As Kansasquaker stated, the Intelligent Mail (IM) barcode is just a font and the postage paid stamp (indicia) is what you can create in Illustrator based on the guidelines in the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM). Just Google it. It's huge but has all you need to know according to the USPS. Some of the first things you need to learn about: mail piece design (what goes where), classes of mail (size, shape and weight - very important) and finally address standardization (proper abbreviations, address layout, etc). Start with getting your Standard Class permit (they give you a number and you give them an annual fee of $225) and then you create your indicia like I said earlier. Then it's time for software...
When I started with bulk mail someone told me it was easy. The USPS does a good job at making it difficult with all there forms and terminology. But if all your doing is mailing some post cards for a small business, it really is easy. Now, if you want to mail credit card statements for Mastercard, that's another ballgame. In fact, you don't even need to use a barcode to bulk mail just do a machinable presort. Anyway, software. I presume you already have and use FusionPro (that's what we use)? The other piece you'll need is presort software. I started with this -
http://savepostage.com/psinfo.html Way, way, way less expensive than the other presort software packages that were mentioned. That's because they include so much s**t that you don't need when starting out. They are for mailers doing 100,000 mailers a month (I do that many per YEAR, to give you an idea of my size). AccuZIP and Satori also include NCOA and CASS but you can get that done with an outside vendor on an as needed basis. I use -
http://mailershaven.com/.
Speaking of Mailers Haven. You'll need a place to get mailing lists. They are very helpful and my sales rep there is very good. I can call him anytime with one of my stupid questions and he can run counts for me. When you do small mailings (less than 10,000) it's not hard. Dabob is right, when you make a mistake, even on small mailings, it's expensive. But so is screwing up 100,000 static flyers. Nothing is cheap in our industry. One time, I mailed a job standard class instead of first class (that's a seperate permit) and it arrived AFTER the event. Boy, was my customer pissed and it cost me. But we have a good relationship and I changed my workflow to reduce the chances of making that mistake again. On another occassion, and I still can't believe how we missed this, we forgot to print the indicia! Boy, was
I pissed! Lol! My BMEU (Business Mail Entry Unit) called me and I had to go pick them up. Some did get delivered and some got returned after going out. We printed a bunch of little labels with the indicia on it and remailed them.
They say 50% of eveything printed is mailed and they also say you need to add value. Well, postcards are boring with a low profit margin but when you mail them you add value AND make more money. You get to charge for postal processing, addressing, and delivery to the post office. And it's not boring because if you make a mistake... We've been mailing for about seven years now with an average mailing quantity of two thousand. Just about all of our mailings are less than 10,000. It wasn't till the past year that we hit quantities of over 30,000. We mail standard, first class, nonprofit, and EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail - even easier than traditional mailing). Right now, we are doing a 200 piece (standard class minimum) mailer of 6x9 envelopes stuffed with a letter and two laminated cards using a customer provided list.
Wow. This was a really big post. I need to go do some real work now. Please, please feel free to PM or call me if you would like to chat. As you can see, I love talking about mailing.
