Vegan Printer offers direct mailing services to Businesses and Non-Profit Organizations. With our understanding of preparing and sending mail, we can simplify the process for you, making it easy by taking care of every step of your mailing project — from our press to your recipient’s home! 

Seven Steps for a Successful Mailing

 

STEP 1: Pick your Mailing option

We assist in determining which mailing option may work best for your business or organization. There are several different ways to get your mailings out to the world (all are Bulk Rate): Invitations, Announcements, Campaigns, Brochures, Catalogs, Samples, Menus, Calendars, Special Appeals, End of Year Reports, Personalized FundRaising, EDDM, etc…

Live Stamps available for First Class, Presort Standard, and Presort Non-Profit (instead of Indicia). Stamps are applied by hand or machine to individual mailing pieces. Although it adds a little time and a little more expense, the results and return can make it worthwhile. Using an indicia requires a postal permit and is only used in batches rather than individual pieces of mail. Indicias must be formatted a certain way and follow certain rules to be used properly. 

Mailing options:

Presort First Class (Mainly when time-sensitive)

Delivered in 1 – 3 business days locally and 3 – 5 business days nationally by the USPS. Please note that the East Coast takes longer for larger flat pieces. Especially during winter’s inclement weather conditions.) — 500 pc. Minimum

Size options for businesses to send mailers/sample packs across the country: Postcard 4 x 6/4.25 x 6”, Letter 5 x 7” up to 6 x 9”, or Flat 8.5 x 11 up to 9 x 12 (not to exceed 3 ounces). There is a flat rate regardless of where you ship in the US, the rate is normally less expensive than other types of ground shipping. 

Presort Standard 

Lower Postage rate than First Class Rate (takes 2 days longer than First Class) — 250 pc. Minimum

Presort Non-Profit (ONLY for Non-Profit Organizations with a Permit) 

.199¢ per piece for a Letter (less if large quantity and/or concentrated zip codes) — 250 pc. Minimum

EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) 

With a minimum of One Route (can’t be broken up), this is a great option for restaurants or local businesses looking to focus on a few zip codes around your business — developing local clientele and targeted specific neighborhoods. Can be done for Residential Only or Residential and Businesses.

 

STEP 2: Apply for a Mailing Permit

For Businesses, the first step is to apply for a mailing permit and pay an annual mailing fee for USPS Marketing Mail and/or First-Class Mail. There is no need to apply for a permit for Bulk Rate First Class, Standard, or EDDM. You can apply for a permit using this link!

Applying for a Permit is not required as it obligates a yearly fee. It must also be used at least once per year or gets canceled. A deposit is also needed to cover the postage for each job prior to mailing. Worse yet, you can only mail from the post office where you applied. If you use our permit, then you will save all that trouble and it is dropped at the Central Facility Post Office Bulk Mail Unit Los Angeles.

If you need assistance applying for Non-Profit Authorization (must meet certain criteria and provide all items as per the checklist from USPS), we can assist in expediting a process that would usually take months to 2 – 3 weeks. We also understand that this process can be tedious work for Non-Profit Bulk, so we can also help by letting you use our Permit — the only requirement is that you are a qualified non-profit organization. Click here for non-profit applications!

STEP 3: Get your Mailing List Ready!

Create your own list on a spreadsheet with columns for each: First Name, Last Name, Address, City, State, Zip)  Salutation and/or Title when applicable.  

You can create this in a grassroots way over time, one friendly donor at a time or with your client address list. We can also help you purchase a list that specifically locally or nationally targets your potential customers or donors.  All we will need are your criteria for the list and we can provide a count at NO CHARGE.  If it is an EDDM mailing, we provide a zip code map with counts of homes and businesses.

STEP 4: Get your Artwork Ready!

Our design team can assist with creating your various mailing elements, including envelopes, letters, various inserts, postcards, BRE (Business Return Envelope), Reply Envelopes, EDDM, and more! we can also provide the templates and information on postal regulations for that specific mailing.

STEP 5: It’s Time to Print!

We will print and prepare your various mailing elements (outer/inner envelopes, letters, etc.) with your design or one from our design team. We can personalize the pieces as you like while helping to develop a plan for assembly and addressing — keeping the post office’s regulations in mind for final acceptance.  Once the mailing plan is finalized, we will provide a specific quote and an estimate of postage.

STEP 6: Check your Recipients’ Addresses

We will check and verify that each of your recipient’s addresses is correct and provide an NCOA (National Change of Address) report. This is to ensure that nothing goes undelivered and you can update your master client list with any changes.

STEP 7: Your Mailing is on its Way!

After the mail is sorted, the containers are prepared, the postage is calculated, and the postage statement is filled out, the mail is ready to go. We transport your mailing to the main post office for bulk mailing or sometimes to your specific post office to control the day of arrival as precisely as possible.

We hope you will find this quick guide to mailings useful and we look forward to answering any questions you may have, or assisting you with a quote! Contact us any time at info@veganprinter.com we are always happy to hear from you!