The Skinny On The Direct Mail Industry
A trip to your mail box will often yield some mail from people other than your personal friends and relatives. If anything, chances are most of the contents of your mailbox will be from parties trying to give information, promote an agenda, and get you to do something. This direct mail, or as some people prefer to call it, junk mail, is often part and parcel of our lives for quite a long time and many of us do not give it a second look before we throw it in the trash. Once upon a time, the process of assembling, packing and sending this mail was done by large companies. Now these processes are often handled by outsourcing firms that specialize in such services in the direct mail industry The direct mail industry and its rise is directly tied in with the trend of outsourcing. Formerly, many functions within companies were done internally by people working directly for the company. Accounting, janitorial services, advertising, customer service, tech support, technical writing, manufacturing, and of course mailing were all functions that were once traditionally done internally by companies. However, with many firms trying to cut costs and increase efficiency, hiring contractors to do these functions or outsourcing has become very popular.
The reason for outsourcing and the consequent patronage of the direct mail industry by many firms can be attributed to many reasons. The most obvious is cost savings, as not only do firms in the direct mail industry operate with a more favorable economics of scale than most other companies when processing and sending mail, the client does not typically pay for the benefits and salary of the workers doing the actual processing as the deal is between the client and the mail house. Taking the services of a direct mailing firm also offers clients legal recourse and compensation in case of non-delivery of a service due to the nature of contracts, whereas when mail is processed internally, this is not possible. Another advantage of outsourcing to the direct mail industry is that there is a ready pool of expertise and knowledge readily available for clients; now clients need not worry about the process of setting up a mailing system and can focus on their other core competencies; allowing for better allocation of time, capital, expertise and other resources so maximum profitability can be achieved. Most issues of lacking capacity in direct mail sending are also addressed when hiring a direct mail firm as direct mail firms will often be contractually bound to provide the needed capability. Another important advantage found in the practice of outsourcing in general and not just in the direct mail industry is risk reduction; the risks associated with functions being contracted out are by and large much reduced for the client. The direct mail industry continues to grow, with many companies and some non-profit groups making use of their services to be able to fully exploit the advantages previously mentioned. To direct marketers, among the most notorious senders of the junk mail that frequently takes very short trips from your mal box to your trash bin, the direct mail industry has become indispensable, allowing them to focus only on things that truly matter in their field, like the collation of data on customers. Direct mail and the industries that thrive on it will most likely continue to be sent well into the future. |