Shutdown the Palatine Processing Facility?

The USPS announced plans to shut down the Palatine Processing Facility recently. Why should you care? Well, I will tell you. All mail in this area—from Evanston to Elgin will then go through the Carol Stream facility. This will delay local mail by a minimum of one day. That’s bad. There is a possibility of a logjam at the Carol Stream Processing Facility.

For those of us who mail information, there is a bigger problem. There is a possibility of delays and added costs. Many businesses are built around supporting mail in this area. We will be left high and dry.

I feel this will have long lasting detrimental effects on mailing. At this time when the USPS is seeing declining mail volume and revenues, they need to innovate and be creative. Cutting services, hours of service, raising prices, adding layers of difficulty to creating bulk mail will only hasten the decline of the Post Office.

By the way, Kim Pohl of the Daily Herald interviewed my for a marketer/mailers perspective. Look for it in an upcoming paper.

The Best Deal at the Post Office

I was talking to a client the other day about her newsletter mailing. It's a big mailing. Not just in the number of recipients but in the size of the mail piece. It's one of these 12 page newsletters that also includes a return envelope. Their current printer is organized such that the only way to mail this piece is pre-sorted, first-class mail. For two ounces, this is costing them a small fortune.

She was hesitant when I talked about pre-sorted, Standard Mail. She was under the impression there would be all kinds of problems mailing it this way. When I assured her that thousands of companies and organizations send their correspondent out this way every day without a problem, she softened up a bit.

Then I explained something to her she had never heard before. With Standard Mail, the post office allows you to mail up to 3.3 ounces for the same cost of mailing a postcard. What a value! Now that their mailing list has gotten bigger, their total cost of mailing will go down by 25-33%.

Think about how you can use this tremendous value to your benefit. You can send out a larger mailing in an envelope with many pieces in it. This is something we call “lumpy mail.” You can send a promotional product that ties in with the theme of your mailing. You can group a mailing with your neighbors, networking group, or marketing affiliates so you can take advantage of the postage discount.

Give Allegra Print and Imaging of Rolling Meadows a call today at 847-398-2500 to discuss this and other great ways to save money on your direct mail marketing campaign.