I have wanted to have the capability to print, personalize and address for mailing all on one pass of the press for some time and in 2011 that wish came true.  We went in the mailing business in the early 1990′s to offer our customers something that would set us apart from other printers in town.  That has worked well for us over the years and most of the printing trade magazines are now telling printers that they need to be in the mailing business.  We feel that with the installation of our new Konica Minolta bizhub press and the software that we purchased that gives us the capability to print, personalize and address for mailing, all on one pass of the bizhub, helps once again, to set us apart from other printers in our area.  Printing a job and mailing all in one day seemed impossible just a few years back but now is a reality at Burns.  During the last election, we were printing and mailing political collateral in one day.  Again at Christmas, when companies had not printed Christmas cards but decided last minute to send them out, we were able to quickly turn the project for them.  The color is great, we are applying the intelligent bar-code, all postal regulations have been checked out so what is not to love?  If you don’t believe me, call me for a time to come over and see for yourself.

We are a printer who knows mailing and a mailer who knows printing.

Happy New Year!

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The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed bill S. 1789, known as the 21st Century Postal Reform Act of 2011.  A full vote on the bill is expected on the Senate floor before the end of the year.

If the bill passes it would return $7 billion in Federal Employee Retirement Service payment to the United States Postal Service.  The bill also contains bipartisan proposals allowing the USPS to close post offices, do away with Saturday delivery and reduce its workforce by offering retirement incentives.  Most Republican senators believe that the bill does not get to the heart of the USPS problems.  There are a lot of issues to be worked out.  In the meantime, the USPS will end up the year with a $5 billion loss. Post Master General, Patrick Donahoe says “The Postal Service can become profitable again, if Congress passes comprehensive legislation to provide us with a more flexible business model so we can respond better to a changing marketplace”. I totally agree with the Post Master General.  If you have ever worked with the USPS on direct mail projects you know my concerns.  If I have employee who is not performing well, I can replace them with someone who will do the job correctly.  Not so easy at the USPS.  A lot of the postal worker’s I know can’t wait to retire.  It should not be that way.  I believe that the USPS should be able to function just like private business functions with the dictate of being profitable and effecient.  It could happen.

It is obvious that I have a great interest in what happens with the USPS because I am in the mailing business, but out come is vital to all of us.  Can you imagine not getting mail everyday?  I love opening that mail box to see what is in it that day.  Yes, junk mail and all.

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Mail has gotten a bad rap in recent years being called snail mail and lots of other bad things.  However, mail is delivered to every address in the United States every day with few exceptions.  Mail is something that you can hold in your hand and as I have blogged about before, research has shown that an actual printed piece has more of a lasting impression on the reader than electronic mail.  The reason that this came to mind is that I communicated today with someone in the non-profit world who told me that they were mailing but decided to go with electronic mailings because of money.  That has not worked out too well for them.  If you think about it, the recipients did not have something to hold in their hand, they did not have a reply envelope that they could send a check and they probably deleted the electronic message because we all get so much that we don’t have time to read them.  What I have heard from my many non-profit customers is that what works best is doing both.   As far as the US mail being snail mail, I am in the mailing business and I am also on lots of the lists that we actually mail.  If we mail presorted standard (previously referred to as bulk mail) one day I can be assured that direct mail piece will be in my mail box the next day.  I think it is just as fast as first class but not as expensive.  Also don’t get discouraged if you mail one mailing and do not get the results that you have expected.  It takes staying in contact to make a difference.  I have one non-profit organization that raised in the neighborhood of $100,000 on one mailing.  Not everyone does that well.  See what works best for you.

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Having knowledgeable print buyers is an idea customer.  Understanding the process of printing can be crucial to actually getting a good printed piece.  Now, I am not advocating that you take a course on printing but I am suggesting that you get your printer involved in the beginning or planning stages of your project.  If your printer is also a mailer even better, you can bring experts to the table that will save you hours of research and will insure that your mailer meets USPS specifications.  This can save you money on postage and sometimes determines if the mailer will mail at all.  How disappointing, not to mention costly, is to print 45,000 post cards and when they get to the USPS suddenly find that they do not meet specifications and they cannot mail at all. We have had that happened to organizations, who after making this mistake, seek our help. How much better it would have been to get the advice of a professional before making a costly mistake?

At Burns Mailing & Printing, Inc. consultation is free to our customers.  We will sit down as a team to discuss a project with our customer.  Sometimes we can make suggestions that save both time and money and our customers  know that when it goes to the post office, they are getting the lowest postage possible and with bar-coding a speedy delivery.

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