This week’s fold comes from Capital Printing Company in Austin, TX and was created for Texas State.

Well, they have. So much so that the USPS is offering a promotion on all mail pieces containing barcodes. Between July 1^st and August 31^st, the USPS is offering a 3% discount to all mailers who include 2D barcodes on their mailings. According to the factsheet, all companies, including Mail Service Providers, who mail using a permit imprint and submit their mailing documentation electronically, are eligible to participate.

This seems like more evidence that there is opportunity for print to thrive in the digital age. In this case specifically, we see how the digital aspect of the QR code actually makes print items more popular and increases demand for printed items with this digital functionality. Utilizing these codes for direct mail can improve the quality of your mail piece while allowing you to better reach internet-savvy consumers. It can also add a much needed spark in the mailing industry – a fact which the USPS seems to have noticed.

Guess what?

The cost to mail a test package today appears to have fallen 17% below the cost to mail the same package ten years ago. Why? Because savings inherent in data processing, personalization, and mailshop fees offset rising costs in every other area of operations.

Observations:

• Technology has saved us some dollars and definitely enabled more personal, targeted, effective marketing.

• In the days ahead, ratios will shift adversely if the cost of manufactured materials goes up (paper, ink, window patch material, labels).

• Rising postage costs would squeeze margins, possibly out of existence. What will mitigate that? Can technology improvements and controlled labor costs offset the trend? So far, no … but technology delivers exponential surprises every day, so let’s not give up.

• For now, the real budget killer appears to be energy, gasoline in particular. Business owners also must deal with the rising and fixed energy costs inherent in plant operations. Again, innovations in technology may help us deal with super-charged gasoline and electricity prices. On the other hand, water could prove to be a problem most haven’t thought about.

• And then there’s the cost of labor. As states across the country try to regulate and repress wages and benefits for millions of American workers, the cost (and availability) of labor becomes vastly uncertain. Enter the influence of trends in the world economy, import/export practices, and even climate change (think paper production, for example): more uncertainty.

Whether or not one or more of these particular expenses skyrockets or plummets depends on a range of macro influences. Unforeseen technology advances and innovations in the areas of manufacturing, printing, lettershop, and even marketing itself could make us all rich (well, okay.. prosperous). In 2001, none of us really understood how huge email marketing and online shopping would be ten years later. We didn’t even know about QR codes or smart phones back then. So what will the world look like in 2021?

Perplexing, yes? ….. Perhaps direct mail production and marketing operations would benefit from a “Crazy Day brainstorming session” to encourage employees to “imagine the future” … leading maybe to some long-range thinking and planning focused on staying nimble, quick, responsive, and open to the coming deluge of change. I’d love to hear from readers!

In the meantime, thanks to Production Solutions for its thought-provoking article.

Enjoy!

So the inside said, “Personal, relevant information for your home,” but the outside said, “We really wanted the cheap bulk postage rate.”

So which was it? A personalized offer or mass mail? In the end, of course, it was mass mail. We can do that in a data-driven way these days. But the interesting thing was that I looked up the company in a Google search and found lots of rip-off complaints. Not because the company was actually doing anything illegal, but because the perception was that recipients had been duped by personalized letters that weren’t really personal at all.

Basically, the data (from public information sources) was used only to get people to call the 800 number. From there, the information and qualification process began from zero.

For those of us in the printing industry encouraging clients to personalize their documents, this should serve as a warning bell. We can populate data fields in letters and documents using data, but it’s not really the same as personalization. Personalization has, at its core, the sense of relevance. In this case, the relevance was near zero. As a result, no matter how accurate the information, the perception was that it was a rip-off and a scam. The Internet is full of the outrage.

So the moral of the story is that data doesn’t make personalization. Relevance does.

In order for your customers to send out mobile marketing campaigns, they need to gather mobile phone numbers. How are they going to do that? Marketers cannot buy these numbers. Consumers must provide them. They must sign up. Opt in. How are marketers — your customers — going to get them to do that? Often, it’s through print!

Think about all of the case studies you’ve read about mobile marketing. Think about the examples you see in your own life. How are marketers getting people to opt in with their mobile phone numbers? They are printing — yes, printing — offers on direct mail, posters, paper cups, tabletop tents, billboards. (“Text BESTOFFEREVER to 12345!”)

Basic text marketing is not complicated. Marketers have been doing it for years. What’s changed is the explosion of inexpensive third-party providers to make it happen. Even the smallest marketer can afford a text messaging program these days. So partner with one of the zillion text messaging providers and get your customers into mobile marketing in the most simple, basic way possible. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated to be successful.

Are you going to make a ton of money doing mobile marketing? Probably not. But in order to gather mobile numbers, your customers are going to have to print. So while selling basic mobile marketing programs might not be profitable, the print jobs necessary to gather the mobile phone numbers to drive them just might be.

However, when it comes to bills, statements, policies and other production print output, many marketers find it more difficult to navigate the terrain (if they even consider stepping onto it in the first place.)

Why do I think marketers are less engaged with production print?

For starters, there’s the cultural dimension: IT and Operations versus Marketing. Historically production print has been the domain of the technology, operations or billing department, a silo neatly tucked away from creative and marketing types. As a result, many marketing execs simply didn’t consider transactional documents as vehicles for their messages. As awareness grows, marketing teams and even CMOs are starting to recognize the value of the transpromo opportunity. This is especially true as they face mounting pressure to deliver more accountability and better results at a lower cost. However, because they’re new to the game, they may be unsure of what executing a transpromo campaign entails, or how to engage with their traditional rivals in IT.

If you’re a print services provider, this is a golden opportunity.

Maybe you’re already providing direct mail or transactional print services for a particular client. You’ve got a new way to add more business and generate new revenue streams if you can help Marketing bridge the gap with IT. Start by helping marketers understand the potential of adding the statement into the marketing mix. Demonstrate the effectiveness of delivering targeted messages to recipients who are highly likely to spend time with the document. Point out the economies of embedding messages in documents that are delivered in an envelope where the stamp is already paid for. Keep in mind that you also have to win over their IT and operations folks who will be concerned about production cycles, data integrity and the ability to test. These guys want to know that a marketer is not going to be sticking their fingers in the code the day before (or even the week before) production.

Once you’ve convinced Marketing and IT that you have the skills, processes and tools to help them “do transpromo” in a quality controlled and measurable environment, help them foster dialogues with other departments and stakeholders. This might entail determining who maintains the library of messages and conditional business rules that define their use. Finally, provide access to tools that make it as easy to manage content for transaction documents as it is for direct mail – and make sure to measure results. In many cases, the very tools that enable marketers to interact with their suppliers for direct mail campaigns can be adapted for the transpromo world.

In a nutshell, educate them, make the appropriate tools available, facilitate the process and help marketers track results and ROI. It’s a consultative sell – but well worth the effort if it cements your relationship with existing customers or helps to bring you new ones.