Benefits of Outsourcing Print and Mail Services
Benefits of Outsourcing Print and Mail Services
Optimizing your business operations should be the top priority for your company regardless of its industry vertical. Smart companies have realized that spending their valuable resources, including staff, time, and materials, is wasted on non-core business functions such as print and mail services. Instead of doing it in-house, non-core business functions like print and mail services are now outsourced to an expert service provider.
By outsourcing non-core business functions like print and mail services, you can shift your resources into the more important aspects of your business. This shift allows your business to increase the productivity and efficiency of your core business operations or functions.
Did you know that according to the National Association of Purchasing Managers or NAPM, print is your second-best way to reduce costs for your business and enhance its productivity?
Therefore, it is clear that outsourcing your business’s print and mail services can be immensely beneficial to your business. Print and mail outsourcing doesn’t just help you raise productivity but also saves you money in the long run. Outsourcing mailing will eradicate the cost of producing, warehousing, and distributing your direct mails. Furthermore, it also helps you avoid additional costs such as technology and security.
This article highlights the numerous benefits of outsourced printing and mailing. We discuss every benefit in detail, including production and efficiency benefits, optimization and compliance benefits, and much more. We also discuss how outsourced mailing services can help you avoid long-term lease commitments, improve cash flow, and also reduce the risk of a data breach. The article gives you a complete and comprehensive picture of mail outsourcing and its benefits.
Benefits of Outsourced Mailing: Production, Optimization, & Workflow
Suppose your company or organization regularly communicates with your target audience through direct mails. In that case, switching from an in-house mailing process to outsourced printing and mailing can change your life around. Critical monthly customer communications, which can be transactional or marketing-related, can be streamlined through outsourced mailing services. It can minimize compliance risk and reduce costs for your business areas. Some of the major aspects that are positively affected by outsourced mailing are listed below.
1. Equipment Expenses
Equipment installation usually tends to be a major investment for businesses. What’s even more peculiar is that most of the industries in numerous different verticals do not need these types of equipment for their normal functioning. So essentially, you are spending a considerably large sum of money just for a piece of equipment that your business can do without. Furthermore, most of this equipment or machinery also has a high maintenance cost, which can eat into your profits. By using an outsourced printing service, you can effectively avoid needless spending on pieces of equipment that your business simply does not need.
Additionally, the equipment will also require an operator and space for it to be installed, which will further cost you more money. Even after doing all this, you may still not get the desired quality from your installed equipment. Whereas with an outsourced printing service, you need to worry about the equipment cost, and you also have the freedom to choose a service provider that produces premium quality products.
2. Payroll
If you choose to print and mail your direct mails with in-house equipment and labor, you may face a number of complications. We have already discussed above how equipment installation can cost your business. The basic concept of cost reduction always involves reducing the headcount, and it is the same in the case of print and mail services. Printing your business’s communications such as letters, bills, invoices, or marketing materials can turn out to be labor-intensive work. Printing and mailing your direct mails involves a great amount of work, and this only gets worse in terms of labor if you are running personalized campaigns.
The process of sending the direct mail involves not only printing the personalized direct mails but also having to put them into envelopes, verifying the addresses and labeling them on the envelopes, and finally handing them over to a postal service provider who will then deliver them to the recipients. Outsourced print and mail services like PostGrid are equipped with advanced automation capabilities, and your business no longer has to concern itself with the payroll of the employees involved in the direct mail process as it is taken care of by the outsourcing company.
3. Overtime Expenses
You must have noticed how hectic it can get at your workplace during those high-demand periods. Maybe you are rolling out multiple offers, or maybe you are sending out invoices to numerous customers on a particularly busy month. In situations like this, you often end up working overtime, and so does your direct mail team. Most companies often end up with two or even three shifts during peak periods. Naturally, you will be obliged to pay for the overtime work done by your employees.
Outsourcing your print and mail services mean that you will never have to carry the overtime expenses again. Why? Because the outsource provider you choose is an expert in their niche, and they do not charge for any overtime expenses, mainly owing to the fact they won’t have to work overtime. The outsourcing provider is equipped to handle sudden surges in demand and meet your needs. Advanced automated systems like PostGrid are practically unaffected by the surge.
4. Inventory Management
Inventory management is yet another aspect that businesses struggle with when it comes to in-house print and mail services. Companies are not equipped to handle the additional inventory requirements demanded by the print and mail service. So, if a business was to start a new direct mail campaign that is managed entirely in-house, it would require proper inventory to store the mailpieces. The bigger the company, the bigger will be the inventory requirement.
Outsourced printing and mailing services take away your responsibility to equip inventory for your mailpieces. When you employ an outsourcing company for your print and mail requirements, you pass on the entire responsibility to them, including the safe storage of your mailpieces. Furthermore, the inventory system of an outsourcing provider is optimized to handle the varying requirements of their customers. In doing so, your business can not only save overhead costs but also free up floor space. Some of them even allow you to control your inventory online in real-time.
5. Energy Expenses
Printing and mail processing equipment usually uses up a lot of energy, and this will play a pivotal role in your company’s expenses. And unlike the equipment installation part, this is an ongoing expense, which means that your business needs to come up with enough money on a monthly basis, making it difficult to generate a higher ROI or Return on Investment.
Furthermore, you will also need a backup system in case of emergencies which can add to your expenses. By hiring an outsourcing provider, you effectively get rid of any additional costs or expenses required for energy because you simply do not own any such equipment. Furthermore, as outsourcing providers often deal with multiple similar requirements, it allows them to optimize their operations by utilizing power-saving tech and implement an environmentally sustainable model.
6. Consumables
Consumables may seem something that is relatively easy to manage, and it would be true if we are talking about a relatively low quantity of consumables. When it comes to print and mail services, the consumables include supplies such as paper, ink, oil, and toner. Many times you may get the quantity wrong, and other times you may get the quality wrong. Sometimes it’s the combination of different supplies that don’t work out, which in turn affects your end product or direct mail.
An outsourced printing and mailing provider saves you the trouble of navigating through these confusing scenarios because it’s all taken care of on their end. All you have to do is make sure that the end product is of sufficient quality and you are good to go. Furthermore, you can even opt to work with an environmentally sustainable service provider if you want to. However, it is best to thoroughly check the quality of their work before engaging in business with them.
7. Postage Savings
The total production cost of each job undertaken by an outsourced printing and mailing provider may vary depending on the job, but they can still leverage presort-automation and its multiple levels to enhance your postage savings. More often than not, in-house printing and mailing are not aware of the ways to optimize postal mailing to maximize savings.
On the other hand, outsourcing providers will analyze your mail and make sure that you get the lowest possible postage rates available. The service provider may even go so far as to suggest duplex printing and envelope sizing so that you get the maximum postage saving.
8. Minimize Risks
Sending out direct mails is easier said than done. Most people are not aware of the legal compliance that exists regarding direct mail. Many people are unaware or not well-informed about compliance-driven SLAs or Service Legal Agreements, and developing a comprehensive understanding of these compliances will require you to put in time and effort into it.
Whereas all reliable outsourced printing and mailing service providers are already compliance-driven, meaning that you can effectively reach out to your recipients or target audience. It also means that you shift the liability to your mailing service provider along with the liability of business continuity and backup planning. Additionally, they also process data and produce documents, effectively minimizing your risk.
9. Production Reporting
The companies that do end up using an in-house system for the printing and mailing services usually rely on manual reporting by one of their employees. As with most manual reports, they are also prone to error, and although this error may be minor, it can have a significant effect on your overall efforts, and that is not desirable for businesses.
With an advanced mail outsourcing service, you get access to superior online management reporting tools, which are not only accurate but also accessible to you anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, you also get real-time updates about the work status along with valuable insights that can help you optimize your direct mail operations.
10. Privacy & Data Security
Perhaps one of the major advantages you get by hiring a mail outsourcing company is the privacy and data security it has to offer. Ensuring compliance with the latest regulations in the industry may require numerous upgrades to the infrastructure, and this can be a costly affair for a company that runs its printing and mailing services in-house.
A reliable mail outsourcing company like PostGrid assures the safety of your precious data with superior data security and regulatory compliance. Furthermore, outsourcing companies like PostGrid regularly engage with their clients to ensure their security requirements are met.
Conclusion
Print and mail service has been an integral part of many business verticals, and more business verticals are still in the process of adapting them even today. Some businesses make the mistake of opting for an in-house mechanism for printing and mailing their direct mails, which does more harm than good to their business. Unless you already have the resources, equipment, and experience working with print and mail services, it is always best to outsource these services.
You can make use of advanced direct mail systems like PostGrid to fully automate your direct mail process. Advanced systems like PostGrid ensure an ergonomic implementation of your printing and mailing services and ensure maximum deliverability through advanced address verification systems. Furthermore, you save valuable time and resources by employing services like PostGrid and keeping tabs on your printing and mailing operations at all times.
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