One of the many little-known features of the LetterStream website is the ability to schedule a mailing to go out on a specific date. It’s a handy feature to be familiar with when you have a mailing that needs to be sent on a date that coincides with a vacation you’re planning, or an upcoming holiday.
Imagine creating a mailing, scheduling it for a future date and taking off for vacation. While you are sitting on the beach one evening an email arrives from LetterStream letting you know that your mailing went out according to plan. Ah, now that’s what I call a vacation!
Scheduling is fairly simple; after your job is created, click the “Edit” button under the options column on the job listing page. Then choose the option called “Change Scheduled Date” and enter the date you want your mailing to be delivered to the Post Office. We’ll take care of it from there.
Keep in mind, the schedule tool is for delaying a mailing for a specific date. If you need your mailing to go out the door faster, choose the expedite or rush option for faster processing.
On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.
-Veterans Day Proclamation by Dwight D. Eisenhower
Happy Veterans Day from LetterStream!
Even though the Post Office is closed today, we are open and able to process and mail your critical correspondence.
Is TODAY fast enough? If so, we can probably help. If you need your letters mailed yesterday, we can almost do that too! 😉
Our process for creating and sending mail is blazing fast. The LetterStream website allows you to create a mass mailing of thousands of pieces in as little as two minutes. Trust us, we’ve timed it!
And once you get the mailing loaded and approved, we launch our team of experts to properly print, process and mail your critical documents.
We take the extra step of delivering your mail to a USPS distribution center to reduce the number of local post offices that your mail needs to travel to, further reducing the time in transit of your letters.
Ready to do it? You simply need a PDF version of your document and a mailing list or collection of addresses (saved as a CSV file).
Your job will move quickly through our production process. If you must have your mailing out the door today, choose to expedite your mailing so we process it first (extra fees apply).
As for the truespeed of the LetterStreamprocess, I think it is fair to say we can get most mailing projects out in a day. And if by chance it needed to go out yesterday, well, we will certainly try!
Here are some helpful videos from our YouTube channel to make the process even faster:
The United States Postal Service(USPS) has announced a price increase effective January 26, 2014. The new pricing structure was announced a few days ago, September 25, 2013, on the USPS website:
The Postal Service calls this a “proposed price increase” but generally their proposed price increases are pretty close to what they know they can get approved. The price increase is expected to generate an additional $2 billion in annual revenues for the USPS, which would still leave them a far distance from being profitable, but it’s certainly astep in the right direction.
Highlights of the new single-piece First-Class Mail pricing, effective Jan. 26, 2014 include:
Letters (1 oz.) — 3-cent increase to 49 cents
Letters additional ounces — 1-cent increase to 21 cents
Letters to all international destinations (1 oz.) — $1.15
LetterStream typically passes the actual published USPS postagerates along to customers, but we’re evaluating whether this will be our strategy given the roughly 7% increase on the First-Class postage rate. LetterStream also offers eDocument delivery for many of our mailing products to drastically offset the cost of postage.
Once you start looking into creating a mailing, you’ll discover there are countless different envelope types, sizes, colors, textures, etc. to choose from. So many so, it could get a little confusing.
However, you can simplify things just a bit by choosing a white #10 envelope. This is by far the most common size and color for business mailings and is sometimes called a “business”, “business-sized” or sometimes even “commercial-size” envelope. We recommend you call it a “number ten” (#10) envelope, as this provides a more exact description. A #10 envelope is 4-1/8” tall and 9-1/2” wide. This envelope can easily hold 1 – 10 pieces of 8.5” x 11” paper.
Once you choose your envelope size, there are a few more items to consider. Do you need security tint? This is the special shading or print inside an envelope which reduces the amount of snooping that can occur by someone trying to look through the envelope. We recommend security tint for financial transactions as well as bills, statements, invoices and medical information. (Actually, nearly every #10 window envelope we use has security tint.)
Another question is what sort of flap do you need? If you are going to seal them by hand, get creative and find something you like (and get a glue stick for quick sealing), or choose the peal off, moisture-free seal style. The latter costs a little more, but some people like this cleaner process. If, on the other hand, you are hoping to have someone else (like LetterStream) seal them on a machine, you’ll want to skip the peal-off style, and pass on fancy edges on the envelope flaps. When sealing envelopes on machines, you’ll want to find machinable envelopes. These envelopes have a rounded, v-shaped flap with no points, no square corners and no fuzzy edges that will hang on the machine.
And of course we can’t forget to ask whether you need windows in your envelopes. Most bills/statements/invoices are mailed in window envelopes. This is far more efficient if you have additional information in the document that pertains to the person you are sending the mail to. It helps to have the person’s name on the actual bill, so it goes to the right person.
We recommend window envelopes for most mailings because we know people will think it’s a bill and open it. However, if you want a little more intrigue or simplicity, go with windowless envelopes.
If you really want to get creative, there are countless other options to choose from. You can even create your own custom size and shape envelope by contacting an envelope converter. Just remember that uniqueness adds to the cost.
Here at LetterStream, we primarily use one of the following types of envelopes: #10 window with security tint, #10 windowless plain white, 10 x 13 windowed white flat, or our proprietary USPS-approved Certified Mail envelope. And you can be sure that ALL our envelopes have machinable flaps so we can insert and seal tens of thousands per hour (yes, you read that right).
We have other envelopes too, including #9, #8, 5×8, 6×9, and 6 3/4, to name a few. But most of these are used as return or remittance envelopes that are included in a mailing.
I hope this little envelope training has been helpful, if not inspiring. 😉
If you still have questions, contact us and we’ll point you in the right direction!
If you need to get a mailing out the door quickly, our Express Letter option is about the quickest way to get it done.
Here’s all we need from you:
1. A mailing list saved as a CSV file
Most software allows you to export addresses in CSV format, and MS Excel allows you to save your spreadsheet as a CSV (comma separated values) format.
Check out our YouTube video for assistance:
2. Your document saved as a PDF
There are various ways to create a PDF from an MS Word document. Word 2010 has the option included. You can also use Adobe products or download a free PDF tool at primopdf.com.
See our help video for more information:
When you have these two items, log into (or sign up for) your LetterStream account and choose Express Letter as the job you want to create. You’ll be prompted for your address list and your document (or documents). If you have a logo with your return address built into it, you can even use it for the outside of the envelope.
There are other options as well:
the ability to share a proof with others
notification when mailing is complete
the ability to add newsletters, fliers or other documents to the mailing
the ability to add additional promotional wording to the outside of the envelope
See our YouTube video for help with this:
What do we do next?
We print your document in black and white or color print
We print your document on white or color paper
We address a #10 white envelope with your return address and recipient name
We add USPS First-Class postage
We fold your document(s), put them in the envelope, seal and mail them
We guarantee you’ll be pleased with the speed, quality and service you receive from LetterStream, every step of the way.
Still not convinced? Click here for more information about sending Express Letters via LetterStream.
Some of you know exactly where your favorite blue drop box resides. But I bet most of you drive past these uniquely shaped blue boxes each day and don’t even notice them.
I came across a CNN.com article that claims there are as many as 160,000 of these blue collection boxes in use around America.
If you are having a hard time finding the nearest blue box to drop your outbound mail in, there are a few apps that can help you out. For Android, check out the USPS Mobile or Mail Box Locatorapps. You can also try MailboxMap.com from your computer or smart phone to see where all 160,000 drop boxes are located.
I like Mailbox Locator because it is simply about finding the nearest drop box, and it uses your phone’s GPS to quickly route you to the nearest one. It also shows you the pick-up days and last pick-up times so you know if you’ve still got time to get your letters in the mail that day.
In case you’re wondering, at LetterStream we don’t place our mail in the blue boxes or inour own mail box. We don’t even drop our mail off at the retail counter of the local post office. Instead, our mail gets trucked to the USPS BMEU (Business Mail Entry Unit), for fast, same-day processing of our mail, even after the post office retail window is closed.
Keep an eye out for those little blue boxes and see how many you can count on your way to work this week; you might be surprised.
Of course, when faced with an urgent mailing, skip the box and contact LetterStream instead!
Some LetterStream customers are already realizing the annual savings created by weeding out and/or correcting undeliverable addresses.
If you acquire new mailing lists (member lists, community lists, etc.), especially from non-qualified list providers, it might be worth a little investment to make sure the addresses that you’ve been provided are valid ones.
Using address correction tools to clean up addresses and discover which ones are incorrect could pay for itself with the first mailing. If the list is used over and over, the savings keep accumulating.
Consider a mailing list of 1,200 names. If 5% of the addresses are undeliverable, you would be wasting more than $25 in postage feesalone, not counting time, paper, printing, envelopes, etc. If you mail to the same list each month, that would add up to hundreds of dollars in no time. Another cost to consider is the time and money wasted handling the return mail; collecting bins of returned mail itself, looking up new addresses, resending documents by hand, shred fees for properly destroying returned mail and environmental impacts.
So, here’s an idea… if you acquire a mailing list or simply get a lot of return mail, try running your mailing list through our address correction tools. You can upload any size mailing list directly to our website for cleaning and we will return the results fast; often in less than 10 minutes. We’ll format the addresses to USPS CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) standards, correct City and Street spellings, flag undeliverable addresses, and attempt to assign the correct zip code with zip+4 digits.
If you use our Deluxe Address Cleanup, which includes NCOA (National Change of Address) lookups, we can even tell you if the person filed a change of address card with the Post Office, letting you know exactly when they moved and where they moved to.
Reducing returned mail is good for business, good for the pocketbook, and good for your sanity!
I go back and forth on whether we use the greatly-over-used “green” label on what we do; quite often opting instead to use the term “responsible“. After all, we print and mail, and the word on the street is you can’t be “green” if that’s what you do (I could give you compelling reasons why that isn’t true, but I’ll save that for another day).
My point is that we work extra hard to be responsible with the by-products of our production process. We sort it, weigh it, categorize it, and talk about it; all in an effort to be responsible with our waste. Our efforts to improve in this area have been phenomenal over the years and we are proud of the job we’re doing.
Of our total facility waste, we have found ways to reuse a staggering 46% of all production waste. To be clear, this isn’t recycling, this is actual reuse by others outside of the LetterStream organization. As for recycling, 50% of our waste is being properly recycled, leaving us with only 4% of our waste actually making it to a trash dumpster.
Ever wish for an even faster way to send out USPS First-Class and Certified Mail?
Our website already saves countless hours of tedious work involved with sending mail, but you might be sending so much mail that you need an even faster way.
If so, the LetterStreamAPI might be the solution you need. It allows you to automatically send thousandsof pieces of mail instantly through a behind-the-scenes connection to LetterStream computer systems. Most APIs require programmers to implement them, and ours is no different in that regard, but some of our clients have implemented it in just a few days.
Our API is being used by many different types of companies, including software companies, collection agencies, billing companies, etc. and even individuals who need to send a lot of mail quickly. It has access to many of the mailing products available on our website including postcards, first-class letters, invoices, statements, newsletters, checks and certified mail.
You can advertise your partnership with LetterStream or keep it quiet and price the mailings to your customer however you see fit; because with the API your users and customers can send real mail without even knowing about LetterStream.
To learn more, click here to get detailed information about our API, or simply contact us to get started.
