Tag Archives: print and mailing solutions

Print and Mail Services

How to transform your mailings using Hybrid Mail

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Mailing solutions from your desktop designed to save you time and money!

It seems that direct mail is making a bit of a come back actually paper is making a come back; did it ever go away?

I’d like to go out on a limb here and state that people are probably getting fed up having their inboxes full with unsolicted emails from companies, individuals selling their services, expertise and skills from how to improve your SEO to how you must have the latest business management training and techniques.

Direct mail prospect opening rates have increased from 88% to 91% since 2006 and email acquisition open rates have fallen from 21% to 11% since 2007. (DMA)

In 2010 an average of 91% of prospect direct mail was opened including 96% for personal banking and 95% for stores mail. (Ebiquity Rapport 2010) Open rates for acquisition email 11% (DMA)

Social media and email campaigns are reducing marketers ROI “marketers are failing to maximise user engagement and the ROI of their social media and email campaigns by mis-timing the day and hours of their general release”(YesMail) The companies in this study included Banana Republic, Gap, Diesel, Abercrombie & Fitch and their social media activity was tracked over a three month period on facebook, twitter and YouTube.

If they cant get it right what hope for the rest of us?

SME’s are challenged with trying to attribute resources, time and money to fulfil a worthwhile social media campaign that generates enquiries for their business.

Is it psychological?

Organisations are becoming weary of sending email newsletters and are changing tactic by sending hard copy newsworthy items in the post.

There’s a tangible colourful product in your hand that you can glance through on the way to making a cup of coffee; theres also a sense of well being reading the written word rather than picking your way through an email and of course you can read it anywhere on the train, office, home and in the garden.

Increase in this type of activity is largely attributed to better targeting for example the percentage of mail where customers took action has increased from 4% in 2004 to 5% in 2010. (Royal Mail Consumer Panel 2010)

Enter hybrid mail. A combination of printing and posting as a bundled service. By combining mailings for lots of customers and by optimising downstream access, mailings just got a whole lot cheaper and easier to manage.

Using print-2-mail and effective personalisation can have a dramatic effect on your ROI – that is, good direct mail used in conjunction with intelligent e-commerce.

If you want to find out more about how to transform your mailings but not sure where to start then leave your details here and one of advisors will call you back.

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Related posts:

  1. How to save money with hybrid mail. From desktop to doormat.
  2. 3 Ways to Reduce Postage Costs
  3. Hybrid mail solutions. How to mail out your letters on a budget!
  4. How to benefit from print and mailing services
  5. How to mail out your letters on a budget using a hybrid mail solution?
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How to save money with hybrid mail. From desktop to doormat.

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Invoices, statements, customer letters, Quick mailings, Debt letters, Holiday Greetings, Bill subscriptions. Hybrid Mail delivers the lot at less than the cost of a second class stamp.

Hybrid mail

Most organisations have an ongoing requirement for mailing out customer letters, mailshots, invoices and statements.

I bet you still have a number of customers that absolutely insist on wanting a paper document.

Those few letters a month to process take time and effort so who is going to do the job?

The never-ending postal increases mean that companies have to be smart and inventive when it comes to mailing customer letters.

E-billing, e-mailshots and paper documents are hierarchical depending on importance.

There are specific documents like legislative financial documents that are required to be processed as paper, or customers who request paper documents only.

Many businesses have an ongoing mailing requirement no matter how small which requires an in-house print and mail solution.

Our desktop mailing solution

Using Digital Print Management’s Print-2-Mail service mailing letters is a whole lot easier!

How?

Print-2-mail helps you retain control of mailing out letters to your customers. You decide when to upload and choose a mailing date. Instead of using your local print driver, you upload to our portal via a print driver.

It’s cheap, it’s quick and easy to use.

Why use hybrid mail?

Hybrid mail is a combination of printing and posting as a bundled service, combining small mailings for lots of customers and by optimising cheaper postage such as DSA (Downstream Access)mailings are cheaper and easier to manage.

How do I save money?

Hybrid mail

  • Increased staff productivity – staff no longer have to load and manage printers or stuff envelopes.
  • Reduced postage costs – we sort your mail, consolidate it so you benefit from significant postal discounts.
  • Reduced in-house equipment costs – general office printer usage goes down, cost of consumables is reduced because you are not using so much.
  • Reduced stationery and consumable costs.
  • Reduced paper wastage – using our postal validation system you can amend missing or incorrect addresses by downloading an address database of your customer mailing and ensure your customer database address details is up to date.
  • Pay as you go – with no setup or licence fee or software installation, print-2-mail enables you to send letters quickly and conveniently in the UK and Europe
  • Improved customer interaction – because the process is so quick and easy to use, your customers will benefit from your latest news; invoices will be printed when you need them
  • 1st and 2nd class mailing options are available and where letters exceed 15 pages they will go into a C4 envelope.

How do I manage what is being mailed?

The Print-2-mail shop is easy to use.
At each step, you can see what it costs and decide on printing in colour or black and white and then choose your postal service.
It manages documents that have variable pages and inserts.
Do you have customers that receive one page and others that have more than one? Print-2-Mail identifies those pages and manages the process seamlessly.
From your dashboard, you can manage users and set budget levels including setting up user permissions and monitor your print and mail spend.

How does print-2-mail work for your business?

Print-2-mail enables you to process your documents in a matter of minutes. We manage any type of mailing from mailshots, debt collection letters, emergency letter mailings, invoices, statements and general communication letters.

Aside from the obvious cost savings on print, fulfilment and postage, there are the invisible cost savings of energy, equipment, stationery and consumables.

It, couldn’t be simpler. If you want to see the benefits of our print-2-mail solution then request a demo now by contacting us or calling on 01234-271156.

Related posts:

  1. How to mail out your letters on a budget using a hybrid mail solution?
  2. Print and mail service. What to look out for in a print and mail services company.
  3. 3 Ways to Reduce Postage Costs
  4. How to transform your mailings using Hybrid Mail
  5. Hybrid mail solutions. How to mail out your letters on a budget!
Outsourcing, Print Management

Outsourcing Business Processes. Why outsource?

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A necessary business evil or not?

The term outsourcing immediately conjures up a feeling of fear, creates a sense of foreboding and there tends to be a general misconception that it will lead to redundancies. Factor in a lack of awareness or understanding of the benefits that can actually be derived from outsouricng a particular business function or process of your organisation and you can understand why people pale in front of you when the “O” word is mentioned.

There are 12 good reasons why a company might like to consider outsourcing here!

As companies expand in size and in operations, management must become more focussed on core business activities and consider whether non essential, non core business activities can be outsourced to vendors who can provide the specialisation lacking in-house.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing some of your business processes can save you time and money!

Outsourcing some of your business processes can save you time and money! 

Outsourcing business processes is when you contract out a business function either a task, role or process to a third party over a substantial period of time.  The outsource provider ostensibly takes control of the function and becomes responsible for managing its effectiveness and ultimately its success.

Outsourcing has become synonymous with large enterprises who offshore manufacturing or call centre operations to remote providers based in China or India.

This is not a viable option for the SME or for organisations wanting to outsource maybe one or two business processes. An effective and cost saving option is to consider “nearshoring” the process by which a company outsources to a local service provider (when I say local I am referring to a UK based provider)

Outsourcing core business processes may save you money, note I suggest the word may. The success of the process and its overall effectiveness must be clearly defined and managed and there are some guidelines to consider here!

An outsourcing partner can give you flexibility and the help you need to manage growth this is offset with the benefits you derive by offering your business access to outside expertise and technologies without having to make massive investments in infrastructure change and maintenance. Outsourcing can be scaled to suit the changing needs of your business.

Why outsource?

If you have found yourself asking the:-

  • are my resources being used effectively?
  • are my current resources capable of supporting new technology?
  • is there a better and more efficient way of handling our processes?
  • do the employees have the operational expertise to manage the tasks internally?
  • what is this all really costing the business?

Then the benefits of outsourcing can be great.

Capital for start ups is limited and outsourcing some of your business processes can ensure you know exactly what your on-going monthly costs will be allowing you to allocate much needed funds to the development of the business.

Consider these points:-

How?

  1. Will outsourcing allow my business to focus on its strengths?
  2. Will it improve efficiency of the business?
  3. Will your business gain a competitive advantage?
  4. Will it save me money?

How will outsourcing help me?

Firstly it will focus you and the business on what the company specialises in providing it’s customers, here I mean the core business function, whether it’s making hats and shoes or screws and plugs. You wont be distracted into unproductive and non-profit making business activities.

Internal resources will be re-directed and re-focussed into core business activity.

Migration to new technologies without you having to make investment internally reduces the risk of bad purchasing, minimum downtime and productivity ensuring that a move to newer technologies is minimal.

In any outsourcing partnership risk is further reduced because the outsource partner will have disaster recovery and back up mechanisms in place providing a rapid response to any problem that besets your company.

Points to consider

Think through what you need and how the company will benefit!

  • What process(es) are you thinking of outsourcing and why?
  • Weigh the costs of doing it in-house VS outsourcing
  • Consider a consultant to help you set up a service provider
  • Consider what the on-going costs would be if you don’t outsource it
  • Are you prepared to invest in the time and management of the outsourcing relationship?
  • Do you have realistic expectations?
  • Are you outsourcing a key function which you really should keep in-house?
  • Finally weigh up the risks of outsourcing VS managing the process in-house!

Whatever your decision, outsourcing or keeping the process in-house, you will need to consider the cost implications and the longer term impact on your business.

One final thing.

To reap true, tangible cost savings the process must be carefully managed and monitored. In other words the relationship must be built on trust, knowledge, security and ultimately become a partnership! Much like a marriage!

What do you think?

Have you outsourced a component of your business?

How successful was it?

Would you do it again?

 You can follow us on twitter, facebook and Pinterest or connect with us on google+ and Linkedin.

 

For more information about how to outsource click here

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  3. Outsource payroll services: How to manage the process of outsourcing your payroll?
  4. How to survive 2013! Keeping ahead of the competition.
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Hybrid Mail, Managing Print Costs, Print and Mail Services

Hybrid mail solutions. How to mail out your letters on a budget!

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From PC to Post – Print and Mailing Solutions made easier.

With the privatisation of the Royal Mail in October and the volume of letters delivered over the past five years in decline by 25% and expected to keep going down between 7-8% year on year postal services are on the decline.

The use of electronic methods of communication are on the increase and letter volumes are spiralling downward.

By 2015 it is estimated that the Royal Mail will have lost 40% of its business. (Hooper Report)

Postal trays are empty and the bulk of mail is carried by email servers.

What does the future hold for companies that still have a need to post out obligatory letters and forms or a few letters they might want to send out each week or month?

Although paper usage is declining paper isn’t going anywhere.

Whilst I have one foot firmly in the paper and the other in the paperless/electronic camp the fact is paper remains a recyclable, renewable and reusable substrate.

Recognised as the 7th largest industry in the UK, print provides a positive and meaningful purpose and retains a notable place in our business and domestic lives.

If you want to be able to continue to mail out customer letters there has to be a more cost effective viable mailing alternative!

Hybrid mail solutions

Are a unique online mail management solution for all your letter printing and mailing requirements.

How does it work?

When you generate a letter in-house you need five things, a PC, a printer, an envelope, paper and a way of posting out your letters i.e. a stamp or by franking the envelope.

Hybrid mail takes away the hassle of the above as the only two elements needed are a PC and internet access.

The envelope, paper, printing equipment and the distribution are managed at a secure remote location and the process is completed for less than the cost of a second class stamp depending on whether you are printing in colour or single/double sided print.

It’s like having your own print and mailing services company a click away and it can manage any letter an organisation sends out from an insurance renewal policy, customer marketing letters, post cards in fact any customer interfacing document you regularly send out to your customers.

Hybrid mail will save time, reduce postal costs and minimise your carbon footprint.

How does the mailing solution work?

Hybrid mail services allows you to enter your mailing requirements via a website.

It is an online interface enabling you to upload letter files using pre-determined templates. You can upload your document in word format (.doc, .pdf, .rtf) personalise it by adding logos and key marketing messages, change the layout, proof each step of the way and then the rest is done by the hybrid mail provider.

By taking word documents or PDF’s a mail merge is performed using your uploaded data and letter they are then printed and posted for less than the cost of a stamp.

With no contract or minimum order restrictions this makes the perfect mailing solution for small to large companies.

Hybrid mail offers a great way to reduce your in-house print and mailing costs because right from the press of a button you will know exactly what the mailing will cost. There are no extra costs and no hidden extras.

Is it eco-friendly?

Yes. Using large volume printers which are more efficient and using paper bought from sustainable sources means save money because it reduces paper, printer and toner cartridge usage.

Businesses can expect to make impressive savings with no upfront costs required.

A PC or laptop, a file of names and addresses and the letter or letters you wish to send are all that is required to be up and running!

It couldn’t be simpler!

Our print-2-mail service is easy to use and free to set up. Call us for a demonstration

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Connect with us on Linkedin and Google+ for all our news, features and updates!

 

Related posts:

  1. How to benefit from print and mailing services
  2. Print and mail service. What to look out for in a print and mail services company.
  3. 3 Ways to Reduce Postage Costs
  4. How to save money with hybrid mail. From desktop to doormat.
  5. How to transform your mailings using Hybrid Mail
Hybrid Mail, Print and Mail Services

3 Ways to Reduce Postage Costs

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Postage

If you still mail out letters and bills there are some options that will save time and money

Businesses rely heavily on the Royal Mail in spite of the internet and the availability of sending documents electronically.

The UK Royal Mail increased their charges from April 2013 and businesses who use a multi-distribution method for delivery of their customer letters such as post and electronic delivery will no doubt have felt the impact of the postage costs on their bottom-line.

Despite the increase and depending on what volumes you mail out in a month there are 3 ways that can help you reduce the expenditure.

Using a print and mailing service provider offers a number of tangible benefits that will save you time and money. You can read more about how the service works here.

Use DSA (downstream access)

DSA is the term used to describe mail which has been collected and distributed by a competitor of the Royal Mail but is delivered into the Royal Mail centres for final processing in to local offices.

The cost savings per envelope depending on weight can be substantial and savings can be up to 13p per envelope using 2nd class mail. (Price will vary subject to weight)

Good Database Management

By ensuring that your data is current and reliable removes the issue of duplication.

Many companies over look the importance of recording their customers address and contact details and this results in duplicated addresses and most likely duplicated invoices arriving on the customers door step.

Maintaing your billing database (clicking on the link here will explain why data cleansing is important for your business) on a regular basis shows best practice and will save time and money and it doesn’t have to be a costly exercise.

A print and mailing service provider can check for errors and duplications using de-duping software.

envelopes

Address Inaccuracies

Sending invoices or statements to an incorrect address or defunct address can be costly!

Not only does the invoice go unpaid but the invoice then has to be re-printed and mailed out again effectively doubling your postage charge and increasing the processing and print time.

Incomplete addresses result in items being undelivered unless there is a return address on the envelope which will ensure the item is forwarded to the originator of the envelope.

But incorrectly or incomplete addresses means that the invoices have to be painstakingly checked and re-issued correctly. This takes up valuable company resources and slows cash collection too.

If you are faced with the challenge of getting your documents out on time there is an alternative solution called hybrid mail. If you click here you can find out more about what the service can do to speed up the mailing out process.

If you call Digital Print Management on 01234-271156 and ask for Caroline or drop us your email address here one of expert advisors will talk it through with you. What best suits your needs when it comes to mailing out your documents.

Related posts:

  1. Print and mail service. What to look out for in a print and mail services company.
  2. How to save money with hybrid mail. From desktop to doormat.
  3. How to mail out your letters on a budget using a hybrid mail solution?
  4. Hybrid mail solutions. How to mail out your letters on a budget!
  5. How to benefit from print and mailing services