Property ManagementHow to Use the New Electronic Stamps
It was 7:00 in the evening. Like many REALTORS® who use direct mail, Sharon Marsh, a Plano, Texas agent, was doing her mailers after supper when she found she had run out of that most common and most maddening of business necessities - postage stamps.
Then she remembered that the U.S. Postal Service has authorized three Internet-based companies to sell "electronic stamps". Marsh found the names, and decided to contact each one so that she could compare their products and share the information with her coaching classes and with Agent News.
www.estamp.com
www.pcstamp.com,and
www.stamps.com.
With stamps.com"s downloadable software, Marsh was up and running again within an hour and able to finish her mailing, printing the stamps from her desktop simultaneously with her content onto the mailers.
"You have to be connected to the Internet at the time you are printing the stamp," cautions Marsh, "so it will tie up your line. But the advantage is there is no waiting for hardware to arrive in the mail. You can start putting stamps on your mailers as soon as you download the software.
"With the other two, pcstamp.com and estamp.com, you need software and hardware that you send off for, and it"s about $49.95," explains Marsh. "It is about the size of a pager. The hardware stores the stamps so that you don"t have to be online while printing."
How to print online stamps
The software accesses the database through its own program a variety of ways. You can print directly from Microsoft Word, Outlook or ACT. Marsh says that the software can access your database, and that stays on your computer so you don"t have to send your database off to anyone else.
The stamp is actually a bar code, and the software also includes the zip four address, too. The zip four address is the last four digits which many post offices require 9 digit zip codes now.
When you are in Word or another program, the software will give you a diagram of where the stamp is going to be placed so you can prevent wasted postage. It will also allow you to test print at any time.
"I wasn"t sure how to do the mailer, because you print it flat, and then you have to fold it," says Marsh. "But the program made it easy to navigate that. My first one was upside down, but it was a test copy so no harm done.
"Now I simply print the stamp onto the envelopes, self-mailers or labels as
part of the address. I can type in individual addresses or have the software
access or import them from my contact database (which remains on my computer
for security purposes). It automatically verifies each address and adds the
bar code for speedy mailing."
Marsh outlines a number of advantages. "The fee is nominal, as low as $1.99 per month: about the amount of gas I"d spend to drive to the post office. Not to mention the time spent standing in line for service. It"s well worth it to keep me on schedule and assure timely, quality mailings."
"Now I never run out of stamps or get a "bad address return." Plus I get an
electronic statement showing my monthly expenses for tax purposes which are
easily importable into financial packages such as MS Money and Quicken. No
more paper receipts to keep up!"
"It"s better than a meter machine because a machine has to be taken into the post office to be refilled periodically," points out Marsh. "This new software saves you from having to go to the post office at all."
"I hate going to the post office, and I"m like other Realtors. If you don"t finish what you"re working on, you may never get back to it."
With less than 18 percent of American households online, the reality is that even the most Web-savvy Realtors still rely on direct mail pieces to market themselves. Although Marsh is an avid Internet marketer, with her own email newsletter, folding mailers and sending them snail mail is still a viable marketing solution for her.
So which electronic stamp company gets Marsh"s vote? "They all work well, but the one I went with was software only, stamps.com. I didn"t have a problem being connected to the Internet, and for me, it was faster. I was signed up and printing the same day."
In case you may think the U.S. Post Office is passing along savings with its electronic stamps, think again. The cost for stamps is the same, but the savings in time and inconvenience are inestimatable.