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.

Every so often I receive a job which has inside of it a reply piece that is either not mailable, or not automatable.  If it's not mailable, that pretty much kills the value of the mail piece!  And, since a reply piece inside of an automation mailer must also be automatable in order for the outside piece to receive automation discounts, it can substantially increase the cost of mailing if it is not.  Therefore, always check the following when including a reply piece in a self mailer:

• Minimum Width 5"
• Minimum Height 3.5"
• Minimum Thickness .009"
• Aspect Ratio (length divided by height) between 1.3 and 2.5.

The first 2 items are minimums for a mail piece.  Below this the piece is not mailable. 

In some cases the thickness can be below .009" but below .007" the piece is also not mailable.  Besides, keep in mind that if the piece is too flimsy it may end up getting damaged beyond recognition in the mail, so it's best to shy away from going too thin.

The aspect ratio and the thickness affect the outgoing postage costs and may cause a substantial up charge on return postage as well.

Note this applies to all types of reply pieces, not just business reply pieces.

We are working on an online tool, similar to our indicia creator that will help you check things like aspect ratio and minimum/maximum sizes.  Hopefully it will debut some time in March.  In the mean time this table may be of some use:

Height	Length Min	Length Max
3-1/2	5	8-3/4
4	5-1/4	10
4-1/2	5-7/8	11-1/4
5	6-1/2	11-1/2
5-1/2	7-1/4	11-1/2
6	7-7/8	11-1/2
6-1/8	8	11-1/2

While I was waiting for the previous post to come back from my proof reader.  I ran across a rather like minded post I thought it might be helpful to share.

Suzanne Obermire at RRW Consulting  posted a nice summary of an article by bmighty.com:  10 Database Security Tips For Smaller Businesses.  The article she references may be a bit steep for the non-technical crowd, but her summary of it is a good read.  You can find it here:  Ten Database Security Tips

Makes a good read while you wait for me to fill in this section with more content.

I generally run across two viewpoints when it comes to security, the totally oblivious to it and the totally freaked out about it.  Frankly neither of these groups have a good grasp on what it takes to maintain a reasonable level of security.

So... should you worry?  Well... I'm not sure that worrying will help, what you should be is well informed.  Then you can take the necessary steps to protect yourself and your customer against what can be a very devastating event for both of you.  And you can still sleep well at night!

The privacy laws that have been enacted at state and federal levels make some degree of security a necessity when dealing with any personal identifiable information.  When the data relates to finances or health the requirements are even higher.  In most cases if data is lost you will be required to contact the consumer who's data was lost and inform them of the loss.  This is a very large embarrassment to your client and can trash their reputation with their public, not to mention the potential damage it could cause to their consumers!  So it is something that is vital to avoid.

Even if you never touch the data files, the details of your clients marketing campaign can be very embarrassing if leaked, so security is still important.

In this section of my blog, I will be highlighting the steps you need to take to achieve a reasonable level of security.  I'll cover some of what the dangers are and what you should be doing about them.  I will be keeping it simple and designing my posts for those who are not overly computer literate.  So, if you have questions, comments or suggestions, please ask them or post them, I will be more than happy to help.

Over the next few weeks I will be opening 2 new sections in my Blog.  "Data Security" and "Pro Marketer", together with the existing "Everything Postal" section, they will target the issues and needs of professional direct marketers. 

In them I will attempt to keep you apprised of the what is changing in the direct mail world, avoidable problems we are seeing, and bright ideas on how to get the most from your direct mail campaign.  All from the unique perspective of the mail house.

When we moved  the site on Thursday some of our blog entries were not available.  I now have them and will be reposting them over the next few days.  So if you see a duplicate feed, now you know why.

So far we are very happy with the new host, better loading speeds, competent tech support and very secure facilities run by competent people.  I think we will be here for a while and hopefully future changes will be transparent.

Yes I know I used the word competent twice, some things are just worth repeating.