Secondly, we receive a steady flow of traffic to our blog from people searching for information on how to read the IMB.

After watching the 4 minute video below, you’ll know exactly how to do so.

Do you have a question about the Intelligent Mail Barcode? Email Matt Cote: matt (at) ballantine.com

Tags: Intelligent Mail Barcode, USPS

This case study will also prove to you how effective housefile mailings can be (housefile meaning customers, clients, subscribers, etc.). As a result, this case study is applicable to most companies, not just publishers.

Campaign Details

The 4-color double postcard measures 6″ wide by 4.25″ high (closed) and opens up to 6″ wide by 8.5″ high. The middle is perfed and one half gets returned (standard DPC). The offer is for 1 free issue of HAWAII Magazine and a bonus Luau Guide. They are then automatically billed $15 for 5 more issues with the option to cancel.

This DPC mailing was split into 2 segments:

Segment 1

The first segment was a non-housefile mailing to Hawaii property owners that live on the mainland (90% of their subscribers live on the mainland). The personalized copy that was included on the front of this segment’s DPC included “Come Home To HAWAII Year-Round” and “Be Instantly Transported To Your Home Away From Home”.

Segment 2

The second segment was a housefile mailing of lapsed subscribers from the last 3 years with a geographic select that mimics their highest concentrations of subscribers. The personalized copy that was included on the front of this segment’s DPC included “Escape To HAWAII Year-Round” and “Skip The Long Plane Ride And Be Instantly Transported To Paradise”.

Both segments shared the same offer in addition to the same artwork for the back and inside of the DPC.

DPC Pictures

You can view pictures of the double postcard by CLICKING HERE.

Campaign Poll

Before you continue reading, please take a second to cast your vote below.

Campaign Results

As you can probably assume, the housefile mailing (lapsed subscribers) performed better…but the non-housefile mailing (Hawaii property owners) also did well partly due to the amount of attention given to the details of the data file by HAWAII Magazine’s Marketing Manager.

—> Response rate for the housefile mailing was 6.35%
—> Response rate for the non-housefile mailing was 2.59%

This reinforced HAWAII Magazine’s need to continue to mine its own database because there is definitely low-hanging fruit to be had.

Tags: Circulation Marketing, Direct Mail Case Study, Double-Postcards, Hawaii Magazine

Effective on July 1st, 2009, the USPS is implementing their new incentive program (also called Summer Sale) for high-volume bulk mail senders. It’s more like a rebate because you get 30% back on the postage costs of a portion of future mailings within a certain time period.

How do you qualify for the incentive program?

1. You must be the mail owner of a permit imprint advance deposit account, or the owner of a deposit account that is used through a mail service provider.

2. You must have mailed at least one million pieces of direct mail between October 1st, 2007 and March 31st, 2008.

If you qualify, you should have received a letter from the USPS. If you qualify and you didn’t receive a letter, send an email to summersale (at) usps.gov. And here’s a link to the USPS website for more info on this Summer Sale.

Lastly, if there’s anything we can do to help, or if you have questions, please send an email to matt (at) ballantine.com or contact us here.

Tags: Bulk Mail Sender, Postal Discounts, USPS

First off, fugitive glue are drops of glue that are placed on a self-mailer to keep it closed. So for example, if you’re mailing a double postcard, you could apply fugitive glue to keep the 2 postcard panels closed in the mail stream.

The alternative are wafer seals — the circular pieces of “tape” that get folded over the panels you want to close — but they are more expensive and more visible on the mail piece.

The potential problem with fugitive glue is this: depending on the design of your self-mailer, you might have to apply the drops of glue on a reply card that is hopefully returned back to you. If the recipient sends back the reply card without rubbing off the drops of glue, there’s the potential issue of the reply card sticking to other mail and never reaching it’s final destination.

This all said, we don’t think this is a huge issue to worry about because a reply card sticking to another piece of mail is pretty obvious and would be corrected by the USPS  And furthermore, I assume most people would rub the glue off before sending back the reply card.

If your self-mailer design is forcing you to use fugitive glue on your reply card and you’re worried about the above, you have 2 options:

1. Use wafer seals instead.
2. Speak to your lettershop vendor because there are different types of fugitive glue you can use that vary in size and intensity. 

We would love to hear about your experiences or comments on this topic. Please comment below if you’re interested.

Tags: Fugitive Glue, Lettershop, Mailing

###

The May 2009 issue of our ‘Sample of the Month’ direct mail case study features our client National Journal Group and their test of a roll fold self-mailer versus email marketing.

We also featured this self-mailer in our most recent direct mail video if you’re interested.

Campaign Details

The 4-color self-mailer measures 24″ wide by 8.5″ high (open) and roll folds down to 5.5″ wide by 8.5″ high (closed). The last panel has an L-shaped perf reply card. The offer is for a 2-week free trial subscription to The Hotline.

The Hotline is a web-only product that publishes political content daily at 12 p.m EST. Previously, the Marketing team for National Journal Group only used email to promote the 2-week free trials…this roll fold self-mailer was their first attempt at using direct mail to promote this online publication.

Both the direct mail piece and email blast share the same exact offer…and both were sent to in-house files (not rented files).

You can view pictures of the self-mailer by CLICKING HERE.

Update: you can view the email creative here. We designed the self-mailer, but not this email.

Campaign Poll

Before you read about which direct marketing medium performed better, please cast your vote below.

Campaign Results

One generated a whopping 68% more 2-week free trials.

The winner was (you voted first, right?)…

Click Here

So are the results what you expected? Share your thoughts by commenting below.

And stay tuned for “part 2″ of this case study in about a month because the most important question of this campaign is: which direct marketing medium converted more free trials to paid subs? If you don’t want to have to remember to check our blog every so often for results, just sign up below for email updates. You can opt-out at any time.

###

Tags: 3-Panel Self Mailer, Email Marketing, National Journal Group, Roll Fold Self Mailer

As always, the video is educational…we talk about a roll fold self-mailer we designed, printed and mailed recently for a client. On a related note, here’s the direct mail case study we released on this piece.

Specifically, we explain how the mail piece was produced: printed, perfed, scored, folded and glue-tacked closed. If you’ve ever wondered how all of this is done, this video is for you.

Questions or Comments? Please fill out the form below or email Ryan or Matt: ryan/matt (at) ballantine.com

###

Tags: 3-Panel Self Mailer, Roll Fold Self Mailer

Since the wounds are still fresh from the May 11th 2009 postage rate increase, we wanted to sprinkle some potentially good news on the situation.

Dan Blair, chair of the Postal Regulatory Commission, recently stated that based on the current trend of inflation, the postage rate increase for 2010 would likely be less than 1%.

That being said, the USPS is allowed to file for an exception based on revenue shortfalls, but Mr. Blair said this is unlikely because they’re afraid it would drive more mailers from the system.

###

Tags: Postage, Postal Rate Case, USPS

###

Today’s blog post is going to make you aware of a service the USPS offers just in case you weren’t aware it was an option.

It’s called the ACS Service. Here’s what it does in a nutshell…

You send out a direct mail campaign and some of the mail pieces don’t get delivered because the recipient recently moved. Well, with the ACS Service, the USPS will email you an electronic spreadsheet with the new addresses of these new movers.

For First-Class mail, your mail will get forwarded to the new addresses…for Standard mail, they won’t…but either way, you’ll receive an electronic spreadsheet of new addresses to easily update your database with.

The cost for this service varies. Furthermore, the customer/mailer — not the print/mail vendor — has to set it up. Reason being, ACS is tied to the BRE that gets returned with orders…and this bulk permit is usually in the customer or mailer’s name.

###

Tags: ACS Service, USPS

###

The April 2009 issue of our ‘Sample of the Month’ direct mail case study features our client Aperture magazine and their test of a #10 voucher package with a bright green outer envelope.

Campaign Details

This case study is going to be brief because the mailing was a pure outer envelope test.

Both the control and test had the same exact components: a perfed form measuring 8.5″ wide by 7″ high, a 4-color buckslip and BRE. Furthermore, the offers were also the same: 1 year (4 issues) for $40 or 2 years (8 issues) for $66.

Their control package (meaning, the package that performs the best for them) has a simple white outer envelope. As a test, they mailed the same exact package, but with a bright green outer envelope. The green paper is more expensive, but the strategy was it would stand out in the recipient’s stack of mail and generate more orders.

You can view pictures by CLICKING HERE.

Campaign Poll

Before you read about which package performed better, please cast your vote below.

Campaign Results

Both packages were equal in payup, but one generated 11.5% more orders, gross and net.

The winner was (you voted first, right?)…

Click Here

So are the results what you expected? Share your thoughts by commenting below. Thanks!

Tags: Aperture Magazine, Direct Mail Case Study, Voucher Package

Our new video below talks about a self-mailer project we recently quoted. We were able to offer the prospective client 5% more square inches of creative real estate at the same price.

Watch below for more information including how and why this is possible.

There’s also a random tip half way through for Starbucks latte fans…

###

Tags: Direct Mail Creative, Roll Fold Self Mailer