Choosing Your Direct Mail Services Vendor
by VENDIREX on 03/30/2015 - 11:35 am |
Tag: Mailing Equipment
The direct mail industry includes those vendors with a variety of experience levels, and who may specialize in specific niche areas. Essentially, if the Direct Mail Services vendor is full-service, this means they will handle the entire project for you - whether or not the whole process is done in-house. This encompasses addressing, labeling and presorting, design work and printing, and it is not uncommon that some of these tasks are outsourced under their control.
You may very well have your own list of business contacts and prospects, but remember that a direct mail campaign is also aimed at potential new customers. This is a specialty niche of its own, and direct mail vendors maintain lists of thousands of viable candidates, removing outdated and undeliverable addresses in the process. They are definitely the experts, and will have all the connections and licenses in place – allowing you to take advantage of their resourcefulness.
For instance, you will be able to select filters in order to target the audience you most want to reach. These filters may cost a bit more, but obviously it’s an expense well worth the price; filtering through demographics such as credit ratings, income, lifestyle and purchasing habits can greatly affect your results. Again, the vendor has already expended time and money to hone down the target market – why reinvent the wheel?
Compare pricing and services, and inquire as to how the Direct Mail Service maximizes their response rates. If one vendor is less expensive than the average, this could be risky. As with any business, when someone cuts corners to beat out the competition it’s not always the ‘deal’ of the century in the end. Any credible firm will do well by their clients, hoping for recurring business, but fly-by-night operators can make a lot of money by cheating tons of people one time. If the company is local, check out their facility and watch them in action - if not, ask to speak with a satisfied customer.
One way to save a bit of money is when your in-house staff is capable of designing and/or printing the materials to be mailed; then simply drop-ship them to the vendor’s location. This might also be a good idea if you tend to revise and review several times before any business collateral is approved. Repeated proofs can be costly through outsourced design companies or the mail services vendor, pushing the price way over what you originally were quoted.
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