Are you in the process of choosing a company to work with for your direct mail campaign? Have you been wondering whether Integra Graphics Synergy could be the right fit for your team?
We work with clients of many sizes and industries to produce direct mail with the highest possible impact on recipients. Of course we feel that plenty of companies could benefit from working with us, but we’re also fully aware that we’re not the right fit for everyone.
In this article, we’ll break down the benefits we bring to the table after decades working with print and direct mail. But we won’t leave it at that, because we want to give you the chance to consider both angles.
To be as unbiased as we possibly can, we’ll also break down what we don’t do and what situations may mean you could find a better fit elsewhere. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll know all the facts to make an informed decision that best suits your business.
At the end of the day, you deserve to feel confident that you’re making the right decision and putting your marketing dollars where they’re best spent. To that end, whether you decide you’d like to work with us or choose to go a different direction, we’ll consider it a success!
The Process Involved with Integra’s Direct Mail Services
If you haven’t already, you might be wondering what to expect when you reach out to us to build and execute a direct mail campaign. We’ve written a comprehensive article that will help you understand the steps of our process, which you’re welcome to read before, after or in tandem with this piece.
Now, let’s start with the features of the way we do business that could help in building your most successful mailing.
Who Can Benefit Most From Direct Mail With Integra?
Companies looking for a more hands-off approach on their end will see the full value of our print broker model shine through during direct mail planning. We understand the intricacies of direct mail and take on the success of every campaign as if it were our own business’s logo on each envelope.
Our business model may appeal to you if you’re seeking:
- A single point of contact: Because we work within a print management model, we can handle every stage of your mailing to take the logistics off your hands. No matter where you are in your planning, we can step in and take it from there. Let’s say you contact us with a vague idea for a project but aren’t sure who to target or what designs to use. We can work with you to choose a direct mail route, purchase a mail list as needed, set up a timeline and even implement methods for tracking your ROI after your content has been delivered. We can manage the details so that instead of making dozens of calls, you can focus on your broader marketing strategy.
- Cost-saving opportunities: From your mail list to your design to your printing to the delivery itself, many factors within your direct mail campaign will affect your budget. It can be stressful to remember the details and try to find cost savings on your own within each one of these siloed steps. When you work with our team, one of the first questions we’ll ask is how much you want to spend on your campaign. From there, we’ll access connections across all of these steps to find the lowest available prices to keep you at or below budget without affecting the quality of your campaign.
- Timeline management: After cost, time is usually the most critical factor in the success of a direct mail endeavor. Perhaps you’re running a limited-time sale, or you want to drive traffic to an upcoming event. You need your mail pieces to reach readers within a precise window, and we have the connections and resources to make that happen. With any print work, we recommend giving as much lead time as possible — but we’ve helped plenty a customer with rush jobs to ensure success. To get a quick estimate of your timeline with Integra, check out our turnaround calculator below.
- Infinite printing customization: The sky — well, and USPS requirements — are the limit when it comes to the creativity you can inject into your mail pieces. The more you can draw someone’s eye, create positive brand awareness and stand out from the crowd, the more likely you’ll be to boost your engagement with your mailers. Thanks to connections with every type of printing and print equipment, we can turn your vision into a reality — or help you come up with a vision in the first place!
- USPS regulation expertise: We know what the USPS allows and what they’ll flag, including weight, dimensions, presorting expectations, recipient minimums, mail classes and route requirements. The USPS provides a customer guide with these details, but it can be quite a lot to sort through. Our mail house experts will make sure your planned prints meet all requirements for your chosen mail class to avoid extra fees and ensure problem-free delivery.
- Problem management: With any printed work, problems can occur along the way that set back timeline, raise prices and negatively impact quality. Direct mail inherently comes with numerous moving parts, which means more opportunities for someone along the way to miss the mark. At Integra, we maintain enough qualified, fully vetted connections that we can and do pivot as needed to make sure a planned strategy goes off just as planned rather than forcing our clients to face the issues they might if they go it alone.
- Digital integration: If you think you might want to incorporate a digital component into your mailing efforts, we can help you do it with our Direct Mail with Intelligence platform called SynergyMail, which will allow you to build further brand awareness through online impressions that pair cohesively with your direct mail efforts.
- Seamless future mailings: With most campaigns, we recommend three to four mailings spaced three to four weeks apart. We’ll certainly work with you on a one-time basis if that’s what you want, but if you choose to mail in the future, we can start planning and printing as soon as you’re ready to ensure seamless and cohesive branding across the full span of your campaign.
Now, let’s take a look at some situations that may make Integra the wrong fit for your direct mail services.
Who Would Benefit the Least From Direct Mail With Integra?
As we’ve said, not everyone is an ideal fit. You won’t reap the same benefits of our direct mail services if you:
- Already have an in-house mail expert: Don’t get us wrong — we can and gladly will still handle your printing if you have a mail expert on hand. But it wouldn’t make sense for us to step in where you’re already paying a professional on your own team, so in this case, we’d get your prints ready and defer to your internal mailing process to handle the rest.
- Use a printer and just need mailing: In this case, we recommend finding a standalone mail house or sending your printed content out yourself. At Integra, our first biggest service is printing, not mailing. We can manage all steps involved with the direct mail process, but we’re not a mail house exclusively. If you already have a printer you trust and do not plan to switch away from their services, Integra is likely not the best fit for your project.
- Need to send mail as a consumer: Most of our direct mail prowess assists B2B and B2C customers. If you’re a business looking to reach other businesses or your own customers, we’re here to help. If you’re a consumer yourself, on the other hand, you may be better served with a small-batch print shop order. For instance, you can likely get an order of 100 wedding invitations exactly how you want them with an office or online retailer.
- Only plan for one small mailing: If your company does most of its business online and doesn’t plan to utilize print services beyond a quick, small-batch mailing, you won’t have a chance to witness the full scope of services and benefits we offer at Integra. Customers who get started with us usually establish a relationship with us and use our services repeatedly. While we can certainly help you save time, money and effort on a one-time large-scale campaign to hundreds of recipients, a mailing of 100 pieces or less may be better served elsewhere.
- Want full control over every detail: One of the top benefits our customers reap with our services is that they can take the task off their own plate and put it on ours. We communicate and share transparently throughout the process, and we always make proofs available to anyone who wants them. So in a sense, our customers have control over their outcome. That said, if you or someone on your team prefers to be involved in every vendor conversation and logistical decision, you may enjoy keeping your printing and mailing plans in-house.
Is Integra the Right Printer for Your Direct Mail Marketing?
Choosing a direct mail vendor can be an incredibly stressful process given the amount of time and money potentially involved. You want everything to go smoothly, and almost every mail company out there will tell you they’re the right fit for you. They can’t all be right, right?
Right. The truth is, your company’s structure as well as the specific goals you have for you next mailing all factor into the decision. If you’ve been dealing with the spam of every business telling you they’re the right fit, we hope this blog has given you some refreshing perspective on what to consider and discuss with your team before reaching out to us or anyone else.
If you’d like to learn more about what it’s like to work with the team at Integra, feel free to read our article on the topic.
And if you feel like you fit in the group discussed at the top of this blog post — those for whom Integra could offer the most benefit — contact our crew below to get your direct mail campaign started off on the right foot!
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