Statement Printing

Many companies face a tough challenge this year- reduced marketing budgets and possible reduced in-house staff and maintaining or even increasing their operational and marketing activities. This trend and challenge has led to an increase in companies looking for vendors who can assist them with design, development, execution, and tracking of direct marketing activities.

If you are a business looking for a direct marketing vendor, it is a good idea to look for a vendor who can do everything for you turnkey. In the case of direct mail, this means companies who can help you design the mailer, pull a mailing list, print, and mail the piece. It is much less time consuming and easier for you to manage if you have one vendor who does everything.

Direct marketing companies can provide valuable expertise and efficiencies. So, your company can focus on your core competency while saving money and time.

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Offset printing is a term that you have probably come across when working with printers. This printing process is the most popular today and is the technique used where the inked image is transferred (aka “offset”) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing service.

A little history behind this process is that it was actually developed in two versions: by Robert Barclay of England for printing on tin in 1875, and by Ira Washington Rubel (by accident) of the United States for printing on paper in 1903.

Offset printing is best suited for producing large volumes of high quality prints in an economically sound, cost effective way.

Advantages
Advantages of offset printing when compared to other printing methods are:

-Consistently high quality images. This advantage is because the rubber blanket conforms to the texture of the printing surface.
-Easy and quick production of printing plates.
-Longer printing plate life because there is no direct contact between the plate and the printing surface.
-Cost. Offset printing is the cheapest method to produce high quality printing in large printing quantities.

Of course, there are disadvantages and other methods to choose from, but offset printing is a great option for high volume jobs because of the efficiency, cost advantages, and quality.

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According to the USPS, 40 million Americans change their address annually which can create obstacles for reaching your recipients during any mailing. USPS’s NCOALink software, which can be purchased, leased or developed by a licensee, gives access to NCOALink data. From this data, a licensee can obtain information on current, standardized, delivery point coded addresses for their recipients. The NCOALink Product contains about 18 months worth of permanent address changes.

Using NCOALink can help reduce the amount of undeliverable mail your company has to deal with after each mailing. Getting many returned mail pieces and re-mailing can be a frustrating and expensive part of any mailing and using this software can help to ease those frustrations.

Print and mail services providers should include the option to use the NCOA software as part of their services. Many print and mail providers will not only change the address before mailing, but will provide a report so that your company can update your records as well. The option to utilize this software is a benefit that is often overlooked in the decision making process of whether to outsource print and mail, but it is a simple additional service that can ease many frustrations.

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In a recent article, a university Instructor of Marketing compares email and direct mail marketing. The full article can be found here. He makes a great point that when deciding between e-mail and direct mail marketing, you need to consider the relationship you business has with the recipients. Do they have any previous knowledge of your company? If they do not know either you or your company, it has been shown that your e-mail will likely never make it to the recipient. Direct mail is a good medium through which you can introduce yourself and extend an invitation to provide more information on your website or an offer to bring the recipients to your location.

The relationship with the recipients seems to be an often overlooked aspect of direct marketing. Some companies assume that since their message is great and the media is affective, the recipient will pay attention to their marketing campaign. Sometimes a great message and the right media are not enough. You have to consider the history of your relationship with the recipients or the lack of history too.

There are many aspects that go into a direct marketing campaign, and the relationship with the recipient is one that should not be overlooked.

Printing Services and Print on Demand
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Statement Printing Blog