QUOTING CHECKLIST: PACKAGES

To help plan the creation of the mailing package, use this checklist as your guide. We understand you may not have all the answers for each question at this time, but this will prepare you for all of the pieces that need to be addressed before a mailing project is finalized. Your Account Manager will provide recommendations, guidance and help answer questions to make the most of your mailing project!

Please be aware that once the packages are with USPS, UPS, or other carrier, we no longer have control of delivery timelines. During the planning process, we will advise on a normal delivery time range, but ranges can vary.
    If doing multiple drops, please note:
  • We’ll need separate mailing lists for each drop
  • There will be a charge for each additional drop
  • We’ll need an approximate timeline for each drop.
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If undecided on items, please provide any ideas and specs that you’re interested in and your Account Manager will brainstorm solutions with you.
If you are unsure, we are able to help select the option that fits your needs.
If unsure, we are happy to recommend options based on what is included in the mailing and your timeline.
9. Payment - For large dollar projects and/or projects where significant postage is incurred on a continual basis, we may request to invoice 50% of the sales order amount (due Net 30) when the project is put into production. The balance will be invoiced Net 30 after the first shipment.

Variable Data Best Practices

  • At the quoting stage of your project, please let us know how many fields of variable data your piece will have as this can affect pricing.
  • Data should be provided to us as an Excel spreadsheet with only the applicable data included.
  • Verbiage for variable data fields on artwork file should match up exactly with data fields on spreadsheet.
  • Spacing on artwork must allow for longest data entries. We recommend that your designer tests this in advance to confirm that the fields in the design can fit your longest pieces of data.

Postage Permits

We are happy to mail using a client’s USPS non-profit number. Here are a few best practices for this to go smoothly. Let our team know up front on the project so we can make sure to get the information we need right away. 

While our mail house does prefer to use their permit number for the mailing, we can use the client’s permit, If using their permit number, ensure there is enough postage to cover the mailing.

The information we need to in order to use a client’s nonprofit number includes the following:

  • CRID (customer registration ID)
  • Non-Profit Authorization Number (with USPS, not their nonprofit number for the university)
  • Non-profit indicia
  • Return address that is on file with USPS for the non-profit authorization number
  • Permit number

Formatting the Mailing List

Our account team will advise on specific requirements for your project’s mailing list.  We generally recommend these best practices to format the mailing list:
  • Send your data in a spreadsheet, saving it in the comma-separated values (CSV) format
  • International addresses must be separated from domestic addresses
  • Domestic addresses should at least contain data fields for “first name”, “last name”, “address 1”, “address 2”, “city”, “state” and “ZIP code”