A DIY yellow letter template for you all to use + printing tips!

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Hello direct mailers!

I've been putting together my first self printed direct mail campaign to use here in Sacramento, CA. I'd like to share my yellow letter printing experiences with you so you guys don't have to spend the time and effort putting together your template, experimenting with supplies, and messing around with the process (trust me, it got a bit annoying).

First of all, HERE is a BP fileplace link to my microsoft word yellow letter template. 

This fits on THIS 5x8 legal pad paper (with which I am not affiliated). I actually found this paper at Costco, not amazon, where it was much cheaper @ $5.69 for 24 50-sheet pads. Once the paper is torn from the pad using the perforations, its dimensions are 5x7.25, which correspond to the template. If it doesn't look perfect to you when you print it, just adjust the line spacing a little bit and you will be fine.

-Now I know that most articles on this recommend pulling the binding off the paper and ripping out the staples. This is not the best idea for the following reasons:

1. It's more of a pain to do than tearing out the paper, trust me. The paper can be torn out smoothly and quickly in groups ~20 sheets at a time.

2. It leaves ugly staple holes and creases on your paper.

3. The staple holes and creases + partial binding of the sheets at their top end cause the printer to jam and/or pull multiple sheets at a time VERY frequently. This frustrated me quite a bit. I have not had a single printer problem using the torn out sheets.

4. It makes your paper look disproportionate, and less authentic. When it's torn out, it seems more like you actually pulled it out of your notepad (don't worry, the tear is still very clean). 

So yeah... tear it out and don't deal with the binding removal mess.

I like the 5x7.25 sheets of paper because they give the appearance of you driving down the street, noticing a house, and jotting down a letter in your personal portable notepad. They also happen to fit nicely in A1 envelopes when folded in half. I got these in bulk pretty cheap on amazon HERE (with which I am not affiliated).

I used a downloadable font that may not be available when you open the file if you don't already have it. You can find it HERE (not affiliated with this either...). If you're using it for commercial purposes you are asked to pay 5$ (more if you have multiple employees). 

All in all, I managed to get my total yellow letter cost to 55 cents mailed and they print niiiiice and smoothly. I have some cost management info on the fileplace and forums, but it may not be up to date... please reach out to me if you'd like to know! When I get to stuffing and sealing envelopes I'll try to come up with an efficient process and I'll definitely make a post detailing how I did that.

Finally, the phone number on the yellow letter is in fact mine. I definitely won't include it when I send out the mailers. I figured i'd leave it in on this shared file in case any of you BP'ers would like to reach me. 

Cheers!

Elliott