by Melissa Donovan
Direct mail is a strategic source of business for many print providers equipped with digital printing services. This is especially true in the past decade, as variable data printing (VDP) has become mainstream. A personalized piece of mail, outfitted with your name and some other pertinent piece of detailed information, is often found in your mail box.
Above: ProList reviews direct mail output.
To generate a good look at where direct mail is today and some of the topics influencing it from the recent pandemic to postal rate increases, we reached out to several direct mail printers that excel in their line of work.
IWCO Direct has been in business since 1969. It operates out of three locations—Chanhassen, MN; Hamburg, PA; and Warminster, PA—reaching customers throughout North America. A combined square footage of 989,000 houses 1,525 employees. The company touts itself as a full-service, direct marketing agency partner, with proven solutions for strategy, data, creative, production, and analytics. 100 percent of its services involve direct mail.
L & D Mail Masters, Inc. finds its home in New Albany, IN in a 120,000 square foot campus 20 minutes from the UPS world hub in Louisville, KY. This is a far cry from how it began in 1986, with a table, phone, and $500 out of the company president’s home. Today it employs a staff of 80 with over 60 percent celebrating five years or longer with the company. Services are vast, ranging from programming, data, print, hand fulfillment and kitting to gluing, inserting, typical bindery, and graphic design.
Leverage Printing of Cedar Falls, IA got its start in 1994 with five employees in a 100 square foot space but today finds itself with eight employees working out of a 20,000 square foot building. Direct mail accounts for 40 percent of its business, which reaches throughout the continental U.S. Its services include—in addition to direct mail—variable data, commercial printing and binding, HIPAA compliant processing, trade printing, and specialty printing.
ProList, based in Frederick, MD, works out of one main production facility in addition to a second building for warehousing and fulfillment. Combined, the spaces total 60,000 square feet, with 110 employees offering mailing services, digital color printing, commercial and envelope printing, fulfillment/hand assembly, email marketing, landing pages, database services, integrated marketing campaigns, and IP targeted marketing. 90 percent of its work is direct mail.
Founded in 1984 by Bill and Mary Brennan, DNI Corp. is located in an 83,000 square foot facility in Nashville, TN. The company is over 50 employees strong, all of which are dedicated to providing direct mail fulfillment and statement processing services for businesses, utilities, and government offices to help inform, activate, engage, and mobilize existing and future customers looking to grow business.
Digital and Direct
Not every print provider adds digital printing capabilities to their shop at the same time or for the same reasons. Specific features of digital presses are very effective for direct mail.
For DNI Corp., digital printing has made up some component of its business since its start. “As technology and print capabilities improved, DNI adjusted to offer these new capabilities for our customers. Our evolution went from inkjet lines doing just addressing to laser printing and advancing to our digital web press in early 2019 to a new Canon varioPRINT iX-3200 Series,” outlines Robert Cook, president/COO, DNI Corp.
The new press is scheduled to be installed this May. “While our digital web handles a high percentage of transactional work, the Canon press will be heavily engaged in our targeted marketing/direct mail work at approximately the same ratio.”
2018 was the year ProList added digital printing to its production floor. It was looking to fully print four-color in house. Today it works with a Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1, with about 90 percent of the work off of it considered direct mail. When asked what attracted the company to the press, David Mawyer, director of operations, ProList, states, “the sheet size, UV curing, and the fact that it can run any paper with no special coating—it can run coated, uncoated, and other specialty substrates.”
IWCO Direct introduced digital printing over ten years ago. At press time, it was in the process of implementing HP PageWide T490 HD and T250 HD presses, which will be used 100 percent for direct mail applications. “Throughput, efficiency, and color fidelity are what drew us to these presses,” explains Carroll Schiley, director, production technology applications, IWCO Direct.
Conversely, L & D Mail Masters has operated some form of digital the entire time it’s been in business. Most recently, it installed a AccurioJet KM-1 from Konica Minolta. Right before COVID-19 hit, it began looking at digital printers that could provide more capacity and flexibility.
Jill Peden, VP of sales and marketing, L & D Mail Masters, says it was weeks away from making the purchase when the pandemic started. The print provider put a halt on plans. “Konica Minolta worked with us and were amazing, every few months checking in. When things started ramping up, we purchased the AccurioJet KM-1 and we got it very quick. The beauty of this machine, pretty much anyone and everyone can be trained to run it. It took six weeks to setup. The day the installers turned it over to us we started running production. It’s a workhorse so far and quality is beautiful.”
Some of the first machines in Leverage Printing’s offices were digital copiers. Four years ago it sold its last offset press and purchased an HP Indigo 12000, it’s since upgraded to an HP Indigo 15K. “The HP Indigo B2 press sheet matched our offset press size but with the enhancement of being totally digital. The digital capability allows many of our direct mail pieces to go right from the press to the mail trays, which make our turnaround very quick with no sacrifice on quality,” explains Mike Weichers, president, Leverage Printing.
Finishing Considerations
To keep up with the capabilities of digital print, finishing considerations—especially automated ones—are important.
Peden notes that the AccurioJet KM-1 purchase was especially attractive to L & D Mail Masters because it could continue using its existing cutters, Heidelberg POLARs. The company also uses die cutters from Heidelberg for its direct mail work, usually more high-end pieces either squaring or perforating the material.
IWCO Direct runs its finishing near line. “We look for speed, flexibility, and the ability to combine multiple processes into a single operation,” notes Schiley.
Finding a home at ProList is a Horizon RD-4055DM die cutter, Horizon SMSL-100 smart slitter, and Horizon AFC-566F smart folder, all from Standard Finishing. It also uses folders from Baumfolder and MBO. From a direct mail standpoint, Mawyer says the machines’ ease of use is especially important.
Approximately 20 percent of Leverage Printing’s direct mail work is processed on its digital finishing equipment, which is all from Duplo—a cutter, creaser, and scorer; as well as a die cutter and booklet maker. Also found in the finishing department are Neopost—now Quadient—inserters with intelligent 2D barcodes, which allow for tracking every page that goes into an envelope.
DNI operates an assortment of offline finishing equipment to support its direct mail work. It also utilizes inserters for high-volume direct mail production. “We have a roll-to-sheet environment that fits well with our direct mail capabilities,” shares Cook.
Direct Mail
Direct mail encompasses many types of print collateral, and it changes depending on the target industry.
For larger industries like healthcare and insurance, L & D Mail Masters offers statement processing. Direct mail and postcard work is common for higher education and political clients. Letter packets are completed for sales organizations. Peden explains that many of the letter packets are actually overflow work from peers. “Over the years we have used our floor as a show room for various OEMs. We make relationships with those perspective customers and down the road instead of purchasing the equipment they came to look at, they might use us to outsource the work instead.”
ProList commonly creates direct mail for non-profit fundraisers. Mawyer explains that ProList can produce whatever is asked of them in the direct mail realm, from brochures and buckslips to letters and replies. “If we can’t do it in house we have plenty of trusted partners that help us produce what we want,” he adds.
When asked why digital print is ideal in these scenarios, Mawyer says “to be able to variable print small to large size complex jobs in a short amount of time.”
Many of Leverage Printing’s customers are small businesses, and Weichers says digital print offers flexibility to print only what is needed for each campaign, which is a cost-effective way to market. “We work with our customers to set up a campaign, one of the questions that we always ask is how can we maximize return on investment (ROI)? Having a call to action on the piece is important. We have used buckslips, quick response (QR) codes, augmented reality, marketing catalogs, and flyers that would accomplish the campaign’s objectives,” he continues.
Letter-sized, enveloped mail pieces are common place at IWCO Direct. In addition, it has the capability to produce flat-sized mail pieces, folded self mailers, snap packs, and postcards. Clients are in the insurance, financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare sectors.
“Digital print provides the flexibility needed to support direct mail. It eliminates the need for pre-printed stock that may become obsolete before it is exhausted and allows us to combine more versions into a single mailstream, driving postage savings,” admits Schiley.
DNI produces a range of targeted marketing mail applications. “We do everything from postcards and letter work to yard signs and door hangers for customers. We also do fulfillment kits for clients that include a variety of products packaged together and mailed to their existing or potential clients,” says Cook. He adds that digital print—primarily VDP—is a critical component of its portfolio as it offers its clients the ability to better target their mailings with a focus on creating one-to-one messaging versus one to many.
VDP and Direct Mail
VDP is an important part of direct mail and thankfully a number of software solutions are available to ensure the correct information is used and sent to the right person. Sometimes these solutions are OEM and other times they are home grown.
IWCO Direct relies on Quadient’s Inspire suite of products. Schiley credits the flexibility of remote staff composition in Quadient’s Inspire Designer as one of the reasons it excels in VDP. For proofing, it works with Quadient Inspire Approval.
Schiley notes that IWCO Direct’s goal is to convert all of its clients to VDP, when asked how often VDP is used in relation to direct mail. “When we first began our journey toward VDP, the first adopters were our most data savvy clients who could fully leverage one-to-one or one-to-few to their prospects and customers. As all marketers have learned to make better use of data, our goal is to convert all of our clients to VDP in the near future.”
It seems a collective response that VDP hasn’t changed much despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “The direct mail industry has been migrating toward VDP over the last ten-plus years. During that time, color fidelity and paper flexibility continued to grow. We haven’t seen an impact of COVID-19 on the growth trajectory for VDP,” shares Schiley.
“We did see a downturn in direct mail during the peak of the pandemic, but it is now just as strong as before. Being able to reach out to clients with a mail piece is a great way to keep in touch when physical contact was not allowed,” notes Weichers.
Leverage Printing’s customers utilize VDP like QR codes and personalized URLs to increase ROI. Weichers notes that when these types of methods are used, a higher success rate is experienced. “It’s all based on the customer’s campaign and the call to action that they want on their mail piece. If the client has the data and we can use it in a way to increase their ROI we will make that suggestion.”
98 percent of L & D Mail Masters’ direct mail projects involve VDP in some way. “There is a lot of shift in the industry due to paper product availability. Resources are limited. We see more flexibility from clients now about using different materials. Print and mail collateral has a high ROI because people are looking at it everyday. The physical piece has a huge value to the consumer or end user,” explains Peden.
Mawyer says almost everything ProList does involves some level of VDP.
However, Cook points out that during COVID it saw the appeal of physical mail grow. “With people being forced to shelter in place, getting mail was a connection to the outside world.”
He adds that studies have shown that direct mail is still delivering a high return on investment.
Handling the Data
The data involved in a direct mail campaign is full of potential. The ability to measure activity and leverage it for further campaigns is essential. Furthermore, tracking to ensure on-time delivery of a campaign is necessary.
The marketing team at IWCO Direct tracks client campaign performance. This helps to “fine-tune prospect selection models and lower cost per acquisition for these campaigns,” explains Schiley.
IWCO Direct follows direct mail campaigns using GrayHair Software. It helps the company ensure in-home dates are met and proactively addresses potential delivery delays.
L & D Mail Masters utilizes a proprietary system with accessibility offered to its clients as well. All mail campaigns that are first class and standard marketing mail are tracked and even if a client isn’t paying for it, the visibility is there.
ProList uses SnailWorks for tracking and reporting. “Our clients want to know how their shipped mail is tracking and when it is arriving so we meet their requested in-home dates,” notes Mawyer.
Similarly, at Leverage Printing, part of its mail processing software—SmartSoft Inc.’s PressWise—allows delivery tracking. Weichers notes how helpful it is for clients, as they can plan when they may hear from customers and how well the piece was received.
DNI uses a technology that combines its direct mail, social media connections, and even USPS Informed Delivery to make the ROI even better for what it calls DNI360 Engage. “It automates direct marketing messages to cross several platforms and enhances that connection with follow up messaging,” shares Cook. This system allows the company to provide a dashboard for its clients to track their mail campaigns and see how they are performing.
Postal Rates
Postal rates are at an all-time high. Direct mail campaigns are directly effected by this. Savvy print providers stay abreast of the changes and communicate to their customers so there are no surprises.
“Most customers understand that postal rates will continue to rise. We utilize postal sorting software to achieve the lowest possible postal rates and pass that savings on to our customers,” notes Weichers.
Postal presort software helps ensure L & D Mail Masters gets the best rate for its customers’ direct mail campaigns. Peden says despite the increases in postal rates, she hasn’t experienced any push back from clients. Noting that regular customers tend to budget for it and the rises aren’t a deterrent. She also credits her account executive team with stellar communication.
“We have a six person account executive team and they are all huge assets to all of our clients, not only selling projects, but project management—whether timelines, what is needed, what services they want, or how to get the biggest bang for product,” continues Peden.
At IWCO Direct, Schiley says the response to increasing postal rates is two fold. First, it helps its clients identify the prospects most likely to respond and to approach these prospects with relevant, intriguing messaging through direct mail and partner channels. Secondly, it takes full advantage of address hygiene, postal presort, and composition software to ensure the mailings produced earn all possible postage discounts and the mail is prepared and presented to the U.S. Postal Service in the most efficient manner for their processing.
Using BCC Presort is key for ProList. “There is really nothing we can do, our clients are generally on top of any increases and plan accordingly,” admits Mawyer.
Cook says DNI uses standard presort software tools but has partnered with a mail commingling service to allow its customers to get the best postal rates on their mail.
Communication Handlers
While micro and macro influences have changed the way we communicate, some things still remain the same—specifically mail. Direct mail continues to be a powerful tool used to attract attention and relay information. Companies preparing direct mail—designing, printing, leveraging the data, fulfillment, and tracking—are instrumental in these communications. dps
May2022, DPS Magazine
