Among the challenges associated with radically changing a traditional marketing channel like direct mail, knowledge and education rank highly as blockers that keep marketers from successfully deploying high- ROI campaigns. That’s why we are so excited to announce the launch of the Postalytics Academy, a completely new set of resources now available to all Postalytics customers.
The Postalytics Academy is a set of self-paced, self-service courses that are designed to help customers build fundamental direct mail marketing skills and then translate those skills into the use of Postalytics.
What Courses are Offered Through the Postalytics Academy?
We’re launching the Postalytics Academy with 3 initial courses:
- Direct Mail 101 – learn the fundamentals of direct mail marketing
- Technology & Automation in Direct Mail – learn how to use CRM and automation tools, cloud based software, design editing tools, personalization, small batch direct mail & more
- Using Postalytics – everything about the Postalytics platform, including connecting to your data sources, tracking delivery & response, creative templates, dashboards & analytics & more
As you complete a course, you’ll get a Postalytics Certification confirming that you’ve successfully completed the course and associated tests.
Who’s Eligible and What Does It Cost?
Anyone with a Postalytics account can sign up for the Postalytics Academy courses. Currently the courses are available to all Postalytics account holders, for all plans, free of charge. This may change in the future.
Access the Postalytics Academy via the Updated Help Menu
With the launch of the Postalytics Academy, we’ve re-organized our various help options that are beneath the Help Icon at the upper right corner of the Postalytics app. Just click the “?” icon and select “Postalytics Academy”.
Other Help Menu Changes
We’ve also updated the other resources available within the Help Menu. Click “Support” to access the library of Knowledgebase Articles via the Postalytics Help Center. Click “Got Questions?” to pop up the quick article search and support ticket feature.
Letter Paper Stock Upgrade To 70 lb For Higher Quality Printing
For years, Postalytics has offered the ability to use direct mail automation to send letters. Like most in the industry, we used 60 lb stock, as it has been highly available and a good option for basic graphics used on many letter creatives.
Recently, many customers have been deploying “heavy color usage” in their letter creative (think of rich, deep colors covering large parts of the page). This has caused some quality issues, as the standard 60 lb stock has not been able to “hold up” to the heavy ink, causing wrinkling, “see through” and other issues.
As a result, we’ve worked with our print partners to secure a consistent supply of higher quality, 70 lb paper stock (U.S. only, for now). The paper is thicker, stiffer and holds up better when used with heavy color treatments. We highly recommend sending a campaign and checking it out!
USPS Postage Increase Coming in January 2024
As has been the case for the last few years, the USPS has filed with their regulator to raise postage rates, beginning on January 21st, 2024. While not finalized, it is likely that this request will be granted. Our initial review of the proposed rate hikes indicate that this increase will be less than some of the most recent increases. More details to come.
Holiday Mailing 2023
As we head into the 2023 holiday season, we will see how the investments the USPS has made in people, infrastructure, and capacity will impact mail delivery times. We expect some delays and local/regional issues, but not to the extent that we saw them in 2020 and 2021.
We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to planning your holiday season direct mail, with specific dates that we recommend mailing by. Check it out!
What’s Next?
While it may not be fully visible to customers, we’ve recently pushed live a major upgrade to the underlying technology that powers Postalytics. This change will enable us to launch several more updates in the coming months, including:
- A new format focused on the non-profit sector
- An entirely new way of building direct mail campaigns – a 3rd campaign type we’re calling “Automated File Campaigns”
- A new list suppression tool
- New reporting tools
- System performance enhancements
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.
About the Author
Dennis Kelly
Dennis Kelly is CEO and co-founder of Postalytics, the leading direct mail automation platform for marketers to build, deploy and manage direct mail marketing campaigns. Postalytics is Dennis’ 6th startup. He has been involved in starting and growing early-stage technology ventures for over 30 years and has held senior management roles at a diverse set of large technology firms including Computer Associates, Palm Inc. and Achieve Healthcare Information Systems.