In part 1 of this 3 part series on choosing a direct mail vendor, we discussed: Hiring a full service advertising agency

In today’s post — part 2 — we’ll be covering: Hiring a direct mail production company

Note: If you’d rather just read the white paper version of this series, simply visit here.

OK, let’s continue…

The advantage to working with a direct mail production company lies in the fact that they will have established relationships with a network of trusted and reliable vendors. Direct mail is what these companies do, day in and day out, which means they will know how to produce a direct mail piece efficiently and cost-effectively, including maximizing postage discounts. Direct mail production companies also excel at troubleshooting.

Ideal candidates to work with a production company will be companies which consider direct mail to play a significant role in their marketing plan, but have an understaffed or nonexistent in-house team to manage it all. This includes many medium sized businesses, and some larger companies, who use direct mail heavily but do not maintain a fully staffed production department to manage the ongoing campaigns.

BE CAREFUL: When working with a production company, you need to remember that a gap exists between the client and the actual plant(s) producing and handling the mail. Ensure that the production company reports frequently on progress made in order to remain in the loop and in control of the campaign.

Part 3 — Working directly with various printing plants — is up next.