We guarantee you’ll come away with a new idea or two on how to make your direct mail marketing better.

Some of the tips:
• Tie all images and offers to the prospects demographics and behaviors. Each printed piece should be unique from the others.
• Surprise with a low-tech element as part of your communication’s mix.
• Don’t underestimate the power of special folding.
• And much more…

PrimeNet Direct Mail Marketing Solutions has been quick to promote digital printing. Today, digital color and digital highlight color printing account for 63% of PrimeNet’s printing capability (the industry average is 50%). We’ve got the capability to handle small to humongous jobs quickly and competitively priced.

Give us a call to find out how we can make your digital direct mail jump out of the mailbox.

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Case in point: Huntington Learning Centers. They’re the folks who have been helping children across America improve their reading, math and writing skills. They turned to PrimeNet Direct Marketing Solutions, for ideas on how to improve the conversion rate of their direct mail offers.

The answer: targeting. HLC and PrimeNet discovered an algorithm that included an exact radius from their learning centers, only families with children ages 7 to 16, and timing of the drops to the date that report cards are distributed. The result: great response and conversion!

More of HLC’s tips are in this mini case-study. Give us a call to discover our ideas on how to better target your next direct mail marketing initiative.

Click here to read our mini case-study

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General Program Information:
Registration Begins: May 1, 2012
Program Period: July 1 – August 31, 2012 (Mail must be tendered for acceptance during the promotion period, July 1, 2012 through August 31, 2012)
Discount Amount: 2% of eligible postage
Eligible Mail Classes: Standard Mail letters and flats, Nonprofit Standard Mail letters and flats, First-Class Mail Presort and Automation letters, cards, and flats
Participants and mail service providers can register on the Business Customer Gateway.

To learn more out about the program click here

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But before we brag, we’d like you to know that we will be sharing all of our tips in an upcoming article, with the hope that you can try some green initiatives, save money and be kind to the environment at the same time.

So, here are the hard numbers, In March alone (April figures soon to come), our efforts to recycle every scrap of paper and cardboard resulted in us recycling 62,130 lbs. of recyclable paper. That’s 31 tons! Think of it as 31 small cars in weight. Just from our one company. If you would join us, think of the impact.

So, to put it in practical terms, what does our one-month’s effort save? This will blow you away:

528 trees
11,805 gallons of oil
217,455 gallons of water
149,112 Kilowatt Hours of energy
3,106 cubic yards of landfill space

Our green efforts earn us the designation below: certified by the National Association for Information Destruction. And, even better, the entire document recycling is guaranteed to protect confidentiality by destroying any recognition of content.

Let me know if you are interested in joining us in this green effort, and I’ll pass along details of what we do. Contact me at mkeefe@PrimeNet.com.

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Here’s what it looks like in the mailbox: We use the license plate of the state where the dealer is located. And we put the last name of the recipient boldly in the middle of the plate. The date is current.

Then, on the reverse side (it opens for even more content), we show the car we think they want to buy (yes, we know that information) and hint that we want to buy-back their current car. Plus, they get a “winning number.” If they come in during the sale, they get a prize, even if they don’t buy anything.

We have new software from Xerox, called XMPie, that lets us adapt this winning concept to other categories.
• Selling computers? Put the prospect name on a computer screen, and it looks VERY REAL.
• Selling desserts? Write the prospect’s name in coffee bubbles on the surface of coffee in a cup.
• Garden center? Write the prospect’s name in flowers.
• Financial dinner? Write the prospect’s name on a place card on a dinner setting.
Personalization, if done correctly, boosts response and sales. Our license plate mailer beats control mailers by 8%. Call us!

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Take March, for example. 15,000 warm temp records were smashed. Twisters in the southern and central U.S. smashed to smithereens lots of industrial-strength buildings.

April was closer to normal, whatever that is, but May is barreling in with predictions of above normal temps in the southern U.S. , inserting heat that could spawn all sorts of gnarly storms.

Nobody wants a twister to scoop up their direct mail marketing print facility, or a hurricane to pummel it. So you’ll be glad to know we at PrimeNet are prepared. Our new facility is Cat 3 protected, and our data center inside the facility is Cat5. We know you don’t want any surprises, no matter what Mother Nature throws at us.

Take a look at this short video!

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Statements from the Postal Service Board of Governors and the Postmaster General on Today’s Senate Action
The following statements are in response to today’s vote by the U.S. Senate to approve S 1789, the 21st Century Postal Reform Act.
Statement of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service
The Board, in working with management, has spent the past two years preparing a comprehensive business plan to make the Postal Service viable so it would not become a liability to the American people. This plan was validated by outside experts. We stand behind this plan, and we are convinced it is the right approach.
Unfortunately, action by the Senate today falls far short of the Postal Service’s plan. We are disappointed that the Senate’s bill would not enable the Postal Service to return to financial viability. A strong Postal Service is important to the health of the entire mailing industry and the Postal Service’s ability to finance universal service for the American public. Given volume losses we have experienced over the past five years along with expected future trends, it is totally inappropriate in these economic times to keep unneeded facilities open. There is simply not enough mail in our system today. It is also inappropriate to delay the implementation of 5-day delivery when the vast majority of the American people support this change. Failure to act on these changes will ensure that the Postal Service’s losses will continue to mount.
We remain hopeful that Congress will ultimately produce legislation that will enable the Postal Service to return to financial viability.

Statement by Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General & Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service
“We appreciate the hard work of the Senate in addressing postal issues, and we believe that there are important and valuable provisions contained in the legislation. We would have preferred the Senate allow the Postal Service to move further and faster in addressing its cost reduction goals.
Today the Postal Service incurs a daily loss of $25 million and has a debt of more than $13 billion. Based on our initial analysis of the legislation passed today, losses would continue in both the short and long term. If this bill were to become law, the Postal Service would be back before the Congress within a few years requesting additional legislative reform.
The Postal Service does not seek to be a burden to the American taxpayer, and we believe such an outcome is entirely avoidable. The Postal Service has advanced a comprehensive five-year plan that would enable revenue generation and achieve cost reductions of $20 billion by 2015 ― restoring the Postal Service to long-term profitability.
The plan we have advanced is a fair and responsible approach for our customers, our employees and the communities we serve. We are hopeful that the legislative process will continue and that enacted legislation will put the Postal Service on a sustainable path to the future.”
The Postal Service does not receive tax dollars for operating expenses; it relies entirely on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
# # #
A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
Follow the Postal Service on Twitter @USPS_PR and at Facebook.com/usps

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With our digital direct mail marketing capabilities, we know how to serve up the right offer to the right person at the right time. The result: response rates that are triple what you’d see from just plain REALLY GOOD DIRECT MAIL!

Yes. Triple.

For example, we help auto dealers send sale postcards to prospects. But they aren’t any old postcard offer. The offer changes for each recipient, based on what we know about them.

So, here’s what we know about “John:” He drives a Honda that has 80,000 miles on it. He’s married and just started a family. He reads outdoor magazines from the Sierra Club and likes to camp. Which offer did he receive?

I bet you guessed the Odyssey. Nope. Only one child, and a first child, so research told us he’d want a CR-V. That’s the offer he got. That’s what he bought. But his next door neighbor, a Ford truck owner, got the Ridgeline offer and bought that AFTER seeing John come home with a new CR-V.

We can customize your offers, too. And drive up response. Give us a call.

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WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — The Senate on Wednesday passed a plan to save the struggling U.S. Postal Service, an effort that could save thousands of jobs and 100 mail processing plants now slated to be closed or consolidated next month.

In an unusual showing of bipartisanship, the Senate voted 62-37 to throw a lifeline to the indebted Postal Service. Without help, the Postal Service would otherwise cut Saturday service, delay mail delivery and close hundreds of postal processing plants and post offices, triggering thousands of job cuts nationwide.

“My hope is that our friends over in the U.S. House, given our bipartisan steps we took this week, will feel a sense of urgency,” said Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, one of the Senate bill’s co-sponsors. “The situation is not hopeless, the situation is dire.”

The House has yet to take up a different bill to reform the Postal Service. However, Rep. Darrell Issa, a key Republican on postal service legislation, called the Senate bill “wholly unacceptable,” in a statement released Wednesday.

Congress faces a deadline of May 15, when a moratorium on postal closures expires.

The recession, declining mail volume and a congressional mandate to prefund retirement health care benefits have put the service in a bind. It reported a $5.1 billion loss for the year ended Sept. 30.

The Senate bill, offered by members in both parties, forces the Postal Service to ease off part of its plan to slow down the delivery of first-class mail, the kind of mail that most consumers use.

Postal Service: We need more junk mail The bill makes controversial changes, including cuts to workers’ compensation benefits, as well as a transition from door-to-door delivery to curbside delivery in some areas, such as suburban neighborhoods.

The Senate bill also prevents the Postal Service from cutting Saturday delivery for two years, until the agency can prove such a cut is needed as a “last resort.”

During debate on the postal bill the past two days, the Senate agreed to order the Postal Service to postpone the May 15 expiration of a moratorium on closures until the House passes a postal service bill.

The Senate also agreed to cap executive pay of high-ranking postal officials to that of Cabinet officials, $199,000. (Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe made $384,000 last year.)

The cost of the Senate bill could prove a major sticking point with the House. The Congressional Budget Office says the bill would cost $33.6 billion over 10 years.

The tab comes from increased borrowing authority for the Postal Service, allowing it to borrow $11 billion more from Treasury. The Postal Service can currently borrow up to $15 billion, and has tapped $12 billion of that loan.

The other cost comes from elimination of regular billion-dollar payments, now required by law, to Treasury to pre-fund health care benefits for retirees. That $23 billion would ease financial pain for the Postal Service, but it also means less revenue to ease federal deficits.

Several Senate Republicans, including Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said they voted against the bill, because it wasn’t paid for in an appropriate way.

Earlier this year, the Postal Service said it was doing away with overnight delivery of many kinds of first-class mail, opening the door for closing 223 mail processing plants at a cost of 35,000 jobs.

The Senate bill would force the Postal Service to maintain some one-day delivery of first-class mail, mostly for items mailed within the same processing area — saving 100 mail processing plants.

The Senate bill would also tap most of an estimated $10.9 billion overpayment in the Federal Employees Retirement System to pay down postal service debt and use up to $2 billion on buyout packages to entice long-time employees to retire.

Unions oppose the Senate bill, saying it doesn’t provide a good long-term business model.

“We are very disappointed that the Senate approved such a flawed bill, but we are determined to continue the fight for legislation that will provide a path to long-term viability for the Postal Service,” said Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

The U.S. Postal Service is, by law, an “independent establishment” of the executive branch. The agency doesn’t normally use tax dollars for operations, except for its $12 billion loan from Treasury.

First Published: April 25, 2012: 11:08 AM ET

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