Month: July 2016

Everyone Wants You To Know Their Name – A Personal Touch In Business

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

One of the things that our customers comment about is that Burns is like a family.  We are a family and we treat our customers like family.  Some of my customers bypass me and just go straight to the person at Burns that they know will be handling their project.  My employees are truly glad to see our customers come in and some customers bring them little gifts such as homemade banana bread, candy or even flowers. We can make decisions quickly because we are not a large corporation.  We do not have answering machines or voice mail at Burns, even though our system is capable of that.  I want a customer to be able to talk to someone when they call our number and not go through push 1 for sales, 2 for graphics etc.  If you call our office you will always get a person who is interested in talking to you.

This is what some of our customers are saying;

  • Phyllis – thank you for going above and beyond. We are truly blessed by you and your staff! Angela is amazing!
    Christmas blessings,
    Kathy
  • I can always count on the great team at Burns to provide the highest quality work and always on time. I truly appreciate the extra efforts they take to find cost saving opportunities for us. I don’t think of Burns as a vendor….they are part of my marketing team.          Angie S.

Come and be part of the Burns family team.  We will know your name.

 

 

What is NCOAlink Update? It Is FREE to Burns Mailing & Printing Customers!

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

Did you ever do a direct mailing project and get hand-fulls back because of bad addresses.  Just think about all the money wasted on printing, mailing labor and postage.  You don’t have to have that headache any more with a NCOAlink update.  NCOA stands for National Change of Address.  It is a database kept by the U.S. Post Office that has every address in the United States.  When someone moves they give the USPS their new address and the National Change of Address database is updated with the new address.  The USPS issues a license to companies to have access to this database for the purpose of list hygiene.  We are one of the companies who can use the NCOAlink update database.

When our customers send us a list we run their list against the National Change of Address Database and if someone has moved we most likely can change to the correct address. There are a few exceptions and if we cannot clean up a particular address or addresses, we send the customer a list of the ones that cannot be mailed with codes to tell them why that address is bad.  We can also take out any duplicates.  If we are printing, we do not print until we have the correct quantity on the list.  That is an advantage of doing the printing and mailing all under one roof. Our roof is a big roof..we offer,  graphic design, digital and offset printing and direct mail.

I had a customer send me a list by accident of, what they thought were deliverable addresses, we cleaned up the list of about 8000 and were able to give them back over 2000 good addresses.  This was a non-profit donor list so getting back over 2000 meant a lot to them in terms of their direct mail and possible donations. Make sure you are not wasting money by having an NCOAlink update on your list.  The USPS requires a list clean up before each mailing.

 

 

Grateful

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

Today is my birthday.  I am grateful to be healthy enough to work and do most everything that I want to do.  I am blessed with a wonderful family on both the Robinette side of the family and the Burns family.  I am blessed to have two daughters, Joy and Kathy,  and four wonderful grandchildren, Sam, Kate, Sarah and Michael.  I am blessed to have the wonderful employees at Burns Mailing & Printing, who support me and who create a family atmosphere at work.  I am grateful to live in the United States of America, even with some of our problems, it is the greatest nation in the world as far as I am concerned. I am grateful to have had the love of my life, Ken Burns for 52 years of marriage.  I have a birthday message from him pinned on my desk that was written several years ago. It reads “A Happy Birthday a wish for my North Star, the light that gives light for my life, Happy Birthday, love Ken”.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  I know that he is wishing me Happy Birthday today from heaven.  I am grateful!

 

 

Life Changes In a Second

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

I was reminded today of just how quickly life can change.  I was at a networking event today when one of the attendees got choked on a piece of lettuce.  She was in real distress.  Two people tried to do the Heimlich maneuver but to no avail.  One of the attendees started praying over her. 911 was called and by the time they had gotten there she was able to breath again.  She was checked out at the hospital and will be fine.

It was just a reminder that our next breath is not guaranteed and that we should not take anything for granted.  Forgive often, love much and thank God for our next breath and our very being. It was nice to be in a group of such caring women.

 

 

Why Run All Over Town

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

Burns-Building

Why run all over town, when we can handle a project from start to finish.  Our expert designers will meet with you and give you a beautiful lay-out, then our printing department will print and finish your project and if it is to mail, it will go straight to our mailing department and then to the USPS.  Some of our customers, never leave their office.  We do everything under one roof, our roof and it is a big roof. Three good reasons to call Burns…design, print, and mail.

What Not To Do When Planning A Direct Mail

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

I have had several blogs on what to do when you are planning a direct mail campaign.  Here are a few things not to do;

  • Do not put UV coating or varnish in the addressing panel.  Inkjet bar-codes smear when applied to these coatings
  • Do not put a vertical line to separate the copy from the addressing area. The OCR scanners at the post office thinks it is a bar-code and could result in your mail being returned.
  • Do not send in photos that are below 300 dpi or higher. The photo print quality is only going to be as good as the pictures you use.
  • Do not print on paper that does not meet postal specifications.  Weights of paper and colors can affect the mailing and your postage.
  • Do not have the return address too low on he mail panel. The scanners at the USPS may pick that up and send all of the mail back to you.  The USPS does not give refunds for those kind of mistakes.
  • Do not use a return address that is not on file with the USPS.  The return address must match what the USPS has on file for your organization.
  • Do not use the wrong orientation on the folding.  It will require more tabs and cost more.  Burns can advise on the correct folding if there is a question.
  • Do not submit mailing lists that have combined fields.  There should be separate fields for first name, middle name, last name, street address, city, state and zip. Lists that do not have separate fields cannot be sorted for postal discounts.
  • Do not size or print an insert before you check to make sure that there is an envelope that fits the size of your insert. Burns can advise you on the sizes of envelopes and what will fit inside that particular envelope.

As always, consulting is FREE to our customers as well as a FREE NCOAlink update, which cleans up your list.

Call or email me for any questions that you might have. Phyllis Burns 865 584-2265, phyllis@burnsmp.com

Direct Mail Is Our Specialty

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

Amy-at-desk

A lot goes on in our mailing department where all of our direct mail is processed.  We offer a wide range of automated mailing services to insure quick delivery, accuracy, and maximize postal savings.  Our team of professionals are not just in the mailing department. Direct mail jobs start with our graphics department and then move into production and finally to the mail room.  Each department checks jobs for accuracy in both graphic design and for USPS specifications.  We offer;

  • Invoicing and statement processing
  • Database management
  • High-speed addressing and inserting
  • Variable data personalization
  • High -speed machine matching and inserting
  • Machine tabbing and stamp application
  • List acquisition
  • Geo-Coding
  • FREE NCOA mail list updates and duplicate checks
  • FREE mail list queries
  • FREE estimates (for a free estimate email estimating@burnsmp.com)

Three Great Reasons

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

3-reasons-graphic-new-u424

Three great reasons to use Burns Mailing & Printing are that we offer graphic design, printing (both digital and offset) and direct mail…all in one convenient locations.  Why run all over town when everything can be done here in one location.  We offer FREE consulting to our customers and FREE NCOAlink updates for our customers.  Delivery is FREE to local customers.  Wait, that is more than three reasons, that is even better. Email me for a FREE estimate, phyllis@burnsmp.com.

 

Allow Enough Time For Print/Mail Projects

~ burnsmp ~ Leave a comment

Do we have digital print on demand?  Yes, we do and in some instances we can print and mail in one day for quantities of 5000 or under, but that is not the norm. For a successful project, I recommend that you meet with us at the inception on the project and let us help plan the project.  We can advise on size, U.S. Postal specifications, paper and much more.  If we are designing the project we will listen to what you want and then proof out to you before printing.  After approval, we will put the job through production.  The time line depends on how busy that he production team is at the time.  That is why it is so important to allow enough time for us to produce a great job.

The mailing list should come to us as soon as possible so that we can clean up the list with a FREE NCOAlink update.  This prevents printing more than is necessary and saves money in the long run.

It makes sense to have a one-stop convenience for print and mailing.