Why Use Print to Mail Providers For Your Business

It’s exciting to own a business. Part of that excitement is researching exactly what you may or may not need in order for it to be as successful as possible. As soon as you register a new business domain, you begin to be bombarded with spam phone calls and emails. Each of these offering a service “you cannot do without.”

This puts you in a difficult position. Soon, if not already, you are offering a service or product to potential customers. Maybe some of these voices on the other end of the line or some of these “spam” emails actually offer something of value. How can you know? If this is you, then it may be time to consider print and mail services.

Is Email The Best Choice?

Oftentimes, the delivery method is as important as the product or service when it comes to enticing new business. Nowadays, modern smartphones often make you aware of “suspected spam calls.” This deters you from answering the phone and, if you do, you are quick to dismiss the caller – particularly robotic ones. The same can be said for phone numbers you do not recognize, like private/restricted numbers and even numbers from out of state. Now, we are seeing spam callers focusing on your area code and “calling” from the same area code while being based thousands of miles away.

These same techniques apply to emails. We see emails in odd lettering in feeble attempts to trick your email hosts from flagging them as spam. We will even see emails with the innocuous subject line “Re:” It’s as if these companies think we are stupid enough to fall for these attention grabbers. But, the sad reality is, many of us are. This is why these tactics are a part of these companies’ arsenals.

How It Can Bring You New Business

Now, it’s your turn. How are you going to attract new business? How are you going to retain current customers? These are great questions that always lead back to the tried and true method of direct mail guided by the watchful eye of a professional printing and mailing service.

Towne Mailer prides itself on offering printing and mailing services that produce the greatest return on investment. As has been mentioned, direct mailing campaigns result in a nearly ten times higher open rate than marketing emails, a more trustworthy marketing medium, and, most importantly, a response rate of 4.4% compared to the 0.12% rate of a traditional email marketing campaign. This CMO council study shows an astronomical gain in true customer interaction.

What does this mean for you? Other than the fact that direct mail should be a staple in your business’s overall marketing campaign, who is going to do this work? You can do it yourself but that means you (or your employees) will need to devote a minimum of several hours per work doing the tedious work of procuring addresses, printing marketing material, stuffing envelopes, licking stamps, and making numerous trips back and forth to the local post office. Not fun!

What Exactly Should I Be Processing In-House?

Customer communication is the bedrock of every business. Whether it is newsletters, special offers, updated terms, and services, or the ever-important invoice, in order to operate a successful enterprise, it is imperative that your customers are not surprised.

This is where Towne Mailer comes into your business plan. If you have bills or invoices that need to be mailed out to your existing customers, we are your solution. We specialize in the ability to offer your existing clients clear and concise transactional communication.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Every industry is different… and every company within that industry is different. Your business is just like you, an individual.

For the sake of example, let’s consider someone who owns a small apartment complex or heads a condominium association. We know that, due to rising housing costs, many people are choosing to downsize, or just ignore the expense of homeownership altogether. This means that the compartmental market is soaring, and so are those associated with it.

As the owner or leader of this example, what could you expect from Towne Mailer besides sending out homeowners association invoices? How about association announcements, notices, information packets, welcome packets, rule changes, ballots and election information, late payment notices, meeting information – including agendas, invitations, and minutes, event invitations, and newsletters? Did we miss anything? If so, we got you covered!

This is one of many industries which are living and breathing entities. Things change. Prices change. Rules change. Information changes. We recognize that and, because we are scalable and flexible, we can change with it.

Is It Worth It?

When it comes to your mail operation, one critical aspect is knowing your costs. EVERYTHING must be measured. Count everything that is touched each time it is touched. Count containers, not individual pieces. Use standard volumes, either industry or your own, to identify those quantities.

Should choose to do your own mailing, this will be in addition to the tedious tasks of printing, folding, stamping, etc. Towne Mailer does this for a living. And we do it well. Again, you should be spending more time with what you love and with who you love and not with the tedious tasks that, although necessary, are not the reason why you became a business owner.

Take a minute to add up the time you or someone in your business spends printing, folding, inserting, applying postage, and mailing your customer invoices each month. You can assume your postage is a fixed cost, so it’s the variable expense of paper, envelopes, and labor that goes into getting those invoices out the door. It adds up quickly. Take advantage of a service that buys materials in bulk. The cost savings are passed on to you.

Take a look at a general cost breakdown: Let’s assume you print and mail 1,000 invoices or statements per month in-house. Your postage is 47 cents if metered and 50 cents if you use a stamp. A sheet of laser paper costs about 2 cents. Your standard #10 double window envelope costs 8 cents. Your standard single window reply envelope costs 8 cents. And your toner use for your laser printer costs 1 cent. That is a total cost of 66 cents per invoice/statement if you have a postage meter and 69 cents if you lick a stamp.

That’s expensive, right? But wait, you guessed it, there’s more. A decent laser printer that is capable of printing this much material will cost you a minimum of $500. And a postage meter rental boils down to about $45 per month. Now, let’s assume you have robotic employees that never take a break. To process 1000 pieces of mail will take about 5 hours of straight-time labor or about 15 cents per piece of mail. Not including the cost of storage space for supplies and inventory, equipment purchasing and maintenance, and meter rental, you are looking at this process costing you roughly 84 cents per piece minimum.

After you choose to outsource this process to Town Mailer, you can expect to pay about 67 cents or possibly less per piece of mail. This includes EVERYTHING listed above and accounts for any hidden costs you are bound to run into by printing and mailing in-house.

And, perhaps the most valuable aspect of this, is that you and your employees can utilize your time driving revenue and not just streamlining it. That’s our job.

Because we have mastered the process of direct mailing campaigns with a large base of clients that span a variety of genres in business, we have become experts in the print and mailing service industry. This means that we make our money by saving you money. It’s a win-win and we all want to be a part of a winning team.

Instead of struggling with printer jams, buying stamps and stuffing envelopes, you or your employees could instead be working on other projects. In place of this manual process, you could contact your customers to thank them for their business, launch a new service or product, or increase sales. The possibilities are endless when you choose to focus on the fun stuff and leave the boring stuff to us.

How Do I Get Started?

It’s easy to get started with Town Mailer and its Print and Mail Service. Just reach out to us today and we can discuss exactly what is needed to take your business to the next level. We have the ability to customize what is needed for individuals and businesses and we have the ability to scale those customizations. If you are not sure what you want, we can help with that too. We have years of experience in this industry and thrive on taking businesses from good to great.

Is Towne Mailer right for you and your business? We believe in our business model, our business services, and our people. Give us the opportunity to prove to you that we can improve your sales, your client retention, and your life. What have you got to lose? Give us a call today!