As Postalytics continues to grow, we’re committed to roll out new creative formats to enable automated direct mail to be used for more types of communications. Today, we are excited to announce the launch of our new nonprofit letter and return envelope formats (U.S. only for now), along with a powerful new reporting tool called the Transaction Analysis.
Table of contents
The 8.5 x 14 Legal Sized “Super Letter” for Nonprofits and Other Uses
We’ve long offered standard sized, 8.5 x 11 inch letters that fold into 3 panels across our standard #10 envelopes (dual window and customized single window envelope options). These have become some of our most popular options to communicate longer and/or more formal messages to customers in automated campaigns.
The new format extends to 14 inches in length, with a 4th folded panel that you can use to include 33% more content than the standard letter. This is now offered for printing and mailing in the U.S. (Let us know if you’re interested in this format for Canadian mailings). This is a very common format, often called the nonprofit letter or legal sized letter.
There are several options that can alter the way you use the new format.
Perforation Option: Make the Bottom Panel a Return Slip
Your first choice when setting up the template is to determine if you’d like to have a perforated bottom panel that the recipient can easily tear off and return (with payment, donation, survey and/or other information).
When the perforation option is selected, the first sheet of the letter will have a perforation included on the bottom panel that will make it easy for the recipient to remove the panel and drop it into a reply envelope. If you choose to have additional sheets in your template, they will not be perforated.
You can choose to add the perforation to your letter either when you create the template (from scratch or a Pre-Built template) or clicking the Perforation option under the “Settings” selection in the editor.
Up to 4 Sheets of Paper – Front & Back Printing Options
Because of the additional length and fold of this new format, you can include up to 4 sheets in the letter package, as opposed to 6 sheets with the standard 11 inch/3 panel folded letter.
You add pages & choose double sided printing using the same tools in the editor as the standard letter.
#9 Courtesy Reply Return Envelope Option When Perforation Selected (Purchase Required)
When you build a template with the Perforation option selected, you will most likely want to include a return envelope for the recipient to return the slip (and check, etc) in. Now, when you’re building your campaign, and you’ve chosen a template with a perforation, you have the option of including a Courtesy Reply Envelope (CRE).
The CRE is a slightly smaller envelope (#9 size that fits into the #10 outer envelope) that you can customize to have a pre-printed return address when you’re setting up the campaign. This option only appears in the campaign wizard when you’ve selected a template with a perforated panel.
There’s a small additional fee to add the CRE to your letter package. You can purchase CRE credits in advance, or in the case of a Smart Send Campaign, just use your credit card on file to purchase them.
8.5 x 14 Letter Knowledgebase Article
Here’s a quick link to access the Nonprofit Letter and Return Envelope Knowledgebase article.
The New Transaction Analysis Report for Better Reconciliation
The other big new feature that is live with this update is a new report called the Transaction Analysis. This report lives in a rearraigned menu under “Billing & Transactions” under your username.
The Transaction Analysis is designed to give you details about the purchases and sends that you’ve made in your Postalytics account. The new tool that makes it easier to reconcile your credit purchases, your use of credits any credit transfers between different formats.
It will also capture and report on credits that have been added back into your account by our CASS address validation process during the campaign creation. As you scale up your account and usage, there’s a tremendous amount of activity to reconcile.
Transaction Analysis Summary
To get started, you can enter any range of dates into the report, and the Transaction Analysis will give you a summary view of the different formats that you’ve either purchased or used during that time period. You’ll see your beginning credit balance, the number of credits added or purchased, the number of credits used or transferred, and the ending balance for each format.
Transaction Analysis Details
From the Summary View, you have a couple of options to dive deeper into the transactions. If you click the “View All” link, you’ll open up a detailed view of each transaction that occurred during that time period, with options to filter the data by Credit or Debit transactions, the type of transaction, the source of each transaction, and an option to download as a .CSV file for offline analysis and manipulation.
You can also review creative format transactions separately from the Summary View. Simply click on the link in the “Product” column (if there was activity in the time period, there will be a link to click). From there you’ll see all of the individual transactions for that particular format during the time period selected (with the option to download a .CSV as well).
Agency Edition Transaction Analysis – Full Account or Specific Client Account
If you’re using the Postalytics Agency Edition, you have the option to see all of the transactions for all of your client accounts, or you can drill into a specific client account to see the details for that account only. From there, all of the same options apply for drilling down into details and exporting to .CSV your transactions.
Transaction Analysis Knowledgebase Articles
Here’s are quick links to access the Transaction Analysis and Agency Transaction Analysis Knowledgebase articles.
A New Campaign Guardrail – Review Creative
Finally, we’ve made a small change to the Create Campaign Wizards (all of them, Smart Send, Triggered Drip and Automated File Campaign). Now, on the final step before payment, you’ll be prompted to check a box stating that you’ve reviewed the creative.
This is designed to prevent any errors in choosing the wrong creative while you’re setting up the campaign. Often customers will start a campaign, then come back to it and forget which creatives were chosen in the Templates step of the wizard. This additional prompt will ensure the correct template has been chosen.
You can choose to click the “Review Mail” button and Postalytics will generate a PDF representing your creative. At this time, the PDF will pull sample data and won’t fill in any personalization variables. If you’d like to download or print the PDF for further review or for sending it to others, you can right click on the PDF and make your selection.
What Postalytics Plans Can Access the Nonprofit Letter, Return Envelope and Other New Features?
Currently, all Postalytics customers can access the Nonprofit Letter, Return Envelope, Transaction Analysis and other features mentioned in this update are available for all Postalytics plans.
What’s Next?
We have a pipeline of several new features that will be released over the coming weeks, including:
- A new list suppression tool
- System performance enhancements
- An updated Salesforce integration
- A new method of capturing direct mail campaign responses
- A revised Salesforce integration
- Sales tax calculation
- And much more
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.