Product Update: Direct Mail Credit Conversion and New Letter Features

Postalytics has changed the way that marketers buy direct mail in many ways, including giving you the ability to buy direct mail in bulk while sending it out in small batches with our Direct Mail Credits feature. In our ongoing effort to reduce friction & give our customers a great user experience, we’ve created a new direct mail credit conversion tool that lets you exchange direct mail credits from one format to another, without needing to contact customer support.

We’ve also greatly enhanced our Direct Mail Letter formats by offering a new, lower priced option for single sheet, single sided letters (known as simplex) and changing the way we calculate “Extra Pages” to make them more affordable.

Direct Mail Credit Conversion Tool

The new Direct Mail Credit Conversion tool is designed to help you quickly and easily exchange credits you’ve bought for a particular format and class of mail for credits of a different format/mail class. Currently, customers that need to swap out credits for different formats have to contact customer service and request this to be done manually. It requires several steps, takes some time, and several emails. Now, you can use this new tool right in the application to exchange credits as often as you’d like.

You can access this new tool by choosing “Direct Mail Credits” in your Account menu and then “Convert Direct Mail Credits” from the left side menu. Using the tool is easy & fast:

• Choose the country that you want to convert within (currently US and Canada). You cannot currently convert credits between countries (no US to Canada credits or vice versa)
• Choose the credit type you want to convert from (example 4×6 Postcard US)
• Choose the credit type you want to convert to (example 6×11 Postcard Standard US)

From there, simply enter the number of credits that you want to convert and press “Calculate”. You’ll then see a pop up on your screen providing the details of the calculation for you:

The calculation of credits is done automatically for you based on the pricing tier you used to purchase your credits and your plan. If you need to re-calculate to get a specific number of credits in the new format, simply close the window and select a different number of credits to convert. Once you’ve got the right number of credits, click “Convert Now” and you’re on your way.

It will take a few minutes to process the credit transfer (there’s lots of moving parts to update). While the transfer is processing but not complete, it will be listed in “Pending Conversion Transactions”. While the direct mail credit conversion is pending, you won’t be able to perform any other conversions with those credits.

Check out the detailed Knowledgebase article about how to Convert Direct Mail Credits.

Account for Credit Transfers with the Transaction Analysis Report

Does your finance or accounting department have a need to see what you’ve done after you’ve conducted credit transfers? You (or they) can easily access this information in the Transaction Analysis Report. Simply enter a date range for the Postalytics transactions (including credit transfers) you’d like to view/download, and then select “View All”. This will give you a filterable report that you can easily download into a .CSV file for sharing or further analysis.

New Letter Format Option – Simplex Letters: 1 Sheet, 1 Side, Save $

In the print industry, “Simplex” means printing on one side of the sheet of paper, while “Duplex” means printing (or having the ability to print) on both sides of the sheet of paper. Postalytics has never distinguished between these printing styles, our postcards and self-mailers are all “Duplex” or printed on both sides, and our letter products (8.5×11 and 8.5×14) have never offered an option. Until now.

As we’ve analyzed the way that our customers have been using our various products, we’ve noticed that a high percentage of the letters that are being sent are using one sheet and one side of the letter. So, we’ve launched a new format with a lower price point, the Simplex Letter.

How and When to Use the Simplex Letter

Now, if you build a letter template that is a single “Page” in the Postalytics Editor, you can use that template in a campaign and pay for it with “Simplex Letter” Direct Mail Credits that you’ve purchased, or, if you’re paying via credit card in the campaign wizard, Postalytics will recognize the template as “Simplex” and choose that format price point for you.

The Simplex letter format is available for both the 8.5×11 and 8.5×14 formats in the U.S., across all postage types, and is available for the 8.5×11 format in Canada.

A New Way We Calculate Letter Extra Pages – Save $

Our letter format “Extra Pages” were built to follow the format of our original print provider, who charged “per side” of paper that was used. So historically, Postalytics has required an “Extra Page” for each side of a letter that was printed upon.

Now, to go along with the change in the way we calculate Simplex Letters, we’ve converted all of our other multi-sided, multi-sheet letters to a true “Duplex” format. As a result, now “Extra Pages” truly represent another page or sheet of paper. This means that one “Extra Page” gets you the ability to print on the front and the back of the sheet of paper.

An Extra Page Example – Old vs New

Let’s use a simple example to illustrate the difference between the new way we are calculating Extra Pages and the old way.

In the old way, if you wanted to send a letter that printed on the front and back of 2 sheets of paper, you’d need to buy the following:

• 1 Letter (including the first page/side and envelope and postage). Let’s say that is U.S. $1.00
• 3 “Extra Pages” to be able to print on the back of the first page/side, and then on the front/back of the second sheet of paper. In the Postalytics free plan, that’s U.S. $0.30 x 3 + $0.90.
• The total unit cost of this letter package is U.S. $1.90

In the new way, in order to send the same letter (front and back of 2 sheets), you’d need to buy:

• 1 Letter that includes the first page (front and back, along with the envelope and postage) for U.S. $1.00
• 1 “Extra Page” to be able to print on the front and back of the 2nd sheet of paper for U.S. $0.30
• The total unit cost of this letter package is U.S. $1.30

In this example, you’d save $0.60 per letter you send because of the change we’ve just implemented.

Existing Letter and Extra Page Credits are Converted to Duplex – Saving You $

If you have any existing letter and/or extra page credits, they’ve automatically been converted to the new “Duplex” format at no extra charge. You can either take advantage of the new ability to print on both sides, making your Extra Page credits go farther, or you can convert them (using the new Conversion Tool) to Simplex credits (at another cost savings for you) if you want to send 1 sheet, 1 sided letters.

Learn more about Postalytics Letter Formats with this Knowledgebase article.

What’s Next?

We have a pipeline of several new features that will be released over the coming months, including:

• More direct mail formats
  • Full bleed letters
  • 8.5×11 “Super-sized” postcards
  • Variable data envelopes
• Expanded print network – new locations
• A new method of capturing direct mail campaign responses
• A new workflow/scheduling tool
• A new mailing list purchasing system
• A new API/Developer portal
• New campaign types like website retargeting and automated lead mailing
• Sales tax calculation
• And much more

Stay tuned for these upcoming announcements and thank you for choosing Postalytics! If you’d like to speak with us about any of these announcements, please reach out to us.