subject: How To Build A Solid Working Relationship With Your Direct Mailing House [print this page] A good mailing house should be a direct marketing professional's biggest strength. Developing a great working relationship will result in direct marketing campaigns which run to schedule, keep within budget, and give you the highest chance of making the required return on your investment. Direct marketing professionals want excellent service from their mailing house; in order to make this happen the mailing company must receive effective communication from its clients. Use the following points to help as a reminder of how to build a strong relationship with your direct mailing services company.
1. Visit the mailing house premises in order to see how their business operates - this also means that in future you can put faces to staff you talk to daily on the telephone. The visit is an opportunity for you to ask any questions you have in terms of for example, how machinery works. Being able to actually watch technology at work provides you with a better understanding about why certain processes take the time they do. You never know - Your visit may inspire you come up with ideas to improve your direct mailings - you may discover that there are better ways of doing things - a new type of fold or way to personalize a mail shot.
2. To get the most out of a mailing house it makes sense to try to co-ordinate your production schedule with theirs - if you are willing to fit in with their schedules you may be able to get cost reductions. Allow a mailing house enough time to complete the work satisfactorily, remember they have other customers whose needs are also time sensitive- so be fair with timings and get them agreed beforehand. If a number of third parties are involved in aspects of your direct marketing campaign factor in these timings in a logical order. It may help to allow for some slippage time to cover you in case of delays.
3. Only supply your mailing house with materials it is technically capable of working with -sending your mailing company items which need hand insertion is a waste of yours and their time if they cannot offer this facility. Be specific about weights and sizes of materials which are to be supplied in order to ensure their machinery can deal with them.
4. Consider how to best make use of the mailing house's resources -you may need a one-stop shop, or alternatively want simply to outsource one or more components of the direct mailing processes e.g. inserting and enclosing mail shots. You may well get discounts for allowing a direct mailing house to handle more of the work for you, but your organisational rules may prohibit this. In any case find out about all the various services your mailing house can offer- and run a test mailing to see if outsourcing more aspects of a campaign gets you better results.
5. By depending on one mailing house to take on all your direct mail you are likely to get discounts, but make sure you are completely sure your mailing house is financially stable. For peace of mind check that the mailing house is a member of the Direct Marketing Association - if they are their company will have been given a positive financial bill of health.
6. Communicate with your mailing house in order to update them about any new developments within your organization - and plan ahead as much as you can: being forewarned is forearmed. Your mailing house will benefit from any information you can give them about new company products or new markets you plan to target; your mailing services company wants to know and understand your company so that they can give you advice which is tailored directly to you.
7. In order to ensure best practice it's a good idea to work within a set of guidelines so that each party knows what to expect of the other. An agreement as to who supplies what, how should it be provided, which party pays for what are all things which should be ironed out at the negotiation stage. All quotes and estimates plus any amendments must be put in writing as must all instructions. It should also be made clear from the start which named person within each organisation has the responsibility for signing off work such as proofs or samples before production commences.
8. Nothing stops a good working relationship in its track as much as late payment - so pay on time! Always make sure terms are agreed with the mailing company right at the start then make sure they are adhered to. If you haven't already set up a purchase order system it's a good idea to do so, in order to help to keep an eye on purchases-this will help reduce problems for both parties when it comes to sorting out the figures.
9. Think about reviewing your mailing house's performance at regular intervals. In this way you can make sure you are still getting a good deal. Also is your mailing house updating you on new processes in terms of helping you become more efficient in your direct mailings? Getting feed back in terms of the opinions of employees at the mailing house is a way of gaining valuable information about whether improving communication could help speed up processes and increase efficiency.
10. Lastly: Unfortunately it very occasionally happens that you and your direct mailing company fall out. If you have chosen a DMA registered business as your mailing house then the DMA can become an adjudicator and can work to produce an outcome based on mailing industry guidelines. However by sticking to the points such as these you are unlikely to experience this situation - so, best of luck with your direct marketing campaigns!
