Direct Mailers and Service Bureaus

"Service Bureau" is used here to mean an enterprise engaged in printing customized documents of any type for third parties. "Direct Mailer" refers to an enterprise engaged in printing and mailing circulars, fliers, or other marketing literature for third parties. In addition to soliciting business with mail pieces, Direct Mailers may be paid to fulfill orders for information packets, product literature, catalogs or other documents requested by their customer's prospects.

Many large corporations out-source document production to Service Bureaus rather than manage their own print departments, and also out-source direct marketing and fulfillment to print-for-pay operations. Most Service Bureaus and Direct Mail houses, in turn, specialize in servicing particular industries. Though specialized, Service Bureaus and Direct Mailers must continually seek new ways to differentiate themselves from other print shops and service providers. To grow the business, they must gain a competitive advantage in bidding jobs to new accounts, and must regularly expand the range of jobs they can perform for their customers.

XSIS can help with special solutions that cut across industries, such as preparing Direct Mail pieces. XSIS can also help with solutions that relate to particular industries, including applications unique to the Financial Services industry (like Prospectuses and Loan Coupon Books), or applications for companies in Healthcare, or applications to satisfy other Industry-specific needs.

 Direct Mail: Advertising and Promotions

Direct Mail can take any number of forms but it's always designed for impact. The objective is to generate the highest possible response rate, whether measured in bingo card volume, floor traffic increases or coupons redeemed.

Most Direct Mailers or Service Bureaus handle a number of accounts, each with its own set of special stocks and promotional materials. A single large account may select different variants of a stock or graphic to reach different audiences, or particular stocks to support specific marketing campaigns. Obviously, the account would consider it disastrous for the Direct Mailer or Service Bureau to combine or substitute stocks. Yet some very large Print-for-Pay providers have lost major accounts for just this reason. They may have printed coupon "A" on the coupon "B" stock, or printed discount coupons for one automobile dealership on the stock for another dealership, or printed a sale announcement for a furniture store on the stock supplied by an electronics chain.

While most shops go to great lengths to minimize such mix-ups, operator intervention and manual procedures will never be foolproof. It's simply too easy for an operator in a busy shop to add a different stock to a partially empty feeder -- or to empty a small amount of paper from an input tray and "temporarily" stack it on top of a different stock (and then forget to separate them).

Errors in orienting the stock, even if it is the correct stock, are equally unacceptable to the customer. These errors result in printing the right information on the right sheet -- but on a sheet that is upside down or rotated 180 degrees, so the finished document is useless. It's almost impossible to completely eliminate such errors when loading paper into a printer because operators are only human.

The Feed Assurance Feature (FAF) is an automated solution for performing stock-to-image matching. FAF validates that an image has been applied to the intended stock, and that the sheet is correctly oriented (right side up, with the proper leading edge). FAF helps the Direct Mailer or Service Bureau hold on to existing customers by preserving customer satisfaction, and helps to maintain profit margins by eliminating costly re-runs.

XSIS also delivers solutions that help the Direct Mailer or Service Bureau to increase market share, by addressing the needs of new accounts who require previously unavailable technology and by capturing a larger portion of the work out-sourced by existing customers.

For instance, many promotional pieces are printed on Glossy stocks. Whether announcing a sale, store opening or new product, gloss coated paper is effective at grabbing the reader's attention. For still greater impact, the Direct Mailer can combine the power of print-on-demand with full color "shells" or "forms". In this case, the flier or circular is pre-printed with static graphics and other fixed color content using an offset press. A Xerox high speed printer, adapted to run glossy stocks, then adds the variable data to the shell. This data might be a personalized offer, or customized discount coupons (maybe based on the recipients's history, stored in a database), or simply the recipient's name and address (if a self-mailer).

Other promotional pieces are made odd sizes, to help differentiate them so the message they deliver will break through the clutter from competing advertisements. These pieces may have form factors that are not effectively handled by Xerox printers.

Sometimes the graphic artist or designer may want to use a sheet that is bigger than the largest cut size paper supported by the printer. XSIS can provide Large Format models of popular Xerox printers that have been adapted to run oversize cut sheet paper.

Sometimes the optimal form factor for a piece, especially a self-mailer, is long in one dimensions and short in the other -- too short to run on regular Xerox printers. A sheet, for example, that is 9"x16" must be printed on 10"x16" paper and trimmed to 9". That adds an extra step (time and labor) and results in paper wastage. A more efficient solution is the Small Format printer from XSIS.

These customized printers for handling special paper types enhance or extend the capabilities of standard Xerox offerings, while retaining the regular paper handling features of the printer that are so important to the Direct Mailer and Service Bureau.

XSIS also offers a solution for printing directly on envelopes because direct mail pieces are less likely to be thrown away if the envelope is addressed on the printer. Printing gives a more positive and professional image than an adhesive label, and makes the envelope stand out from bills or "junk mail" that are routinely sent in window envelopes. In fact, Direct Mailers and Service Bureaus report that printed envelopes improve the response rate on solicitations, especially when combined with handwriting-like fonts. The XSIS-adapted laser Envelope printer is much higher speed than inkjet units, the overall quality and appearance of the output are noticeably superior, and printed envelopes never suffer from smearing -- even with heavy toner coverage.

 Fulfillment

Fulfillment houses gain a competitive advantage if they can personalize response materials. However, achieving genuine "one-to-one" marketing requires not only the ability to print a personalized message, but to print it on the stock that best complements the message. The Multi-Bin Feeder enables the Direct Mailer or Service Bureau to add input trays to a high speed Xerox laser printer so that more stocks are available at any one time, enabling the best choice to be fed from a wide variety of stocks. The result is more flexibility and ease in assembling response kits, and higher productivity since feeders do not have to be constantly loaded and unloaded. In addition, the XSIS Feed Assurance Feature (FAF) can be installed on the system to guarantee that the chosen sheet of paper was actually fed.

The XSIS solution for Envelope printing is ideal for the upscale catalog vendor and other companies that are image conscious. If a potential customer inquires about a high-end product or service, the fulfillment package is best sent in an envelope with the name and address of the recipient printed on it. The envelope is far richer looking and more professional in appearance than an envelope with an adhesive label. Printing conspicuously identifies the envelope as something the recipient wants -- by making it visually distinct from bills or "junk mail" that are usually sent in window envelopes. For maximum impact, the printer can be used to place relevant marketing messages on the envelope, print line art on-demand, or even add photographic quality images!

When fulfillment materials involve a large number of pages, some or all of the documents in the package can be printed on Lightweight paper to reduce mailing costs. The Direct Mailer can realize substantial postage savings which he can pass on to his customers, or enjoy as higher profit margins. Best of all, he does not have to give up any of the benefits of print-on-demand: whether printing on 13# bond, 20# bond, or heavier stock, the digital fulfillment house can offer customers quick turnaround on short runs with customized content

 Newsletters

Even very small professional groups and volunteer organizations can produce high quality newsletters using the latest publishing software. But if they have to publish the newsletter in any quantity, they still prefer to go to a Direct Mail operator to print the documents, insert addressee information, and mail them. These organizations could save on postage if their longer newsletters were printed on lightweight paper, making a Direct Mailer who can offer that capability their preferred vendor.