one.  Have anything you do to Deter, Detect or Harass that I didn't mention?  Leave a comment and let me know.