Fundraising programs require specialized focus and skills to be truly successful. So in 1975 when the President of Wake Forest University needed help with the University’s development (fundraising) program, he turned to a recent graduate to help build its outreach program. That was the start of Excalibur Direct Marketing, which today has built its expertise and grown to serve other universities and non-profits, as well as political campaigns, now under the new owner, Jay Turner. Its current client base includes organizations of all sizes all across the US, as well as select B2C companies.
“Being able to pick up the phone and say ‘we’ve got a 100,000 piece mailer that needs to go out today’ and not only have Altrans make it happen but still be able to save our clients money on that shipment, that’s the kind of support that makes it possible for us to consistently meet the high expectations of our customers.”
– Tom Mabe, IT Manager and Systems Administrator, Excalibur Direct Marketing
But even with over 50 years of experience in comprehensive direct marketing, print and mail services, Excalibur’s team still turns to industry experts for help. Competitive edge is what keeps them at the top of their game, so they chose to partner with Altrans Postal Solutions, an alliance that dates all the way back to 2008 (under the previous name of WIT Postal Services). Since then, our work has been focused on keeping their innovative approach to direct mail campaigns at the forefront of their industry.
Expanding Market Reach
Unlike many of its peers, Excalibur has its own pre-sort facility. While this provides some convenience and cost savings, it’s only the first step in optimizing mailing logistics.
“Altrans provides us with logistics services to transport our mailings to various SCFs and NDCs throughout the country, something that we simply don’t have internal resources to accomplish,” explains Tom Mabe, IT Manager and Systems Administrator at Excalibur who’s deeply involved in putting together customer shipments every day.
Working with Altrans Postal Solutions allows Excalibur to expand its reach and compete on a national scale by improving cost savings, delivery times and localization of pieces.
“Our partnership with Altrans has virtually eliminated any geographic barriers to our business. We’re able to meet the needs of our customers whether they’re in our own backyard in North Carolina, in the Midwest, Northeast or even the West Coast. ”
The large network of Altrans Postal Solutions carriers allows Excalibur to drop ship mailings to virtually any SCF or NDC in the US, providing that local point of origin that its customers desire.
“Many of our customers, especially universities and non-profits, want their mail to originate from the local market in which their audience lives,” Tom explains. “To maintain trust and credibility with their audiences, it’s vital that the pieces appear to have originated locally.”
Turnaround in Hours, Not Days
When time is of the essence, Altrans always pulls through.
“There have been many times when we’ve received rush jobs or a customer wants to make a last-minute change to their mailing and Altrans has gone above and beyond to make it happen,” says Tom.
“This is especially true of the political mailers,” adds Ryan Talbert, VP of Client Services at Excalibur. “These campaigns have many moving parts, massive budgets and short deadlines — we’re not talking days, but hours. There would be times when jobs would literally show up on our dock with little to no advanced notice with the expectation that we’d turn them around immediately. Altrans has more than rolled with the punches in these situations, often turning around logistics plans for 15 or more mailings in less than an hour and conducting more same-day turnarounds than I can count.”
This flexibility and ability to execute on a plan quickly and accurately played a critical role during the 2024 elections. There were many times during the election cycle when the volume of pieces coming through Excalibur exceeded its printing capacity. To meet the demand, the company partnered with other local direct mail and printing companies to inkjet the pieces. Excalibur would then coordinate with Altrans to pick up these pieces from the partner vendors as well as Excalibur for delivery to the SCFs.
“During the 2024 election, we had several different candidate mailers totaling well over 1 million pieces. Altrans not only provided us with a mail plan but also access to fleets with larger vehicles and longer range to accommodate the volume and reach of these mailers,” adds Tom. “By sorting, palletizing and then drop shipping them to various entry points across the US, we were able to maximize the savings for multiple clients.”
A Winning Combination
“Being able to pick up the phone and say ‘we’ve got a 100,000 piece mailer that needs to go out today’ and not only have Altrans make it happen but still be able to save our clients money on that shipment, that’s the kind of support that makes it possible for us to consistently meet the high expectations of our customers,” explains Tom.
“While working with Altrans, I can’t remember ever hearing about issues with shipping and logistics,” Ryan adds. “Altrans makes sure we have the logistics in place to make these mailings happen, especially when clients move up a date or ask for a short turnaround.”
“Altrans has also made it easy for us to simplify the conversation around mail logistics and pricing with our customers,” Ryan continues. “Today’s marketer has so many channels to contend with and isn’t necessarily as educated about the postal service and shipping as they used to be. Altrans provides experienced, full-service logistics planning that eliminates the need to dig into the minutia of how to get the best service and pricing. We’re just confident that it’s a given and so are our customers.”
“A key part of our mission statement is succeeding through partnerships – partnering with our clients, with other mail houses and with our vendors,” Ryan concludes. “It’s so important to us that we’re in win-win situations with everyone and Altrans has been an integral part of our success as well as that of our clients.”
Where are the opportunities to improve on your mailing and logistics services for your clients? Contact us to discuss how partnering with Altrans can give you a competitive advantage and increase your customer satisfaction.
