Direct Mailer Postage Question

[ACK!]

I've tried to look for this answer by googling it, and the search here didn't bring up anything that I could use. So sorry. :/

I'm making a direct mailer right now, my first official/professional one, and I think I got everything down-- except the postage. I've looked a few mailers I've got in the mail in the past week and they all say "blah blah blah paid by *COMPANY*." Is that something I can copy essetionally and put it on my mailer? Or is it specific? Or is it something the printer takes care of and not the designer?

You can call me a noob, because I really am when it comes to professional stuff. Anything at all would help me very much. Thank you. <3

[Two-Toe Tom]

i'm not sure how those work, i'm guessing the post office could help you out? call them up and ask. maybe you have to set up an account or something.

[Kool]

You have to get an account set up with the post office and they issue you a number. This can be a great value added service once you get it set up because you can offer the use of your number to your clients who wish to do direct mail.

[ArchVis]

Your postmaster can walk you through the whole thing. Essentially, what you see in that box is the bulk rate permit #. It's not cheap to set up (mods, am I allowed to post the cost?), but then the per-piece rate works out to almost half off first-class stamps.

Dave

[LeftBrain Artist]

That little box in the upper left corner that goes where the postage stamp should be and features copy saying "permit paid #555-whatever" is what is called an indicia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indicia

I've done a few direct mail pieces in the past, we know a small one-man print shop that specializes in that - so we let him generate the mailing lists and purchase the indicia rights from the post office, etc. And no, you can't just use anyone else's indicia #. That's a good way to get in a lot of trouble. From what I understand, that # is bascially an individual's or organization's account #, much like having a Fed EX or UPS account #. If that same number appears on different pieces, you can be pretty certain that the same person handles the postage on those. I believe the rates vary depending on how many pieces you purchase yearly - and its usually substantially cheaper than a regular stamp (around 25 cents or so?).

So, hypothetically, if you found a mailer with an indicia and decided to duplicate it, then did a bulk mailing of say, 30,000 the owner of that indicia number would get billed by the post office for that mailing, if their rate is a quarter apiece, that comes to $7,500. You would most likely see legal action at some point.

The exact specs for creating the indicia can be gotten from whoever is handling the printing and mailing of the pieces, or the post office might have specs - basically its a plain old box with plain old copy, font of your choice, about the size of a postage stamp.

Go ahead and use an existing indicia to mock up something, just change the number to like, xxxxxx.

[balou]

I'd contact the customer or whoever is doing the mailing and talk to them about what they want on there. They should have an eps or tif they can email you.

[Kool]

I was just looking at my pile of waiting to be shredded junk mail and I think I misunderstood your question. What you are referring to is the Pre Sorted standard (bulk mail) indicia. I "think" (check with the post office) that you can indeed just copy one and put your own company on it. You don't need an account but you do need to make sure your envelopes meet all the layout criteria. See USPS website.

The account I and others here have referred to is for BRM (Business Reply Mail), those return envelopes with the postage pre paid.

[ArchVis]

I found the USPS website to be pretty useless w/ regard to bulk mail. According to my postmaster, your options are a direct mail account or stamps; the account was $175 startup fee and $175 a year, then postcards were something low- maybe 0.14/each? and letters and big postcards were 0.26/ each.

[mojoprime]

also, be real careful with your postage requirements. the USPS changed them this year, to make everything "machineable" in order to cut down on costs. if your piece falls outside the very strick criteria, it becomes the now-dreaded "non-machineable" and is subject to a higher postage rate because it has to be handled by human hands.

check it here: http://www.shapebasedpricing.com/index.php

in a nutshell as far as regs are concerned, according to the direct-mail folks i use, you need to leave a hole on the mailing area of your piece that 2.5" from the bottom edge of the mailing label and 4" from the leading edge. this is on letter-sized pieces. this is the active area where the address label goes and also the USPS bar coding.

gads, i've been doing alot of this lately...

[doubting_thomas]

I haven't seen this said yet... Your mailing will not happen if you are using an
indicia account and the money isn't in the account at the time the post
office goes to process the pieces. Make sure you or your client pays into the
account a couple days before the mailing happens. AFAIK the USPS won't bill you
or give you net terms.