I have had non-profit organizations tell me that they were saving money by doing their mailings in-house using volunteers. That sounds right, doesn’t it? That may not be the case. A professional direct mail company, such as Burns Mailing & Printing, may actually save you money. When we do the mailing we clean up the list with a FREE NCOAlink update. NCOA stands for National Change of Address. When someone in the U.S. moves they notify the USPS that they have a new address. This address goes into the National Change of Address data base that the USPS keeps. It contains every address in the U.S. Burns is licensed to have access to this data base. We compare the customers list to the National Change of Address and if someone has moved we can get the correct address. There are some that we cannot clean up for reasons such as the forwarding order has expired, no mail box etc. However, we can give the customer all the address that do not clean up so that they can correct their own database.
Having a clean list makes sure that you are not printing, doing all the mailing labor and paying postage on something that is never going to reach the intended recipient. Another thing that we do is sort the list for postal discounts. This determines how much postage that you pay. The more 5 digit matches and 3 digit matches you have the lower your postage will be. Depending on the size of the mailing and the number of postage discounts the savings could be significant. I have had cases where enough postage savings were gained that it paid for our labor. No running labels, no folding, no stuffing…is it beginning to sound better and better?
All you have to do to find out if it is costing you money is to give us a call for a FREE estimate. If you want your next mailing to look professional, we have two graphic designers on staff who are experienced in direct mail design. Contact me at phyllis@burnsmp.com.