To Stuff or Not to Stuff: The Self-Mailer Question
When budget is an issue or when you want to ensure that your promotional piece will be seen, a self-mailer can be a good choice.
One of the challenges for any direct mail piece is getting opened. Because a self-mailer does not have to go into an envelope, getting opened is no longer an issue. The piece will be seen easily, even if it’s just sitting on a table. And, because an envelope is not required, you can save the costs of the envelopes, of any associated printing and of insertion. That’s a pretty good deal!
We are often asked about design and tabbing requirements for self-mailers. In Canada, the rules are basically that it must be securely bound and cannot come apart. A piece only requires tabbing if it pops open more than 2 cm when lying flat. Even then, only a single tab is required.
Of course, if you want your mailing piece to arrive in pristine condition, you might prefer to protect it by placing it into an envelope or polybag so that it does not get damaged while in the mailing system. However, it is worth noting that pre-sorted Addressed Admail is not sorted via machines within the Canadian postal system. Also, many pieces that are bundled during the pre-sort process are shipped directly to the appropriate delivery stations, especially on larger mailings. As such, there is less propensity for damage to pieces than one might think. Still, the possibility does exist for more superficial damage than for an item traveling in an envelope.
There are a variety of options that you can select from when using self-mailers. The simplest is the basic postcard. With pre-sorted Addressed Admail you can be as creative as you want to be (leaving room for addressing and the postal indicia, and remaining within spec, of course). For specifications on pre-sorted Addressed Admail, give us a call at Highland Marketing or you can visit the Canada Post site.
Those that know us probably also know that we are strong proponents of using different shapes that will get noticed, especially for postcards. We came out with the Roundcard™ in the summer of 2009 and have shipped thousands of these for a variety of different clients, some of which have been repeat orders. Some custom dies are not that expensive and Canada Post encourages the use of oddly shape mailers for pre-sorted Addressed Admail as well as Unaddressed Admail. Like us, they want your mail to stand out so that your mailing will be successful.
Your self-mailer could also consist of an 8.5” X 11” page, with a half fold or letter fold. Optionally, it could be one or more 11” X 17” sheets folded to 8.5” X 11” or to 8.5” X 5.5”, using the latter to take advantage of the preferred Short/Long pricing for Addressed Admail. Additionally, it could be a Dimensional Addressed Admail piece or it could even be a publication. It all depends on what you want to mail, provided that you keep it within spec.
With today’s variable print technologies, you can even personalize your self-mailers with basic first name substitutions or with more advanced substitutions, using multiple fields or graphics. If you were to suggest that this would likely be more expensive, you would be correct. However, as we noted above, self-mailers are frequently used to ensure that the mailing piece gets noticed (i.e. the recipient does not have to open the envelope) rather than simply saving money. So, if getting noticed is the objective, various forms of personalization might also make sense.
As a cautionary note, please remember that the specifications for Lettermail postcards are quite different than pre-sorted Addressed Admail and this can prove costly if designed to the wrong specification. Also, other items that you can mail as self-mailers using pre-sorted Addressed Admail would likely be classified as non-standard if mailed as Lettermail and charged at a rate of $1.22 per piece. Therefore, it is often not cost-effective to mail a self-mailer that was designed to Addressed Admail specifications as Lettermail.
We already see a lot of self-mailers in Canada. However, if you are still using envelopes and want to ensure that your piece gets noticed or you want to save some money, you might consider one or more of the self-mailer options that are available when using pre-sorted Addressed Admail.
As always, if there are any questions on this or any other direct marketing topics, please do not hesitate to give us a call here at Highland Marketing.
