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Meg Ferguson of PMG Direct and Shannon Murphy of CCAH discuss the pros of having a production partner for your direct mail drops.
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Let’s Talk Production
Meg Ferguson, PMG
Shannon Murphy, CCAH
Taking the Idea Through Production Into the Mailbox
Take Aways
• Advantages of Having a Production Partner
• Direct Mail Production Best Practices
• Cost Saving Tips
Why Have a Production Partner?
• Experience
– Many years of experience in specialized fields
– Resources
– Supplier network
– Current on new industry technology
– Innovative formats/techniques
– USPS knowledge
– Delivery Optimization knowledge
Why Have a Production Partner?
• Management and Coordination
– An extension of your staff
– Get partners involved early to avoid issues
– Schedule and keep all parties on task, on time
– Set supplier expectations
– Manage products, services and relationships
Mail Dates Drive the Schedule
Mail Date
Final Art
Concept
Data Processing
Personalization
Lettershop 7 – 10 days before Mail Date
10 – 14 days before Mail Date
12 – 16 days before Mail Date
14 – 21 days before Mail Date
25 days before Mail Date
65 days before Mail Date
Many “Hats” of Direct Mail Production
Personalization
Data Processing
Postal
Lettershop
Direct Mail Production – It’s Own Language
SLW
OSE
BRE
IMb
RAE
CMYK
DP
PPI
CASS
WW
FPO
FIM
Simplex
Duplex
Lock Up
Grain Direction
De-dupe
NCOA
PCW
Best Practices
• Knowing your supplier partners
• Data Processing
• Personalization
• Mailshop
• Postal Optimization
Supplier Partners
• What is their niche?
• Just because they can get something produced does not mean they should
• Order takers
• Think outside the box
Print Best Practices
• Size
• Stock
• Colors
• Will the components fit into the OSE?
• IMb
• Fold
• Copy
Data Processing Best Practices
• Seeds
• Counts/Codes
• NCOA
• Salutation
• Ask String
• CD Append
• Foreign Records
Personalization Best Practices
• Form Delivery
• Max address lines
• What lasers
• Ask String
• Min/Max asks
• Truncation
Mailshop Best Practices
• USPS Permits
• Postage Request
• Type of Postage
• Folds
• Insertion order
• Match Mailing
• Maildate
Folds
Postal Optimization
• Has an analysis been performed on the data file to determine most cost effective way to mail?
– Commingle
– NDC
– SCF
– Combination
– Co-palletization
Cost Savings – Without Sacrificing Quality or Creativity
• Bulk Purchasing Power – Contract Pricing
– Program Pricing
• Experience to avoid common DM mishaps
• Creative Savings without sacrificing creativity or quality – Bleeds – lose a little in size, but gain creativity
– Form Sizes and Setup
– Handwriting versus auto-pen
Interstack Form Setup 17”
11”
Slit
Page 1 of Letter
Page 1 of Reply
8-1/2”
11”
Stacked Letter & Reply
Both letter and reply will personalize giving the appearance of a 2 way match. Because of the form layout it’s not a match.
Drop Cut (Gatefold) Form Setup 8-1/2”
14”
Reply Portion
Top of Letter – Flies the Package
Gutter/Take out for Drop-Cut
Top of Letter – Flies the Package
Reply – Nests into Letter
Entire form will personalize. The reply will slit and nest into the letter again giving the appearance of a 2 way match. Because of the form layout it’s not a match.
Can you tell the difference?
Why Have a Production Partner?
• Integration of mailing/campaign/program – online and offline
– Importance of seamless integration
– Value of multi-channel donor
– Cohesive campaign
– Maximize efforts
24M Value of a Multi-Channel Donor Multi-Channel are 30% more valuable
$176
$117 $111
$144
$121
$165 $161 Avg Val of a 3+ giver,
$134
All ThreeChannels
DM Only TM Only OL Only DM&TM DM&OL TM&OL
24M 24M Avg$
