Printing and Mailing Project
© Excel Printing and Mailing
If you’ve completed printing and mailing projects before or are considering your first campaign, you’ve probably wondered what’s the most effective, cheapest, and easiest way to get your materials printed and mailed. Should you go to a graphic designer to design a postcard and then get them printed at a print shop? Can the printer mail your letters or should you do it yourself? Who should you buy a mailing list from? Should I use Every Door Direct Mail® instead?
These questions are good ones and can sometimes make a huge difference in the cost, quality, and timeliness of your project.
Although there’s no “right” way to execute your direct mail project, when it comes to deciding who does each part of your campaign, the time-tested theory of Occam’s Razor holds true: the simplest solution is usually the best one. When it comes to your project, the simplest and best option is keeping as many aspects of it as possible under one roof. Here’s some of the reasons why:
Turnaround time
Your organization’s needs aren’t always ones that you can plan for months in advance. And even when you can, you want to execute your projects as efficiently as possible. Using one source for designing, printing, and mailing allows for the best turnaround time possible. Using separate businesses for all these services means you would need to request a quote from all of them. You’d also need to send the printer the file from the graphic designer. And you’d need to ship the postcards from the printer either to you or the mailer. Once received, either you or the mailer needs to apply postage and deliver them to the post office.
That’s a lot of time that could be saved by giving your project to a business that can do all those things in-house.
Simpler Communication
You don’t have the time or the desire to be on the phone with three different people about three different aspects of your printing and mailing project. When you pick up the phone and call the person responsible for your job, you want them to be able to answers all your questions. Whether that’s what design aspects are most attractive to consumers, what card stock material to use for a postcard, or what the pros and cons are of first class vs. standard mail, you want one person to be able to answer those questions for you. When you use one source for all these services, that’s the type of reliable, accurate, and up-to-date communication you can expect.
Widespread Expertise = Less Mistakes
Not all graphic designers are familiar with the address block specifications needed for postcards. And not all printers know what the size restrictions are for an EDDM® postcard. Imagine having your postcards printed with a professional design only to discover that you’ll have to pay triple what you first thought for postage because the design doesn’t quite fall into the post office’s standards. Those are the types of mistakes that can be easily avoided by keeping all your job components under one roof, under the careful eyes of people whose job it is to know the ins and outs of every part of the process.
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