Don’t Mail That! – One Step Services Blog

About a month ago, we had a client order a first class mailing with a letter and an insert stuffed in an envelope. It was pretty straight forward, just print, stuff and apply the first class stamp. But as our fulfillment division was stuffing, one of our conscientious employees noticed that the envelopes felt heavy. She weighed it and realized it was too heavy for just one stamp but didn’t need two full stamps. It needed a stamp and a half.

A quick trip to the post office and we had the proper stamps. We applied them and the mailing went out without a hitch.

Can you imagine, though, if the client had handled that themselves? Stamped all those envelopes with just one stamp, put it in the mailbox, and then got them all returned? It would have been a huge waste of money and the mailing would have been significantly delayed.

A couple weeks later, we had another client order a bulk mailing. At the last minute, they cancelled the mailing and just ask us to print the job. Not a problem, but we did ask why as it is an unusual thing for clients to do.

Turns out, the client had purchased 10 cent bulk mail stamps from the post office and planned to simply put one on each envelope and drop it in the mailbox. We explained that it didn’t work that way. First of all, you can’t put bulk rate mail in the regular post office box, you have to submit it with proper paperwork to a specific location. Second, 10 cents is not the FULL cost to send bulk mail. That stamp was just an add on, meant to be added to an existing stamp when something like weight caused a price increase at the last minute.

At the end of it all, the client was incredibly grateful we had asked the right questions and stopped them from making a costly mistake. We ran the job through regular bulk mail and everything went smoothly.

It may be tempting to handle your own direct mail marketing. However when you increase the amount of pieces mailed, you also increase cost, rules, and opportunities for error. A professional mail house like One Step Services will create a mailing campaign for you that is cost effective and follows all the rules, ensuring a smooth campaign with a great return on investment.