News
 7
Tips for Saving Money on Your Next Direct Mail
Campaign
Postal rate hikes are not the only increase in
expenditures publishers are facing—there are also
paper, production and printing costs to deal with.
Following the tips listed here will put you well on
your way to a more cost-efficient campaign—and
higher ROI. Sound good?
Try these money saving suggestions to help minimize
the cost of your next direct mail campaign.
1. Gang-Run Printing
If you are printing multiple versions of a
four-color brochure, running more than
one version on the same press sheet can save you a
lot of money. When you put
the brochure out for a quote, be as thorough and
descriptive as possible, making
sure to list the number, quantity and changes per
version. This will enable your printer to plan out
the job and minimize the number of plate changes and
make-readies that you incur. With a typical
make-ready costing $800 and an average plate costing
$175, you can see how the savings can quickly add
up.
2. Using a Fifth Color
If you've designed a brochure that includes copy
changes reversing out of a four-color background (a
headline, for example), consider changing that
background to a PMS fifth color. By doing this, each
version change will only affect one plate instead of
all four plates. This will more than offset the
increase in cost of changing to a five-color
brochure. For example, if you want to print a
million brochures with 10 different versions,
instead of using a complete four-color change on one
side, consider printing five-colors over five-colors
with a one-color change on one side. The savings
with the five-color version would be approximately
$4,400.
3. Piggyback on a Larger Print Run
If you want to test a format that is very expensive
to produce in small test quantities, find out if one
of your vendors is running that particular format in
a large quantity for another client and then, with
that client's permission, run your test piece as a
plate change off their larger run. By doing this
your printer can split the savings between the two
clients.
4. Minor Size Changes Equal Major Cost Savings
It always pays to talk to your vendors about
alternative size possibilities in order to achieve a
better fit on press. Particularly in web printing,
you are dealing with fixed cutoff dimensions,
combined with variable width dimensions. As a
result, a slight tweaking one way or another can
have a dramatic effect on press efficiency. In one
case, a publisher designed a brochure at 16" x 27",
but the printer recommended changing the size to 17"
x 25-7/8". In doing so, the printer was able to
achieve a perfect fit on a half-web press, instead
of running sheet-fed, which reduced the publisher's
cost by $3,500 on a quantity of 60,000 brochures.
5. Your Printer’s House Sheet
On a typical printing job, paper can easily account
for 50 percent of the total cost. Even a minor
reduction in the cost of paper can produce big
benefits. One way to accomplish this is to ask your
printers to give you a price on the paper you are
requesting, as well as a comparable alternative
among their house sheets. The primary benefit is
that since the printer buys this paper in very large
quantities, they can offer it to you at a very
attractive price. Another benefit is that the
printer already has the paper on hand, thereby
eliminating special order lead time and possible
minimum order requirements. If you are printing one
million 11" x 17" brochures, using your printer's
house sheet could save you as much as $1,200 over a
comparable paper.
6. Personalization at a Lower Cost
If you are producing a direct-mail piece that
includes the personalization of an address block and
some additional copy, you should explore various
production methods to determine which is the most
cost-effective process that will give you the
quality and amount of personalization you need.
Consider producing a double postcard as a cut
sheet/ink-jet product instead of a continuous
form/laser product. Cut sheet refers to printing on
a sheet-fed or web press, where the paper is cut
into individual sheets and then fed through an
inkjet machine to personalize it. Continuous form
refers to printing roll-to-roll on a web press and
then feeding the rolls of preprinted paper through
high-speed laser equipment to personalize the entire
form. Particularly in smaller quantities, the cut
sheet/ink-jet approach can save money without
compromising quality. On the other hand,
if you're using an 8-1/2" x 11" letter with full
variable imaging, continuous/laser would most likely
be the best process. Double postcards are commonly
used to
generate subscriptions. Half the postcard is used to
sell, and the other half acts as a subscription
reply card. It's an easy piece to produce at a low
cost. Printers note it's an ideal piece for magazine
acquisition mailings.
7. Maximize Postal Discounts
The USPS's MERLIN program—an acronym for Mail
Evaluation Readability Lookup Instrument—is a tool
that is used to assist with the acceptance of
business mail. The MERLIN program helps mailers
qualify for automation discounts and meet acceptance
requirements for bulk mailings. The last phone call
any mailer wants to receive is one from their
mailhouse informing them that their mail piece has
failed the MERLIN test. This will result in a loss
of your automation discount and cost you
approximately seven cents per piece. For example, a
run of 200,000 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" postcards printed on
seven-point card stock, instead of nine-point stock,
would fail MERLIN and result in a surcharge of
$14,000. For a MERLIN compatibility checklist,
please visit: http://www.ballantine.com/merlin
---Source:
Circulation Management (www.circman.com).
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Melissa Data
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