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TNT Post Introduces Admail For Promotional Direct Mail

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

TNT Post Introduces Admail For Promotional Direct Mail
20 August 2010 – Isobel Spaven-Donn

TNT Post has launched a new service, adMail, to help increase the return on investment for marketers of promotional direct mail. The bespoke product is a reduced cost service that has been specifically designed for promotional direct mail which drives sales or encourages support for a cause.

In addition to increasing a mailing’s return on investment, adMail also aims to promote best practice in data management; customers using the adMail service will commit to diligent data processes through suppression of customer and prospect data against consumer and business data files, such as the Mail Preference Service

For assistance with data cleansing, businesses can utilise TNT Post’s dataMatters service – a suite of data products designed to help organisations improve the accuracy of data used for direct mailings, in order to achieve optimum marketing efficiency, return on investment and audience impact. When married with TNT Post’s greenPost service, which looks at responsible, recyclable resourcing, clients can also reduce the environmental impact of the mailing.

adMail is available for delivery in a five working day delivery window and is for customers sending upwards of 4000 items a day, or at least 10,000 items a day for Access 700 CBC customers.

Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post UK, comments: “adMail offers the direct mail sector a new, cost-effective and efficient service that meets the needs of marketers in the current economic climate. By introducing a reduced cost service for promotional direct mailings, we aim to provide real value to customer.”

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Carbon footprint – if you are sending out large amounts of mail/catalogues in the UK/Europe - You should be aware that 80% of carbon footprint of mail is in the returned piece. Solution? VERIDATA

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, 'Green Tax', Carbon Footprint, Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme, Catalogues, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Direct Mail/ Catalogues Save up to 50% on your returned and ‘gone way’ mail

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

In partnership with Arbutus Ridge we process their CodEffect 2d barcode, a powerful method of encoding large amounts of data. Successfully used by many organisations including HMRC and Tesco, reults for the latter in the first six months – a 50% reduction in its operational costs for returned mail.

It attracts a lower charge rate to capture than standard alpha/numeric data and we can return the data files on a daily basis if required.

Veridata now offers this encrypted 2d bar-coding system which means that capture of name & address, campaign codes etc. is considerably cheaper and enables us to offer our customers great savings for processing their returned mail.

CodEffect capture solution offer a fixed charge, regardless of the amount of data captured.

The CodEffect service has two distinct elements – simple data capture from returns and

data verification & enhancement. If required it can explain the reason for returns by

running them against a number of industry wide data sets.

The discreet two- dimensional barcode can be set in various places in or outside the envelope

For the ‘core’ data capture service the price is simply based on the number of scans performed – the amount of data captured is irrelevant. There is no charge for the software or creation of a barcode.

Also included in the cost is the destruction and responsible disposal of all waste paper, which is recycled locally; this helps reduce your carbon footprint. Our service also helps you to comply with EU Directives on Landfill PAS2020 and Royal Mail’s Sustainable Mail.

Technical Requirements

Veridata in partnership with Arbutus Ridge will provide all software required to manage the printing of the CodEffect 2d barcodes free of charge and will work alongside the Client and chosen print company to install and test the process. Full technical requirements will be produced on agreement of contract.

Supplied as Windows DLL’s, which you can integrate using Visual Basic

For further information please contact

Tim Craig Business Development Director

Tel: 07970 759282 email: tim.craig@veri-data.co.uk

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, 'gone aways', Carbon Footprint, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Recycling paper, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Royal Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Millions wasted on inaccurate mailings

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Did you know that on average business data decays at 27% annually and that businesses waste £220 million each year on inaccurate mailings?

By using our Returned and Undelivered mail (and catalogues) service you can can help cut that cost, save your company money, protect your brand and send out positive green mess age to all your customers.

I hate waste and I see it all the time, piles of ‘junk’ direct mail, duplicate letters to myself and then again to my wife it’s poorly badly targetted mail.

I have nothing against Direct Mail I have been prompted to buy goods from Direct Mail but there is an iniquitous amount of waste through sloppy targeting and duplication and it does piss people off.

It’s not rocket science and we have been doing it for fourteen years so we know our service can reduce this waste and we can prove how we do it (and by using CodEffect we can reduce that even further), and we recycle all the waste paper.

Few businesses monitor the amount of mail they send out, or the cost of returned mail or the potential damage to their company or brand and for every piece of poorly targeted business mail returned to sender, a staggering 20 are thrown away.

People throw away 59 percent of the mail they receive for previous employees.

Direct Mail Landfill costs £40 a ton.

Facts like these are are everywhere but when I read,

‘We’re the last billionth of a second in the evolution of matter’. DeLillio

I think I really should get a life.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, 'gone aways', Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, Identity Fraud, PAS2020, Recycling paper, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Royal Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Sustainable Mail and DMA beats targets for recycling

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Veridata has been doing its bit to help the Direct Marketing Industry meet the targets for recycling, and indeed anyone who sends out large amounts of mail or catalogues. Once we have captured the relevant information for our customers from the mail we process all the paper residue is destroyed and recycled. This helps to lower the carbon footprint of the sender as 80% of the carbon footprint of a piece of direct mail is in the ‘end of life’ solution. Our service helps to meet the requirements for Sustainable Mail and PAS2020. Perhaps as important it also saves a lot of money, protects brand image and goes some ways to mitigating the opportunity for identity fraud.

Sending out large mail? Meet you Corporate Social Responsibility by processing your returns responsibly call Veridata today and make your mail more effective.

Royal Mail launched two new sustainable services in 2009, with usage levels already running at over 380m items a year Source: Royal Mail (2010)

With ‘Sustainable Mail’ (available via RM Retail) and ‘Responsible Mail (available via RM Wholesale) mailers achieve better prices for producing direct mailings that are better targeted, produced in a sustainable way and easy to recycle. These services are fully aligned to PAS 2020

384m items of Direct Mail were sent via these services in the 12 months up to January 2010, equating to over 10% of all Direct Mail.

Royal Mail has been further driving up improvements in mail quality via the new Royal Mail Mailing House scheme. This scheme, which disbursed over £5m in the last 12 months, gives rewards to Mailing Houses which can provide evidence of environmental management systems (ISO14001, etc.)

Matthew Neilson, Head of Environmental Solutions, Royal Mail, commented: “The direct marketing industry has made a significant effort to reduce its impact on the environment, and the introduction of initiatives such as the DMA’s PAS2020 and Royal Mail’s Sustainable® Mail product have been instrumental in helping the sector to achieve this recycling goal. However, there is much more that can be done to ensure direct marketers are communicating in as sustainable a fashion as possible.”

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, 'gone aways', Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Recycling paper, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Royal Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Direct Mail and Traying Up

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Is the process of ‘traying up’ as efficient as you would want it to be? Is your system automated, pre-trayed and pre-sorted? By a slight extension to the use of CodEffect 2dbar code, used by us to process returned and undelivered mail, you can create automated traying. This can considerably improve efficiencies in the presentation of your mail to your carrier (s) and save you money

The efficiencies and reduced costs gained by CodEffect in the processing of returned and undelivered mail is a ‘no brainer’ and could save you a considerable amount of money.

The responsible handling of all yours, or your customers returned mail is good for your brand image, and good for the environment, it ticks all the ‘green’ boxes and cuts carbon footprint.

Our service also helps you to comply with PAS2020, Royal Mail’s Sustainable Mail, and the EU Directives on Landfill that all waste paper is disposed of correctly, no more land fill allowed for this kind of material.

As an inclusive part of our service we recycle all waste paper.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Recycling paper, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Direct Mail some good advice from USA but…..

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

10 ELEMENTS EVERY DIRECT MAIL PIECE SHOULD HAVE

Tuesday, 27 April 2010 00:00 Written by Joy Gendusa

Don’t want your direct mail to end up in the trash with the rest of the unread mail? These 10 tips will help you get the results you want:

1. A clear, bold headline

On the envelope or front of the mailer there should be one central message. The best way to achieve that is with a bold, clear headline that’s not cluttered with other text. A good guideline is to have the headline fill up at least 15 percent of the front of the mailer.

2. A graphic that supports the message

The graphic should be easy to understand and easily relatable to the message the headline is trying to convey. For instance, if you are trying to get people to buy a car, you would want to show a car with a promotional sign clearly visible, such as “$1,000 Cash Back”. That graphic reinforces the message more than a simple picture of a car.

3. Color that pops

Make the headline and other text stand out by using a color that stands out from the background color. When you look at the card, ask yourself, “What do I see first?” If your answer isn’t the headline, you might want to tweak the colors.

4. Subheads that lead into text

If you have a couple of paragraphs of text with no lead in, there’s nothing to entice people to actually read the copy. A subhead will give people a place to start reading. If you have only 100 words or so you may be able to get away with it, but if the text gets any longer the average reader will want to have some guideposts along the way.

5. Benefits, benefits, benefits

One of the biggest advertising errors people make is to state features rather than benefits. For example, never assume recipients know what benefit can be derived from a lower interest rate. Let them know how their monthly payments will go down.

6. The offer

An offer is always a good idea and should represent a specific reason to call now, such as “Limited supply” or “Interest rates are climbing.”

7. Your company name and logo

Although this needs to be on the mailer, it shouldn’t overshadow the offer. Customers care most about what you can do for them.

8. Call to action

Tell prospects exactly what you want them to do. “Call today for more information” or “See us online” are two of the most common desired actions.

9. Contact information

Provide your name, phone number, and web address directly following the call to action. Whatever you ask prospects to do, give them the means to do it easily.

10. Return address

A return address ensures you’ll get returned mail from the post office and sends a message that you’re an established professional. People feel better knowing the company they’re dealing with has an actual location.

BUT… WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR RETURNED AND UNDELIVERED MAIL? THE ‘GONE AWAYS’?

OUTSOURCE IT TO THE PROFESSIONALS – VERIDATA

We take the headache of the ‘end of life solution’ and the producer responsibility that all waste paper generated is disposed of correctly. We will also:

Capture the information you require
Keep your databases clean
Save you money
Help you comply with PAS2020 & Royal Mail’s Sustainable Mail
Protect brand image
Mitigate opportunity for identity fraud
Lower your carbon footprint

Call Tim Craig 07970 759282 today

PS Save even money ask us about CodEffect 2d bar code

Article by Joy Gendusa is CEO of PostcardMania, USA for more information visit www.postcardmania.com.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, Government and SMEs, PAS2020, Recycling paper, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Royal Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Direct Mail and Public Perception

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Paper has been identified as a material where reduced waste and greater recycling can yield significant environmental benefits.

The Government has already concluded voluntary producer responsibility agreement to promote, in particular, increased recycling magazines and direct mail the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

Add in Newspapers and these three waste streams are estimated to amount to about 3.6 million tonnes (which would equate to about 14% of total household waste).

Direct marketing material estimated to account for approximately just 2% of this but the public perceive it to be much higher because it is so visible. More and more consumers are concerning themselves with environmental and social issues and 53% of UK and 66% of US consumers have considered switching brand due to corporate social responsibility. 51% said they or their family had boycotted a company because its products damage the environment.

For companies that send out large mailings our service helps to address corporate social responsibility and the issue of ‘producer responsibility’ in that all waste paper generated is disposed of properly. 80% of the carbon footprint for a piece of mail is in this ‘end of life’ solution. It also helps with BSI Standard PAS2020, Sustainable Mail and new EU directives on landfill,

Public perception about the much maligned ‘Junk Mail’ is skewed because it is so visible and in the home but opting out is all or nothing and who has not at sometime been prompted to make purchase from direct mail?

Protect your brand, reduce your carbon footprint, and save shed loads of money just call us now.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Wrong Delivery Addresses Cost Businesses 146m

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Incorrect delivery addresses cost online UK businesses over £146m every year, according to a study released by Worcester-based IT firm Postcode Anywhere this week.

The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) and Postcode Anywhere report found that every year 5.8 million items ordered online fail to deliver first time because of an error in the address.

Postcode Anywhere MD Guy Mucklow said: “It’s shocking that in this day and age we still can’t seem to fill out our addresses accurately. But the problem doesn’t lie with the customer: more often it’s a result of poorly-put-together online forms and ill-conceived data capture.

“E-commerce businesses are shooting themselves in the foot if they take shortcuts with their address forms. According to our results, every delivery that fails due to an incorrect address costs an average £25.50 to put right, through refunds, redeliveries and wasted man-hours.

“Averaged out, current levels of delivery inefficiency add 70p to the cost of every single parcel dispatched in the UK, and 75p for every delivery.

“Clearly, there is a strong argument for e-tailers to take more care in how they collect customer information. It even affects customer service levels: as consumers, we’ve probably all experienced the frustrating scenario of being forced to select a US state from a drop-down box, or abbreviate words because they won’t fit in the fields.

“While we’ve learnt missed delivery levels are high, it also seems likely that even more customers will never go through with the order in the first place if they meet with a particularly troublesome form.

“Solutions do exist which make the purchase process quicker for customers, and ensure addresses are captured accurately and easily. In fact, by installing technology that auto-fills an address from a UK postcode – such as that available from Postcode Anywhere – e-commerce vendors can sidestep these problems altogether.

“Postcodes collected from online forms cannot be underestimated – they’re even useful for delivery drivers’ sat-navs.

“We asked our customers, and two thirds of them said they’d noticed a reduction in the number of items lost in the post after implementing address auto-fill technology. Over 70% agreed it reduced shopping cart abandonments.

“But as this study shows, although many of the big names in e-commerce are wise to the benefits of address auto-fill and validation, a significant percentage of vendors can’t see what they’re missing.”

The research made findings representing more than 12 million online consumers, 3.5 million active online shoppers and almost 800 million home deliveries.

For information about Postcode Anywhere’s award-winning range of UK and international address auto-fill and validation software, visit www.postcodeanywhere.com

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, DMA, Direct Mail, Postal returns, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Cut the cost of returned mail handling and make your customers happy

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Would you like to reduce the cost of handling returned mail and enhance the service you offer your customers? Veridata established in 1996 provides a dedicated, automated and fast turn around data capture for returned and undelivered mail. We have the capacity to process large volumes at a competitive price and the ROI is substantial.

Our cost is more than met by the savings made, helps to meet the requirements of PAS2020 and Sustainable Mail and includes the safe destruction and recycling of all waste paper.

Licensed to process CodEffect 2d barcode, a powerful method of encoding large amounts of data and successfully used by HMRC and Tesco. Since using it, the latter have seen a 50% reduction in its operational costs for returned mail over the last six months.

Attracting a lower charge rate to capture than standard alpha/numeric data, we can return the data files on a daily basis if required. We tailor our service to save you money.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Recycling paper, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Royal Mail – A poisoned challice?

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

The final selection for a successor for Adam Crozier, chief executive at Royal Mail, is underway. Crozier is to begin a new post with ITV, but with Royal Mail about to step up its plans for survival; Crozier’s successor will have much to contend with including difficult industrial relations and a declining letters market.
According to the Press Association, Kate Swann, chief executive with WH Smith chief, is being tipped as the leading contender. In March 2009, Donald Brydon became a Non-Executive Director of the Royal Mail Group, replacing Allan Leighton. Royal Mail has seen several changes at the top in recent years but with now faces a real battle to retain its share of the D2D market to offset the decline in stamped mail, some of which has already been lost to rivals. Hellmail.co.uk (05 April 2010) http://www.hellmail.co.uk

Whoever takes this job is going to have a tough job on their hands, but unless someone drags this organisation into the real world I cannot see it surviving in its present form. The competition is hotting up and once the dust has settled on the election whoever is in charge will have to address the issue. It still raises the question as to who would want to invest in a business which EU rules force to run at a loss.

They have to make savings and a good start would be looking at their returned mail handling process, and the committment Adam Crozier gave in Copenhagen to cut their carbon footprint.

Posted in DMA, Direct Mail, Postal returns, Royal Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »