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Greening the list Every year, U.S. businesses send billions of pieces of mail that are undeliverable as addressed (UAA). By taking simple, ongoing steps to maintain a clean, up-to-date list, your business can reduce its amount of UAA mail. This helps lessen its impact on the environment because you’ll be producing fewer mailpieces and using less paper, ink and energy. Resources available to help hone your lists include ZIP Code correction, address standardization and change-of-address services. Here are steps you can take to fine-tune your lists: • Merge and purge mailing lists often to remove invalid names and addresses. • Provide frequent, clear opportunities for customers to opt-in and opt-out. • Maintain a list to prevent unwanted communications. • Allow customers to specify their preferred method of contact. • Target mail efficiently using segmentation and modeling to select recipients. • Personalize your message to increase relevance and reduce waste. The many faces of paper Almost every direct mail piece is printed and mailed using paper. Depending on the piece, certain characteristics may be required of the paper itself, including brightness and coatings. Marketers can reduce their environmental footprint significantly by using nontraditional kinds of paper. There are many opportunities to make direct mail more eco-friendly: • Use paper containing post-consumer waste. • Print on the lightest weight of paper. • Investigate papers made of alternative materials, such as sugarcane. • Choose paper made using chemical-free processes (chlorine-free, for example). • Experiment with formats that require less paper and packaging to reduce paper use and overall weight. • Work with paper mills that use environmentally friendly production practices and use and encourage sustainability practices to renew forest resources. Inks and coatings An often overlooked opportunity to spare the environment during direct mail production is the inks, varnishes and coatings used during printing. Some inks have a greater environmental impact than others. Marketers looking to become greener should pay attention to inks and coatings and research their impact on the environment. Here are some things for marketers to consider: • Printers are excellent sources of information and should be consulted about different inks and coatings. • Look for agri-based inks and use them whenever possible. • Opt for less ink usage/coverage (fewer colors usually mean fewer chemicals). • Research different coatings and the impact of each on the environment before using them. Production and partners Printers aren’t the only ones to consult during direct mail production. With the help of production partners, you can discover additional practices that will help you become eco-friendly, including: • Print on both sides of materials to maximize communication space and minimize paper use. • Seek out partners near your letter shop/mail • Take advantage of print-on-demand technology instead of printing large quantities and warehousing them until they’re needed. • Use production methods that reduce print overruns, waste allowances and in-process waste. • Find vendors that use renewable energy sources. • Collaborate with printers to insure the best use of press size; sometimes a slight alteration of the mailpiece can allow more to be produced from each press sheet. There are many shades of green. There are steps you can take to make your direct mail a little greener to have less impact on the environment — and a greater impact on your customers. |
MailPro Move Update is eco-friendly. |
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