Date:
5/24/2002
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 505.562.2253
Reporter: Steve Blakely
PORTALES – University Printing Services now has its addressing system up and operating. Presently, printing has addressed 12 mailings for the campus with the help of Rena Garrett and the University Post Office.
They are now prepared to offer their services to all campus departments interested in bulk mailings. It is estimated that the system has saved departments as much as 20 percent on their postage cost so far. This will be even more important in the near future because of the eight percent postage increase scheduled to take place on June 30.
There are some limits to the system. If your mailing is smaller than 200 pieces, printing can still address the mailing; however, you will not receive the postal discounts for CASS certification.
Larger mailings are not a problem for the system. Currently, printing has addressed mailings as large as 20,000 pieces. Departments need to allow a couple of days for the process and then allow time for the Post Office time to mail the piece. The largest percentage of savings received by using the system is the reduced number of undeliverable and returned pieces. The addressing system compares your list to a national registry and cleans out all the problem addresses. You will receive a printout of the bad addresses.
If you have a mailing scheduled for the near future, contact University Printing Services at 562-2537. To speed the process, printing can clean your mailing list in advance. All you need to do is bring the mailing list on disk to printing or email it in Excel or Access format to steve.blakeley@enmu.edu. It will be cleaned and the bad addresses list returned to you on a disk or hard copy. Allow one or two days for University Printing Services to clean the list. A 20,000-name address list, on average, will have between 1,000 and 1,500 incorrect addresses. Make sure to allow yourself time to correct the list before the piece needs to be mailed.
Some of the problems printing has encountered are:
Spanish accent marks on the list confuses the system;
Titles, company names, and salutations combined with name can not be separated;
Names placed in the street column instead of the address column;
Missing information such as state and zip code;
Wrong street addresses, and zip codes.
Some information printing will need to address your mailing is:
Do you want the address block in all caps or upper and lower case?
Do you want salutations used?
Do you want titles used?
Do you want any type of special spacing?
Make sure your mailing piece has the bulk rate indicia and has plenty of room to print the address and barcode. Mailings need a printing area of 3 3/4" x 1 1/2" to address your printed piece. If you have any questions about your mailing, please contact University Printing Services at 562-2537 before the design is started.