What is the best way of mailing postcards to a neighborhood?
February 23, 2013 2:53 PM Subscribe
I want to mail a few hundred postcards to a neighborhood to inform them about a particular issue. How should I do this?
I have a list of names and addresses of people in a neighborhood in the USA who are interested in receiving a postcard from my service. How should I go about mailing them? I anticipate sending 10 or so per day, and want to have a fully automated way of doing this
I currently have a system of auto-generating the postcard pdf for each addressee. However, I don't know how I can organize paying for postage and if this should be attached to each unique postcard before or after printing. I thought I might be able to use the USPS API or using a service like Vistaprint (though, ideally one which has an API).
I would appreciate any advice on how best to do this; I'm unfamiliar with this general area and the terminology.
I have a list of names and addresses of people in a neighborhood in the USA who are interested in receiving a postcard from my service. How should I go about mailing them? I anticipate sending 10 or so per day, and want to have a fully automated way of doing this
I currently have a system of auto-generating the postcard pdf for each addressee. However, I don't know how I can organize paying for postage and if this should be attached to each unique postcard before or after printing. I thought I might be able to use the USPS API or using a service like Vistaprint (though, ideally one which has an API).
I would appreciate any advice on how best to do this; I'm unfamiliar with this general area and the terminology.
Also, what size are they going to be? And why do you want to send only ten per day and not all at once?
posted by bq at 3:17 PM on February 23, 2013
posted by bq at 3:17 PM on February 23, 2013
There's an app for that...
And certainly a lot more than just this one I'm linking to: Postcard On The Run. (free download)
Sends a postcard to anyone, pays the postage, from your phone.
posted by artdrectr at 3:20 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
And certainly a lot more than just this one I'm linking to: Postcard On The Run. (free download)
Sends a postcard to anyone, pays the postage, from your phone.
posted by artdrectr at 3:20 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Ideally, I would like to send a unique postcard to each recipient as I want to have a unique code on each postcard. One approach that I have seen, is to use the same postcard layout for all users and to write the unique text above the address of the postcard.
I woud like to send them in smaller batches as I would like to send them only when requested by the addressee.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 3:22 PM on February 23, 2013
I woud like to send them in smaller batches as I would like to send them only when requested by the addressee.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 3:22 PM on February 23, 2013
If you want to send them all at once, you might be able to use USPS Bulk Mail. However, ten at a time doesn't qualify.
The USPS does list several third-party companies that provide this service. I'd take a look at them to see whether they can send a unique (or partially unique) card to each address. Since they already have to print a unique address, it should be possible in principle.
posted by brianogilvie at 3:24 PM on February 23, 2013
The USPS does list several third-party companies that provide this service. I'd take a look at them to see whether they can send a unique (or partially unique) card to each address. Since they already have to print a unique address, it should be possible in principle.
posted by brianogilvie at 3:24 PM on February 23, 2013
Best answer: Since I'm waiting for some beans to cook, I took a look at the USPS-recommended sites. The first two are for bulk or carrier route mailings, but it looks like Amazingmail will send out pieces with no minimum and image personalization.
posted by brianogilvie at 3:28 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by brianogilvie at 3:28 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
And if you're content with the same image, they also seem to have a fairly flexible set of text variables.
posted by brianogilvie at 3:29 PM on February 23, 2013
posted by brianogilvie at 3:29 PM on February 23, 2013
The vendor I use is psprint and I have been happy with their service. However, I use them for larger mailings.
For something like ten cards a day I would print them up in bulk and label and stamp them myself. Postcards that are 6 by 8 inches take a first class stamp.
posted by bq at 3:38 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
For something like ten cards a day I would print them up in bulk and label and stamp them myself. Postcards that are 6 by 8 inches take a first class stamp.
posted by bq at 3:38 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Does "fully automated"mean that you want a third party service that does everything except providing name and address, or does it mean "I want to push one button and then have them ready to mail"?
If it's the latter, this sounds like pretty simple mail-merge -- feed Word today's addresses and click print (with a macro this could be a single operation).
If you want to avoid sticking stamps you can go the permit mail route and just print the correct indicia on the cards (see: Permit Imprint). This is usually used for the various bulk rates (which don't apply to you), but can equally be used for standard first class mail.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 3:48 PM on February 23, 2013
If it's the latter, this sounds like pretty simple mail-merge -- feed Word today's addresses and click print (with a macro this could be a single operation).
If you want to avoid sticking stamps you can go the permit mail route and just print the correct indicia on the cards (see: Permit Imprint). This is usually used for the various bulk rates (which don't apply to you), but can equally be used for standard first class mail.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 3:48 PM on February 23, 2013
The USPS actually has a newish service for this called Every Door Direct Mail. It includes an online interface so you can manage just who is targeted.
posted by dhartung at 5:52 PM on February 23, 2013
posted by dhartung at 5:52 PM on February 23, 2013
Response by poster: At the moment for testing APIs, I've been quite happy with PostalMethods. It's quite straightforward to send an address and a pdf where the address will be appended to (postcards are more expensive than letters with this service).
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 5:09 PM on March 3, 2013
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 5:09 PM on March 3, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by bq at 3:16 PM on February 23, 2013