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What does it mean to be women owned and operated? |
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Why can’t I just do bulk mailing myself? |
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How does automation and presorting save me money? |
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What are those three magic words that you advertise will help me save money? |
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What does a printing broker do? |
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What is digital printing? |
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What is the difference between business and graphic digital color? |
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What
is Move Update/National Change of Address (NCOA)
and how does it affect me? |
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What
is Delivery Point Verification (DPV) and why should
I care? |
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When should I get Alice Paul Direct involved in my project? |
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What
does the Communication Workers of American (CWA)
union symbol mean? |
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What
does the Allied Printing Trades Council bug mean? |
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What
is Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
(WBENC) Certification and why does it make a difference? |
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What does it mean to be women owned and operated? |
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It means that Alice Paul Direct Mail Marketing is owned and operated by the same people who started and grew the company over 16 years ago. It reflects our commitment to quality and detail.
We are locally, regionally and nationally certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council, the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the country.
We are also certified by the City of Cleveland,
Ohio as a Female Business Enterprise (FBE).
Certification as a women-owned business essentially
lets others know that Alice Paul Direct Mail Marketing
is what we say it is, a business where the majority
of the owners are women.
Many government agencies, non-profit organizations and most large corporations have supplier diversity programs that ensure that women-owned business enterprises are considered in their purchasing decisions, helping to build stronger local communities.
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Why can’t I just do bulk mailing myself? |
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Having
a mail service like Alice Paul Direct Mail Marketing
coordinate your mailing project helps you in so
many ways:
• Save money: Automated and pre-sorted mail
has significantly lower postage costs than non-automated
mail.
• Delivery: Automated and pre-sorted mail
gets delivered faster, your mail can be delivered
in days instead of weeks. The farther into
the mail-stream your mail is entered, the faster
it is delivered.
• Your time: Do you really have the
time? Does your staff? Could they be using their
time to do something more productive? Of
course they can! Figure in what you pay
your staff per hour and you may save our fee,
even before you see a savings in postage.
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How
does automation and presorting save money? |
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• Standard mail used to be referred to as “Bulk” mail. The mailer would get a discount based on how much sorting was done before mailing. Changes in 1995 and 2007 expanded those discounts as well as the rules that govern the sorting. Adding a barcode to the mail piece also allows the Postal Service to give you postal discounts. This barcode has to be generated by an approved software package. The barcode that your word processor produces will not qualify you for these postal discounts.
• The Postal Service is working toward getting
all the mail they receive as automated as possible.
The more your mail can be processed by machines,
the less money it costs the Postal Service --
and they are willing to share that cost savings
with you.
• There are now more requirements from the
United States Postal Service for your mailing
lists to get postage discounts. Alice Paul
Direct Mail Marketing has all this software, and
for one low price we make sure you get all the
discounts you qualify for.
• Co-mingling and co-palletizing are other ways to save postage when you are mailing at either First Class or Periodical rates. Ask us if your mail qualifies for this type of mail. |
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What are those three magic words that you advertise will help me save money? |
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• The way your mail piece is designed affects the price you pay for postage. Our three magic words are reminders of how to design a piece to achieve the most discounts. Give us a call and we will share them with you. |
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What does a printing broker do? |
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A
printing broker contracts with print shops that
do offset printing. Offset printing relies on
an actual printing press, as opposed to digital
printing. We have established a network
of printers who specialize in different kinds
off offset printing. We call the printer
that is best suited for the job.
We get multiple quotes, so you don’t have to.
Volume gives us a price advantage we can pass
on to you. Our prices may be lower than
if you go directly to a printer because we purchase
thousands of pieces of printed material from them.
We act as a sales person for the printer, so it
is a win-win situation for both our customers
and the printer. |
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What is digital printing? |
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Digital printing uses a computer and Digital
Imaging machine; the image is produced with toner
instead of ink like an offset printer.
• With a digital printer, addresses and personalization can be applied when the piece is being printed. This saves time and money for you, especially if your piece has personal information that varies on each piece of material.
• Digital
printing is more cost effective when you are doing
variable data printing or short runs of color
or black and white. Each piece a digital
printer produces costs exactly the same.
In offset printing, most of the costs are in setup
and ink charges, therefore, the per piece cost
of a short run is much higher than a large run.
• We usually
recommend that less than 2,500 pieces be digitally
printed and over 2,500 offset printed. If
we are adding personal data to each piece the
only way to go is digital no matter what the quantity. |
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What is the difference between business and graphic digital color? |
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• Business color digital printing is not as crisp or clear as graphic color. It works well for spot colors or where the art is not complicated.
• Graphic
color digital printing produces very high-quality
color. Sometimes it is impossible to tell it apart
from offset printing. We use only graphic
color at Alice Paul Direct Mail Marketing. |
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What
is Move Update/National Change of Address (NCOA)
and how does it affect me? |
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A major part of the recent United States
Postal Service reform has been to eliminate undeliverable
mail. Move Update and National Change of
Address are two databases where all updated address
information is kept.
• Running your database through these updates will be required every 90 days. This will save you money as you will not have to print or mail pieces that cannot be delivered. |
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What
is Delivery Point Verification (DPV) and why should
I care? |
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• Delivery Point Verification is a process by which the Postal Service verifies that the address in your database actually exists. It does not tell you who lives at that address, just that mail can be delivered there.
• Mail to a business is often addressed to a building name. Under the new addressing standards, this would be an invalid address. The street address and suite number are required.
• With Standard
Mail, any address that cannot be validated must
be sent at First Class rates and may still get
returned to you.
• Running your database through DPV before you mail gives you a chance to fix any invalid addresses. |
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When
should I get Alice Paul Direct Mail Marketing
involved in my project? |
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We
would like to get involved with your project at
the design stage. Of course, we would like to
be your designer, printer and mailer, but in the
interest of making sure your marketing piece follows
all the correct United States Postal Service guidelines,
we offer free design consultation. Before
you print, let us make sure your piece is designed
to minimize postage and our handling fees. |
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What
does the Communication Workers of American (CWA)
union symbol mean? |
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Alice
Paul Direct Market Mailing is the only
full service mailing house in Ohio whose
employees are members of a union. Communication
Workers of America Local 4340 represent our employees,
so we are allowed to print a special logo on anything
we mail indicating that union labor was used.
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What
does the Allied Printing Trades Council bug mean? |
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Alice
Paul Direct is now also a member of the Allied
Printing Trades Council. When we digitally print
your job our bug can now be included on your piece.
If your job requires offset printing, one of our
associate printers can add their bug. Our
bug number is 11 and is printed to the right of
the bug. This assures anyone looking at your printed
piece that you used union lab to produce the job.
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What
is Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
(WBENC) Certification and why does it make a difference? |
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The
Women’s Business Enterprise National Council certification
for women-owned businesses is one of the most
widely recognized and respected certifications
in the nation. This certificate is accepted by
over 700 major corporations across the county
as well as a number of organizations, non-profits,
government agencies and educational institutions.
WBENC’s national standard of certification is
a meticulous process including an in-depth review
of the business and site inspection. The certification
process is designed to confirm the business is
at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by
a woman or women.
By including women-owned businesses among their
vendors, corporations and government agencies
demonstrate their commitment to fostering diversity
and the continued development of their supplier/vendor
diversity programs. |
