Let's Talk Production (DMFA Presentation)

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

Print

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

Print

Personalization

Data Processing

Postal

Lettershop

Direct Mail Production – It’s Own Language

SLW

OSE

BRE

IMb

RAE

CMYK

PDF

DP

PPI

CASS

WW

FPO

FIM

Simplex

Duplex

Lock Up

Grain Direction

De-dupe

NCOA

PCW

Best Practices

• Knowing your supplier partners

• Print

• 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$

Thank you!

Questions?

Meg Ferguson - meg@pmgdirect.net

Shannon Murphy - smurphy@ccah.com