There's nothing as valuable as constant, repetitive contact with your
customers, clients and prospects. But how can you accomplish that without
spending too much money, time and effort?
For a while, email seemed to be the way to go. It was fast, easy and didn't
have those darn incremental costs. Unfortunately, the greatest side effect of an
explosion in spam, spyware and viruses, is the overzealous exercise of the
delete key.
But, as you do to others, they do to you and most unsolicited email messages
you blast out are trashed unread. So, what you really need is a model for
creating and sending inexpensive messages that are:
- Cheap.
- Easy to provision and send.
- Appealing enough for people to want to read them.
I think I've found a solution, but don't laugh. You may feel a chuckle
welling up when you realize what I am suggesting, but hear me out and you may
just laugh all the way to the bank.
I'm speaking of a new service from the U.S. Postal Service and you can find
it on their website: www.usps.com.
Here's how it works:
- Sign in as a new user. The account is free.
- Choose a post card, letter, brochure or multi-page booklet from a variety
of paper sizes and colors.
- Design your mailing using popular software, including MS Word, and choose
full color, spot color or black.
- Upload your project file and a data file that includes your mailing
addressee information. The website tells how, or you can us the on-line form
fillers to create your piece on-line from scratch.
- Order as many copies, or as few as you want. The printing looks great and
you are not penalized for very short runs.
Recently, I did a mailing of 135 two side letters with embedded photos. I
saved 6 cents per piece on postage and paid only 26 cents for paper, envelopes,
printing, addressing, stuffing and mailing. I figure that the final cost was
about 5 bucks less than if I'd have done it in-house and $50 less than using an
on-line discount printer. The letters are sent first class instead of bulk, in
order to get opened and read.
Do a full color mailing for just a few prospects at the same incremental cost
as large runs. Ten customized, full color, 2 side, post cards cost only $2.20,
plus 19 cents postage, which now links "the post office" with "efficiency."
Wow.
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Stan Rosenzweig, president of Office Technology Consulting Inc., Stamford,
CT, can be reached through www.phoneguru.com, or at (203)323-6070,
ext. 82409.
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