Nashville, TN - As the grace period for the new USPS Folded Self Mailer regulations expired and penalties for non-compliance went into effect on January 5th, Trish Witkowski of Foldfactory.com went into action. "I was concerned about all of the confusion I was seeing, and I was getting a lot of emails about it, too" she said, "As someone who researches direct mail and promotes folded materials every day, I thought that a video could be a great way to quickly summarize the most important changes and general guidelines for everyone." 

The 7-minute video, featuring Trish in one of her signature t-shirts, briefly reviews the unchanged rules, and then dives into the rest of the key changes by category, hitting size, tabbing requirements, fold placement, and finally flaps. She uses props to visually illustrate key concepts, and her lightly humorous tone makes the video entertaining and easy to watch. 

"The FSM Crash Course is a powerful educational tool," said David Steinhardt, President and CEO of IDEAlliance. "IDEAlliance currently works cooperatively with the USPS to improve mail preparation and distribution through the development of specifications and best practices. We look forward to collaborating with FoldFactory.com on the development of similar educational programs to support the industry in the application of new technologies and best practices in the postal supply chain."

The video, entitled "USPS 2013 FSM Guidelines: A Crash Course," is posted on foldfactory’s YouTube channel and is free to watch and share. Watch the video now: http://youtu.be/fK4CkcZTN6Q

“As Trish mentions in the video, it costs USPS 11 times more to process a mail piece by hand than by machine, so we are supportive of education to get good information out to our members who produce and send mail. We want you to have success with mail, and to achieve the best rates possible. This video supports that goal and helps our members educate their customers,” shared Ken Garner, President and CEO of the Association of Marketing Service Providers (AMSP).  

"The video is a great example of how education is changing" states Patti Groh, Director of Marketing Communications for Sappi Fine Paper, a company known not only for paper, but also for its educational content and environmental advocacy. "People want to get to the point as quickly as possible and get back to work. Anything that can succinctly inform people about the power of mail and help them prevent costly mistakes is good for the industry."

"I hope the industry finds the video helpful and worth sharing" says Janice Reese, CEO of Network PDF, and strategic business partner of foldfactory.com. "We have to educate not only our industry, but also our customers so that everyone can get the most benefit out of this highly efficient mailing format. It's a terrible waste to spend more than you have to on postage - and the truth is USPS gets no joy from it, either. Anything that isn't machinable is a money-loser for them, too. The trick is keeping up with the regulations. Watch the video and you'll be up to speed in no time."