United States Postal Service Full Service Approved
Changes to the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) that apply to simplified address flats makes more options available and will affect the entry of Every Door Direct Mail.
Every Door Direct Mail is made possible by standards that are set for flat sized mail pieces bearing a simplified address. What is a simplified address? It is an address that that contains no delivery specific information. An example would be “Local Postal Customer.”
Mailing to “Local Postal Customer” allows you to mail without a mailing list. More about proper use of the simplified address can be found here: http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/602.htm
Summary of changes taking effect May 7th 2012 :
Size; Old Rule:
Must exceed at least one of the dimensions of letter sized mail.
Must exceed maximum Letter size height: 6 1/8 inches or,
Must exceed maximum Letter size length: 11 ½ inches or,
Must exceed maximum Letter size thickness: ¼ inch
Size; New Rule:
The old rule (shown above) still applies but now includes the following options.
Will qualify if it is a minimum of 3 ½ inches high and exceeds 10 ½ inches in length. But please remember it must exceed 10 ½ inches not be 10 ½ inches. By all other postal standards this would be considered letter sized mail.
NOTE: If you use a size that meets this minimum requirement but does not exceed letter sized mail then you must put EDDM in the endorsement line after ECRWSS. So your endorsement should look like this:
********ECRWSS EDDM.
Addressing Requirement; New Rule:
The requirement to include the City, State and Zip code in the simplified address on mail that is not entered or delivered to the DDU has been relaxed to a recommendation. That means, when printing pieces that will be entered at an ASCF, you no longer have to print different versions for each zip code.
Addressing Requirement; Business Addresses; New Rule: When the carrier route is 100% business addresses, you can now use the term Business Customer instead of Postal Customer or Local Customer.
This is a summary of the changes. For all of the changes please refer to http://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2012/pb22335/pdf/pb22335.pdf or check the updates to postal explorer under “Saturation Mail Simplified Address.”
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How did you celebrate Earth Day this year? Did you hear a lot of talk about going paperless and saving trees? I did. And every time I hear a comment like that I feel a little more irritated.
Why? Because so many well meaning people have that ‘save a tree' thing backward. It makes me both angry and sad to realize how many people jump on a band wagon without really doing their homework. Do you really want to save the trees? You can, and, at the same time you can save jobs and boost the economy.
Please check out these websites and accept my challenge to bust this destructive myth.
- http://www.amorian.org/2009/09/10/the-myth-that-using-less-paper-saves-trees/
“When a company decreases its paper use, it does not decrease the number of trees that are cut down. It only lowers its business expenses for paper.When companies decrease their paper consumption, they aren’t trying to save the environment. They are trying to increase their bottom line by saving money.” – Scott at Amorian
“The U.S. pulp and paper industry generates more
than 60% of its energy from carbon-neutral biofuels.”
“The average data center serving our electronic devices consumes the same amount of energy as 25,000 households.”
“As it turns out, most of the trees that are planted in America are planted with the intent of eventually harvesting them to make things like paper. This means that if we all used less paper, there would be fewer trees planted. ” – Lawrence W. Reed
And feel free to share any other ideas that you have about how we can spread the truth about what really threatens our environment and the quality of life we want for future generations on this big blue marble.
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As a long time fan of the series “Mad Men” on AMC, I have seen every episode and yet I can't remember if they've ever mentioned a direct mail campaign? So, not having the time to watch all four previous seasons to find out, I did a little Googling. As often happens when I'm researching a topic, I took many side trips on the internet highway. One of which led me to this video which I originally found in a post on the Copyblogger site called, “David Ogilvy's ‘Secret Weapon' of Online Marketing, Selling, and Business Success” by Robert Bruce.
You have to get almost 3.5 minutes in (3:41) before he starts to tell of his secret weapon. Most people will tell you the answer is “Direct Response Marketing” but he's much more specific than that. Listen carefully at 4 minutes and 15 seconds. That's when you learn what form of Direct Response Marketing is his “secret weapon” and how he deployed it and how it grew business.
We aren't an ad agency. We're a marketing services provider. We don't come up with the campaigns but we sure know what vehicle drives results. I'm not surprised to hear him say that his secret weapon is Direct Mail. I'm not. I just wish I didn't have to get more than half way through the video to hear the words. And though I said “is” his secret weapon, David Ogilvy passed away in 1999. But Direct Mail is still alive and kickin'.
I enjoyed the season premiere of Mad Men, even if I now have that Zou Bisou Bisou earworm that other fans of the show have been tweeting about. But I never did find out if Mad Men did an episode mentioning Direct Mail Advertising. Do you know?