Already mail merged letters & mailing (Letter Printing & Mailing)
Choose this product if you plan to do the mail merge for your letters and envelopes, and you need Bulk Mail Printing Services. iti Direct Mail is not your typical Bulk Mailing Company; we offer a variety of services not offered by other Bulk Mailing Companies out there. Make your letters stand out by selecting from a range of paper and envelope stocks, plus add additional marketing material for an even more powerful impact. With the ability to print on letters, legal-size sheets, and one to three different-sized envelopes at once, you will be able to get your printing jobs done quickly. We'll manage the entire production process as well as your Bulk Mail Printing Services and even mail them out on your behalf! After mail merging your own letters and envelopes, you will upload a single PDF for letters and one PDF for envelopes. No need to upload a mailing list. We will print all your material, inset your letters into envelopes along with any optional marketing material, seal them, apply stamps, and take them to the Post Office. Only regular first-class postage is available for this product; no presorts. To qualify for presort postage, choose our standard letter printing product, where you will upload your mailing list, which we can presort and mail at discounted postage rates. This product does not include the postage cost. Configure your order and add it into the cart, and the system will ask you to add the postage at a later stage during checkout.
You can only upload already mailed merged documents if your order will be mailed using ONLY 1st class regular postage. All jobs mailed using presort postage classes (1st class presort, standard class presort and nonprofit presort) require special processing and sorting, which requires us to mail merge your job; therefore, you cannot upload already mail merged documents since they will not be in the sortation required by USPS. Additionally, all presort jobs must be barcoded. If you have mail merged your mail pieces, we will not be able to sort/resort them in a manner required by USPS; therefore, they can only be mailed via 1st class regular, which does NOT require any special sorting or barcoding.
Letter setup
It is your responsibility to ensure that all the merged letters and envelopes are in the correct order. We highly recommend that you confirm the accuracy of the information from the letter to the envelope on your first and last piece as well as some random pieces in the middle of your job. Also, confirm a matching quantity of pages in the letter file versus the envelope file; for instance, a 1000-piece one-page letter order should have 1000 pages both in the letter and envelope PDF file.
- Multi-page orders: In a multi-page order, all the pages need to be sequential regardless of whether you choose a single-sided or double-sided printing. For instance, in a 2-page order, your PDF file will begin with page 1 then 2 then page 1 again. Therefore, if you order a 1000 two-page order, your PDF for letters needs to be 2000 pages, but your envelope PDF will be 1000 pages.
- Full bleed letters must include a minimum of 1/16” bleed on every side.
- Non-full bleed letters must have a minimum of ¼” clear margin on every side.
- Graphics: We highly recommend a minimum of 300 dpi for all graphics or your print job may appear low quality.
- All photos, graphics, signatures, or other elements need to be included in your letter.
- Mailing date: Nothing in your merged PDFs can be modified, including your mailing date. If you include a mailing date in your letter, it will be printed as shown.
Envelope setup
You must upload a PDF file for your envelopes.
- Handwritten fonts: You can choose any handwritten fonts available on your computer, as you are mail merging your own envelopes. However, you will need to ensure that you embed your handwritten fonts in the PDF so that they print correctly.
- Full bleed envelopes: This letter printing product only supports envelopes that do not have full bleeds, which means you must have at least a ¼” clear margin on all four sides. Your envelopes must be ordered separately if you need to use full-bleed envelopes with your letters.
- Graphics: All graphics must be included in the uploaded PDF. We highly recommend a minimum of 300 dpi for graphics, or your print may not look high quality.
- Addressing zone: This page shows the areas that must be left clear for addressing, USPS barcoding, and postage.
Adding additional items to your letter printing order
You can also include additional items with your letter. Below are some of our common options.
- Remit or reply envelopes
- Flyers & brochures
- Business cards
- Small slips
Configure your letter printing product on this page and Add to Cart. After uploading your letter and list you will be given the option to add any of the above items before checking out.
FAQs
Why We Must Use Regular Stamps on Your Pre-Addressed Mail
When you've already printed and addressed your letters, we can only use First Class Regular (Forever) postage stamps. We cannot use the discounted bulk mail rates (like First Class Presort or Standard Class Presort).
The reason comes down to two main rules the U.S. Post Office (USPS) has for giving out those lower bulk rates:
1. Keeping Your Printed Addresses Correct
To get a bulk mail discount, the Post Office requires us to clean up and verify every address on your mailing list. This involves using special databases to:
- Update Addresses: Automatically change addresses for people who have filed a change-of-address form (NCOA).
- Remove Bad Addresses: Remove any names and addresses that the USPS system can't verify or find.
If we did this "cleanup" after your letters were already printed, the addresses on your physical mail might suddenly be wrong or unusable. To guarantee your printed addresses remain exactly as you intended, we skip this required cleanup step by using First Class Regular stamps.
2. Barcoding and Special Sorting
The discounted bulk mail rates also require us to perform complex logistics that are impossible after the printing and merging process is complete. Every piece of bulk mail must have:
- A special barcode printed directly on the mail piece.
- Specific sorting and organizing of the letters into trays, which often involves re-sorting the mail to meet strict postal guidelines.
Since your mail is already printed and merged, we can't go back and add the barcodes or re-sort them in the way the USPS demands. Regular First-Class postage doesn't require any of these extra steps, making it the only option for your pre-addressed product.
To make sure your order is processed quickly and correctly, the most important thing is to ensure your files are perfectly lined up:
The Golden Rule: Order Must Match
Your file containing the letters and your file containing the envelopes must be in the exact same sequence from top to bottom.
- Why? Our process works like this: we simply print the first letter, then immediately print the first envelope, then the second letter, then the second envelope, and so on. We assume the two pieces belong together because of their identical order.
- What if they don't match? If the files are out of order, it means we have to stop the machines and manually match every letter to its corresponding envelope. This takes a lot of time, and we would have to charge you a lot more for that manual labor.
Printing Limitations
Because your files are printed exactly as you send them, you cannot select any extra design services, such as a handwritten font style. If you already merged the files, that means the font is already part of the document.
What if I can't line them up?
If you are unable to submit your letters and envelopes in the required, perfectly matched order, you will need to place a standard letter printing order. For a standard order, you send us three separate things: a mailing list, a letter template, and an envelope template, and we handle all the merging, sorting, and matching ourselves.
Best Options for Small Orders (50 Pieces or Less)
When your mailing is 50 pieces or less, the best way to place your order depends on whether or not you have a separate mailing list file.
1. When to Use Your Already-Merged Files
This option (submitting your letters and envelopes already merged) is best for you if:
- You don't have a separate mailing list file. If all your addresses are already part of the documents you created, this is the only way to send us the job.
- You want to save a tiny bit of money. By handling the merging yourself, you save a small amount on our production cost because we skip that step.
2. The Recommended Alternative
If your order is 50 pieces or less and you DO have a mailing list file, you are typically better off using our Low Volume Letter Printing product. If you don’t have a mailing list, you can still select the “already mail merged” option on the price calculator.
Why is this better? Instead of merging everything yourself, you send us three separate files:
- Your mailing list (a spreadsheet).
- Your letter template.
- Your envelope template.
Our Low Volume product is specifically designed to handle the merging and processing for small jobs, often giving you a smoother and more reliable final product than trying to match everything manually on your end.
How to Add Extra Items (Inserts) to Your Already-Merged Order
Yes, you can absolutely include additional materials with your mail-merged letters. This includes items like business cards, flyers, or remittance envelopes.
Since you are submitting your letters and envelopes as one pre-merged product, you will add any extra items to your order separately using our standard product tabs.
Simple Ordering Steps
- Add Your Mail-Merged Product First: Place your already mail-merged letters and envelopes into your shopping cart.
- Add Postage Next: After selecting the letters, a pop-up window will guide you to select the required First Class Postage stamps product. Add this to your cart as well.
- Add Your Inserts: Go to the All Products tab and choose the business cards, flyers, or other printed materials you wish to include. Add each of these items to your cart.
When you check out, your cart will contain multiple items: your mail-merged letters, the postage stamps, and any additional inserts, all ready to be processed together.