We've been trying to increase our mailing, and we have finally been able to ramp it up to some pretty serious levels. How? By taking control over the database and addressing of our brochures. Recently we purchased a used Rena Imager I addressing machine (photo below). This is a really cool machine, and can print addresses at a rate of 15,000 or more postcards an hour!
It has 3 print heads, allowing you to print about a one and a hall inch tall address, including endorsement and barcode. We're not printing postcards but instead are printing addresses on our 11x17 brochures. I think top speed on those is about 5,000 per hour, but we actually slow it DOWN to about 3,000 an hour just so things don't get out of control! So, to address 5,000 brochures takes about 90 minutes, which isn't too bad at all, and you can listen to music while you're running the machine.
So far, we've probably mailed out about 25,000 to 30,000 brochures, so it's working fine. We bought our addresser used (they stopped making this model a couple of years ago), but these machines are rated to print millions of addresses, and our machine was in great shape. Brand new a machine like this would probably cost over six or seven thousand dollars, but we got our used one for less than $2,000, and we have already broken even on the unit from savings in fees to the mailing house this year. (We used to pay $0.05 per address, and 30,000 addresses @.05=$1500 saved already!)
Margaret Hokkanen, www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com
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