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In the News  Back to 4th Qtr News The Lifecycle of Standard Mail From blank page to delivered mail and beyond Fall 2004 The Print Shop - Concept meets Creation After diligent planning, art is burned to a number of plates, depending on the number of colors, and printed onto large sheets of paper. Paper stocks can vary from matte copy paper to glossy card stock and are available in many colors. The printed material is then set out to dry, cut and packed. Mail is now ready to be addressed. The Mail House - The Backbone of Direct Mail Once printed, mail is delivered to a mailing house for sorting and addressing. Many times elements of a mailing rely on the mailing house for the final touches - inserting, sealing, tabbing or personalization. It's here that mailing lists are cleaned for duplicates and bad addresses and processed for postage discounts. Mail is then addressed, bar coded, trayed and shipped to the respective post office. The Post Office - The Ultimate Delivery System When the mail arrives to the post office from the mail house, it has already been pre-sorted. Literally, sorted for the post office before it arrives. That's where the postage discount comes in. People save money by doing some of the leg work for the post office. Generally speaking, bulk mail starts at the Bulk Mail Center (BMC). There are 25 BMCs in the United States and they only service bulk mail and periodicals. At the BMC, all the bulk mail for an area is grouped together and sent to a Sectional Center Facility (SCF). SCFs service smaller areas, like Kansas City, Missouri for example. Here the mail is sorted once again and sent to Destination Delivery Units (DDU). These are your neighborhood post offices. Here the mail is separated for individual carriers for delivery. Delivery - Home Sweet Home Now's the time to put your money where your offer is. Here's a good rule of thumb. At first glance, your reader spends 3 seconds deciding whether or not to open your mail. If opened, your reader spends an average of 30 seconds deciding to keep the mail or throw it away. If kept, the reader now spends an average of 3 minutes with your piece deciding whether or not to respond. Survive these 3 steps and you've got a success.