Postal Strategies: Reduce Mailing Costs
7. Quote it out. Do vendor reviews. This isn’t an easy process for me, as I tend to build strong alliances and partnerships with the vendors I choose. But it’s a necessary part of business, even with long-standing vendors.
Rules to remember: When quoting out printing and mailing vendors, compare apples to apples, that is, the same paper, trim size, ink-on-page coverage, number of pages, versions, circulation and drops. Quote out all aspects of the print job. I’ll even go so far as to have printers participating devise a spreadsheet with all of the secondary items such as binding, inserting and other items that will come up, so there are no surprises later.
Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.
