Volume Discounts
September 6, 2008
One of the key questions many clients ask us when signing up is for details on volume discounts. Volume discounts are now available for all users, vastly expanding the range of mailings for which Postful is appropriate.
Discounts are based on the size of the payment. For example, a user adding $100 would see the price of a single page letter drop from $.99 to $.89 for the next $100 of orders.
Postful has always been the best deal available for individual mailings, now we’re able to extend that to much larger runs. Combined with our unmatched integration options and ease of use, we think that this will open up a lot of new uses.
Postful Adds Postcards
September 5, 2008
The biggest feature we’re launching this week is the addition of postcards. It’s now easy to send custom postcards with your own photos and designs.
To try things out, just go to our site, upload a photo, and add your message. You can preview the card, set the recipient, and send in minutes. It’s only $.59 for a single 4.25″x6″ card. Volume discounts take things down from there.
It’s a great way to send reminders, thank you notes, vacation postcards, holiday cards, and more.
Of course, for many of you, sending individual cards isn’t your key concern. You want to integrate this directly with your application. Through our API, you have full control of the postcard printing system, including complete control of the design on both sides of the card (both sides full color).
If you’re interested in getting more details, just contact us and we can help you to handle the integration process.
For everyone, let us know what you like and, just as importantly, what you don’t like. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
New Feature: Ignore Email Bodies
August 2, 2008
Many of you are sending your letters using PDFs or Word docs in order to gain better control over design, fonts and layout. But since the default has been to also print the body of the email, if present, this has led to some problems. Free email accounts add advertising. Many businesses and law firms have required notices which are appended. While we’ve worked to filter these out, this is not always successful.
To make this easier, we now offer the option to simply ignore all email message bodies. This means that only attachments will be printed. You can access this feature by going to your account preferences page. Just select the “ignore email bodies” option.
International Mailings
January 5, 2008
Postful has been testing global mailings for several months now. We’re now expanding from our initial test group to support over 200 countries. Finally you can mail letters, photos, invoices, brochures, and more anywhere in the world as easily as sending an e-mail.
Pricing is slightly higher for letters mailed outside of the US. International letters are $1.49 for the first page, $.39 each additional page. The difference is due to international airmail pricing which runs about $.50 more than US domestic postage. However, given the rapidly weakening dollar, favorable exchange rates mostly make up for this difference. For example, $1.49 converts to about 1 Euro (as of 1/4/08).
Our experiences with mailing times have been better than expected. To Europe, we’ve seen mailing times from three to eight days. Delivery to Asia has varied from four to nine days. As we open more regional print centers, we look forward to making every letter sent from anywhere in the world into a local letter.
Below the fold is a list of all supported countries. We’re looking forward to connecting more families, helping more businesses reach their customers and contacts across the planet, and taking another big step towards bridging the online and offline worlds.
New Feature: Letter Confirmation
October 11, 2007
When we built Postful, one aim was to make sending letters as easy as sending e-mail. We made sure that you didn’t need to go through multiple steps to confirm your intentions. Just send an e-mail, proof your letter (we always give you at least two hours for this), and, if you don’t cancel, it is automatically dispatched for mailing.
However, some of you told us that you’d prefer to explicitly confirm messages. Now you can. Just go to your account preferences page and turn on the option to “Require user confirmation prior to mailing”.
When activated, all letters will be held until you explicitly confirm them.
New Feature: Letterhead
October 8, 2007
One feature that many of you have asked for is the ability to print on your own letterhead. We, as always, are happy to oblige.
Now you can change your letterhead at a moment’s notice. Moving? New title? Running from the law for a crime you didn’t commit and changing your name every step of the way? No problem. You don’t have to worry about wasting a single sheet of paper (or the money to print it). You produce only what you need, exactly when you need it.
All you have to do is upload your letterhead in PDF format, set the margins and you’re ready to go. And the charge for this service? We thought we’d keep it simple and make it free.
Beta Invitations
September 2, 2007
Postful beta testers can now send invites to friends (and/or those who know how to palm-pass the cash). Yes, it’s that delightful time when you get to prove what a hip and connected early adopter you are.
On your home page, there’s now a section for beta invites.
To send an invite, just provide an e-mail address and an (optional) message.
After that, just sit back and bask in the feeling of satisfaction that comes from sharing something with a friend (or in the similar feeling of satisfaction that comes from selling an invite on eBay).
The Postful API
August 22, 2007
We’re excited to announce the release of the Postful API. With a few lines of code, any application can now generate dynamic print and mail. Every mailbox on the planet is now wired. Any application can now reach the other 80% of the planet that isn’t online. The web just got a lot bigger.
- CRM applications can send out automated follow-up letters.
- Web applications can snail mail signup confirmations.
- Family-oriented sites can mail newsletter to family members without
e-mail. - Invoices and bills can be delivered in whatever format your clients prefer.
- Content from the web can be printed and mailed as soon as its produced.
I’m sure you’re all asking yourselves how you can sign up. It’s easy. If you have a Postful account, you’re already signed up (if not, send a request for an invite). Your regular login credentials will work for the API. Just head over to the docs and start imagining how you can make use of this today.
Postful Handles Office Documents
August 2, 2007
We previously mentioned that Postful supports PDF files. Postful also supports sending Microsoft and Open Office documents. As with PDF’s, just add the file as an attachment to your e-mail. If you’d like to add a note to be included with the file, just add it to the body of the e-mail (if you leave the body blank, no extra page will be printed).
If you want the tightest control of the output possible, I’d still recommend PDF, but this opens a lot of options. Most of our documents are still in these formats. Rather than dealing with conversion or copy-and-pasting, you can send them along by mail as easily as you’d send them by e-mail (this is becoming a theme for us).
Whether you’re sending out copies of a contract or agreement for final approval or mailing a paper in from the beach, Postful continues to expand towards serving as the universal printer for the web.
Use Postful For Your Health
August 2, 2007
As if you needed one more reason to ditch your printer, now we learn that laser printers may pose a health risk. Now it’s not only easier, cheaper, faster, and higher quality to use Postful, it’s also healthier.
I’m not saying that using Postful will actually cure diseases (the FDA muttered darkly about the there being truths too powerful for man to know when I proposed this for clinical trials), but at least it may help you get rid of one more risk from your life.
