EDDM Advertising and Post Card Printing

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Well eddm isn't as all as simple as I thought it was. Which makes me pretty upset that I have to now go through all of my post cards again. Here are the steps of eddm including everything from start to finish, undisclosed:

1) design post cards and insert criteria for standards eddm retail mailing
1.5) get post cards bundled in groups of 50
2) print post cards and have them delivered to your house
3) go to eddm retail route selection tool and select routes in which you want post cards to be mailed. When selected you need to open up a free account and create a crid number for your mailings.
4) print out all route paper work and post office receipt for their records when you drop the shipment off
5) either pay online or select pay when dropped off
6) when post cards are delivered to you, open up all the boxes and start sorting and founding the bundles of 50 to get the correct amount for each route.
7) after separated into routes, copy the route cover page for how many bundles you have and print them out. These have to be on each bundle and have to say how many fliers there are in each bundle, as well as the date dropped off and how many bundles there are (I.e 1 of 9, 2 of 9, ect)
8) now you have to stack each route together and separate them in boxes or it will be a nightmare at the post office when they take the bundles in, and all the people waiting in line behind you will get pissed because they have to record and count each bundle and route while your giving them to them to make sure your totals are correct so they can charge accordingly
9) pay the lady (not 14.5 cents) but 16 cents each-----which really pissed me off because a month ago the postage was 14.5 cents each.


Step number 7 made me the most mad. I separated all of the route and bundles out from each other and had one cover page for each route. I had to go print and copy 35 more pages for my first small batch of testers and it took another 2 hrs of time to unpack all the boxes, lay everything out, put the paper work for each bundle where it needed to be and then stack and write the necessary info on each piece of paper per bundle.....

Saving 1000 dollars on the mailings sounded like a great idea at first. Then when the post cards were all said and done. It cost 3 cents higher with shipping and designing were completed. And another 1.5 cents to mail them. Plus another 350 sheets of copies for each bundle and another 10-15 hrs out of my time to sort all the routes, print necessary paperwork, and understand how all of this worked. And this was just for my first tester batch of 1500 cards.... I've started my first major batch of 8k going out on 3/20/13 and I'm hoping I can find a system for doing this easier .

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by Gold Leaf Lawnscapes

Talk to Bob at Plan-it Graphics. His prices are very reasonable and his quality is the best out there. Check out my Facebook page for Gold Leaf Lawnscapes, and you will see the eddm postcards he did for me. The backside was edited since positing to fix a grammar mistake on my facebook slogan. The cards look even better in person than they do on the page!
Posted via Mobile Device

Roi was landed jobs, not just calls. To be Horst I very seldom have people call and ask about services and don't use my services. My land rate is about 95% which may be due to my reputation, or because I'm a good talker and am very friendly.

Bob did my printing for me, very easy guy to work with

[xclusive]

Originally Posted by DLONGLANDSCAPING

Well eddm isn't as all as simple as I thought it was. Which makes me pretty upset that I have to now go through all of my post cards again. Here are the steps of eddm including everything from start to finish, undisclosed:

1) design post cards and insert criteria for standards eddm retail mailing
1.5) get post cards bundled in groups of 50
2) print post cards and have them delivered to your house
3) go to eddm retail route selection tool and select routes in which you want post cards to be mailed. When selected you need to open up a free account and create a crid number for your mailings.
4) print out all route paper work and post office receipt for their records when you drop the shipment off
5) either pay online or select pay when dropped off
6) when post cards are delivered to you, open up all the boxes and start sorting and founding the bundles of 50 to get the correct amount for each route.
7) after separated into routes, copy the route cover page for how many bundles you have and print them out. These have to be on each bundle and have to say how many fliers there are in each bundle, as well as the date dropped off and how many bundles there are (I.e 1 of 9, 2 of 9, ect)
8) now you have to stack each route together and separate them in boxes or it will be a nightmare at the post office when they take the bundles in, and all the people waiting in line behind you will get pissed because they have to record and count each bundle and route while your giving them to them to make sure your totals are correct so they can charge accordingly
9) pay the lady (not 14.5 cents) but 16 cents each-----which really pissed me off because a month ago the postage was 14.5 cents each.


Step number 7 made me the most mad. I separated all of the route and bundles out from each other and had one cover page for each route. I had to go print and copy 35 more pages for my first small batch of testers and it took another 2 hrs of time to unpack all the boxes, lay everything out, put the paper work for each bundle where it needed to be and then stack and write the necessary info on each piece of paper per bundle.....

Saving 1000 dollars on the mailings sounded like a great idea at first. Then when the post cards were all said and done. It cost 3 cents higher with shipping and designing were completed. And another 1.5 cents to mail them. Plus another 350 sheets of copies for each bundle and another 10-15 hrs out of my time to sort all the routes, print necessary paperwork, and understand how all of this worked. And this was just for my first tester batch of 1500 cards.... I've started my first major batch of 8k going out on 3/20/13 and I'm hoping I can find a system for doing this easier .

If you think that was bad you should have done it last year. Things are defintely much easier this year than last.

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by xclusive

If you think that was bad you should have done it last year. Things are defintely much easier this year than last.

What else did you have to do? I think thisnwhole program is made to seem easy, but throws you through huge loops and doesn't disclose any of this upfront

[KrayzKajun]

im bundling cards right now. i have 1600 goin out on monday

[xclusive]

Originally Posted by DLONGLANDSCAPING

What else did you have to do? I think thisnwhole program is made to seem easy, but throws you through huge loops and doesn't disclose any of this upfront

I had to bundle 20k cause that service was not offered by the printing company ladt year. Let me tell you having 20k pre bundled was f%^&ing awesome and well worth it this year. They did not have the interactive map like this year so you had to get the map elsewhere. And all the slips that print out when you are done had to be manually completed.

Not to sound like a jack@ss, but if you dont pay the printing company to bundle for you, you are just outright stupid and/or cheap!! I can use my time better by doing something else that will pay for the service many times over.

[Gold Leaf Lawnscapes]

Originally Posted by xclusive

I had to bundle 20k cause that service was not offered by the printing company ladt year. Let me tell you having 20k pre bundled was f%^&ing awesome and well worth it this year. They did not have the interactive map like this year so you had to get the map elsewhere. And all the slips that print out when you are done had to be manually completed.

Not to sound like a jack@ss, but if you dont pay the printing company to bundle for you, you are just outright stupid and/or cheap!! I can use my time better by doing something else that will pay for the service many times over.

I agree! I had mine bundled because it is well worth the price. I had some bundles come in broken, but I just rebundled them with elastics. Some broken ones are to be expected due to shipping. I followed the directions on the website and had no problems with sending them out. It could just be the post office you are dealing with. I have heard some of them do make things more difficult than they need to be. I have both good and bad post offices in surrounding towns and I could see where that would be a fact. It's unfortunate that they are not all equal as it makes our lives more difficult. I will continue to use the service in the future.
Posted via Mobile Device

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by Gold Leaf Lawnscapes

I agree! I had mine bundled because it is well worth the price. I had some bundles come in broken, but I just rebundled them with elastics. Some broken ones are to be expected due to shipping. I followed the directions on the website and had no problems with sending them out. It could just be the post office you are dealing with. I have heard some of them do make things more difficult than they need to be. I have both good and bad post offices in surrounding towns and I could see where that would be a fact. It's unfortunate that they are not all equal as it makes our lives more difficult. I will continue to use the service in the future.
Posted via Mobile Device

That may be it, i got all of mine pre bundled, but you have to bundle another piece of paper with EACH bundle of 50 post cards. And you have to manually fill out the day, how many post cards are in the bundle, and which bundle this is out of the full route (i.e 1 of 9)

When i read and read and read and contacted people and even my printing customer, i never read or was informated that i was going to have to print out all of this post office paperwork to go along with my mailers in each bundle.

What i thought i had to do was to count out how many are going to each route and then attach one sheet to the entire route and put that ontop of all of the route postcards. Not every individual bundle.

I took some pictures of doing a batch of 4000 and a batch of 1500 and it just is tiring me out. I liked so much better, last year, when all i did was told adeas when i wanted them to be sent out, and they handled everything. I paid 28 cents each, right now, i am going to be at around 24 cents each.

15,000 post cards costed me $1,200 dollars or 0.08 cents each
Mailing is going to cost me 0.16 cent each.

4 cents x 15,000 is a pretty good savings, but i thought i would cost me somewhere in the 20 cents range to send them all out.

[Greener Grounds NC]

i have been thinking about this and a local print shop is doing sets of 5000 for me @$375.00. So dlong what you are saying is that every bundle is every 50 post cards? and for each 50 you have to havea cover page with all the same information on top of every 50?

[DLONGLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by Greener Grounds NC

i have been thinking about this and a local print shop is doing sets of 5000 for me @$375.00. So dlong what you are saying is that every bundle is every 50 post cards? and for each 50 you have to havea cover page with all the same information on top of every 50?

yes exactly. Lets say there are 400 homes in a route. You have to print out 8 cover pages for each 50 postcards bundled together.