Use a Self Mailer to Save Money

If you are trying to create a mailable marketing piece such as a brochure, newsletter, or catalog on a limited budget, consider making the piece a self-mailer as opposed to creating a separate folder or envelope to mail it in. Not only will this save you the cost of printing envelopes, it can save you on postage as well. The postage savings really comes if you keep the finished size down so that you do not incur a flat fee from the post office. You need to check with your local post office to see what the size would be.

From a marketing standpoint, you could also include a return card that can be torn off which would enable you to effectively track the response rate of your piece. There are many others things you can do to help your piece get a better return rate, but that discussion is for another day not to mention that we could spend several hundred pages discussion all the tips and tricks to direct mail.

Back to the idea at hand and that is creating a self mailer. For example, you could use a tri-fold brochure as a self mailer. Just pick one of the panels that also shares one of the outside panels and place your mailing info there. If you plan to do a bulk mailing, then you can even save more time and money on postage by preprinting a postal indicia where the stamp would go. If you have your own mailing permit then you would use the number here, otherwise ask the mail house that will be doing your mailing if you can use theirs. Most of the time they will do this free of charge, as long as you give them the mailing business. Depending on the number of brochures or self-mailers that you plan on mailing, the cost of using a mail house is well worth it compared to doing it yourself. Plus, if you do not have any software or mailing equipment, you will have to pay full postage on the mailer vs. the discounted postage that a mail house can give you just by sorting the mail in a way that the postal service likes. This savings can effect pay for the mailing services!