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March 6, 2012 By Tom Gimer

What is a mail merge and how much does it cost?

I’ve written in the past about variable data publishing (VDP) and how using marketing materials that are uniquely tailored to the recipient improves response rates, leads and sales. The problem is, we continue to get calls from people who have no idea what any of this means!

So for this post we’re going back to basics and going over one of the simplest forms of VDP — the mail merge. With a mail merge, you are simply printing recipients’ information (such as salutation, name and address) on a piece that will be mailed. Most often these are newsletters, brochures, postcards or envelopes but a mail merge could be done on anything to be printed and mailed. If you have a large mailing list, mail merging will save you a lot of time and energy while at the same time making your materials more attractive and professional. So how is it done? Here’s an overview…

First, you provide a spreadsheet containing all of your members’ (or subscribers’ or targets’) information. Most often this is a Microsoft Excel file, although we can work with other file types. Here’s a post about how to properly set up your data file.

Next, we review what you’ve submitted to make sure that it is properly formatted. More often than not, the file needs work. This is where we earn the bulk of our mailing fee. It could be something as simple as taking out empty rows in your file or adding field names, but regardless of what needs to be done we make all necessary changes to ensure that your data can be properly merged into the printed piece.

The cost for mail merging — essentially working with your data and setting it up to print properly — depends upon how many addresses we are going to print; and it decreases as the number of addresses goes up. Mail merge pricing ranges from as much as $0.15 per address (for just a few addresses) to $0.03 each (for many). There is a $6 setup fee.

So let’s say you are going to send postcards to 3000 people on a mailing list. At this level, merging is $0.04 per address, so our mailing fee is $126. Here is what your $126 gets you:

1. we review and reformat (as necessary) your mailing list
2. we print individual addresses on each of your 3000 pieces
3. we take the postcards to the post office and mail them
4. we save you money on postage whenever possible

Update: Just to clarify, in the example above we are already printing a 2-sided postcard, so our mail merge fee covers merging the names onto the card with the other content. In other cases, such a job where we are mail merging and printing envelopes, printing is additional, and the cost depends on the number of prints and whether we are using color vs. black ink. Contact us with your specs to determine total cost of your mail merge and print project.

So, the next time you think about handwriting addresses, printing and sticking labels and affixing a first class stamp to every piece in your mailing, remember this post and consider letting us handle your mail merge or mailing project from the DC Metro area.

Related posts you might like:

  1. How to set up a mail merge
  2. A fresh way to find new customers for less?
  3. Realtors® use print to sell homes in and around DC

Filed Under: Design, Print, Misc Tagged With: mailing, settings, variable data publishing

About Tom Gimer

I guess you'd call me the "technical" guy at the shop. When the machines start to act up, they call me in. (I then call a service tech.) When I'm not dealing with the machines or writing or editing copy and/or code for clients, I also practice real estate law. It's a long story. Connect with me on LinkedIn or on the golf course.

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