Unaddressed (junk) mail volumes are shrinking, and electronic solutions leave gaps in the communications formula. Email, once seen as a disruptive factor in marketing, has faded, as inboxes bulge with unsolicited content clamouring for readers’ attention. While still a useful tool in the marketer’s armoury, email – or for that matter the newer social media – are no longer seen as miracle fixes. All the while, printed mail has shown a surprising endurance.



While specialist mailing houses have hitched their mega-volume runs to the newest inkjet lines, a dynamic niche has opened up for commercial SMEs with sheetfed digital presses, which are seeking to add a new revenue stream with mailing.



Printers already have the customers, the skill level to operate mail and inserting systems is not high, the investment cost, at least to get started, is not high, and for the customer it means one less supplier to deal with, cutting back office costs and times, and creating production efficiencies, as the inserts are not moved from the printer to the mail house.



So what equipment is needed? What is the best way to sell it to customers? What does Australia Post require?



End-to-end provider



Mail specialist Neopost Australia offers a range of equipment suitable for a commercial printer from low-end, free-standing machines built to produce up to 200,000 envelopes per month to full production systems capable of outputting up to 12,000 envelopes per hour and processing DL or C4 from the same input stream.



Neopost’s DS-200 production inserter can process up to 4,800 envelopes per hour. And the high loading capacity of the DS-200 means work can be fed through at the machine’s high speed. The system design reduces downtime, enabling parallel work on other tasks, enhancing productivity.



The Neopost A-710 address printer can overprint up to 14,000 envelopes per hour, eliminating the need for labels, while an optional stacker and additional drop tray speed up larger mail runs.



Neopost Australia’s Symon Cook says commercial printers can take advantage of adding mailing services to access a ready customer base, leverage skill levels that are already in place (as it is another paper process). They can gain control of the entire mailing job – not just printing and sending on – they can secure a customer by providing a one-stop shop, and they can reduce management for the end customer. And it also removes the risk of losing a customer because another party did not meet deadlines.



But Cook says getting started requires planning and education. Customers will expect a significant level of knowledge on postage and how they can maximise postage savings.  He says, “It is also possible to get a little too eager to want to take on every job after making an investment.  This can prove challenging as not all jobs can be processed on all machines.



“Make sure you understand the type of work you want to process – marketing (growing) or transactional (reducing) – and acquire equipment suited to the widest range of applications – DL to C4 is usually going to help you maximise your potential opportunity,” says Cook.



Printing on demand means there is no need to hold stocks of overprinted envelopes, and correctly formatted addresses can help qualify for volume postal discounts. It all adds up to an ability to manage direct marketing and customer communications in-house.



Change for better



Adding mail finishing capabilities to your commercial printing capabilities can change your business for the better, says Stephen Darracott, country manager of mail technology specialist Pitney Bowes Australia & New Zealand. He says, “It is not only a source of new revenue that complements your existing capabilities and resources – it also helps drive greater profit margins.  It is a powerful strategy to fend off competitors and differentiate what you can offer clients. 



“By broadening service offerings including mailing, you attract different clientele that initially are looking for mailing services with value-added printing solutions. Our clients say it increases sales and improves return on investment while insulating your business against market fluctuations. Our clients transform print jobs into full end-to-end services that lead to added business from new and existing customers looking to streamline operations and reduce manpower costs”



But what are the practicalities of getting started? Darracott says many printers find that a folding and inserting machine and an envelope printer is a small investment which can create large returns, and which allows printers to take larger projects from printing through mailing. 



“Having a folding and inserting system can open new streams of revenue by offering customers an end-to-end solution. Custom-printed envelopes can improve rates significantly over plain white paper envelopes. The ability to offer a more complete solution can create a lot of opportunity and open your doors to new customers too,” he says.



What equipment is needed? “Before buying equipment, printers should take stock of the clients that ask them to print mailers and then handle the mailing internally or through another vendor,” advises Darracott. “By understanding the services you offer, you can present an outstanding standard that you deliver to the market. By being proactive and stipulating your best-of-breed services, you can attract clients and reduce your pre-sales costs.”



And how best to sell yourself to your customers as the print house that also does mailing? “Commercial printers are all about efficiency and productivity,” observes Darracott. “They look for scalable, flexible solutions that can grow with their business and offer additional value. The solutions that Pitney Bowes offers give them confidence to venture into new markets, increase their workload and client base and drive new revenue.”



Pitney Bowes has solutions that offer critical components to expanding into mailing and inserting operations—optical mark recognition, 2D barcode printing, document composition, direct mail services, labelling and addressing, mail insertion and packaging services, return logistics and response fulfilment..



Pitney Bowes offerings for commercial print businesses include the new generation of digital postal meters, which enables printers to offer on-demand envelope printing, which further sharpens a targeted campaign, explains Darracott.



Australia Post’s requirements are a vital consideration for cost-effective printing/mailing. Says Darracott: “Australia Post makes it easy to handle bulk mailing when you have 300 pieces of mail or more. Customers need to familiarise themselves with the services that Australia Post offers by reading about their services online or asking a supplier about the discounts provided through bulk mailing and mail meters.”

     Grish Rewal, director of Absolute Electronics sees the potential behind small-to-medium scale print enterprises that print digitally and offer VDP into the deal. Mailing services are a natural extension of this mix.



The company offers Peppermill PPML document processing software for VDP work. Rewal says the desktop application provides an easy entry point for getting started in personalised digital printing, whilst offering powerful features not found in other variable-data applications. With the option to write to PPML or PS which may also be rendered to PDF, Peppermill overcomes previous prohibitive rip bottlenecks for high resolution graphic jobs.



Peppermill software was initially used in the K515 EasyMailer system from German technology developer Kern AG which Absolute Electronics was offering for some years, but the Australian vendor’s focus has more recently shifted to labels and packaging applications. (The EasyMailer produces VDP direct-mail pieces from digitally printed sheets, with a fully personalised envelope and matching letter generated from A3 or A4 sheets automatically).



Variable data offering



“Adding a variable-data offering for their existing customers increases their value-add and offer a service that the customer may already be outsourcing,” says Rewal. “The investment costs are not very onerous as there are a lot of good refurbished mailing systems on the market.”



He says the main challenge is to have an IT specialist on board, who can understand the customer’s data and their requirements. As to the kit, a folder inserter, scales and other small pieces of equipment will be required.



“Where existing relationships are in place, it would be a value-add, as the printer could be a one-stop shop for their customer’s printing requirements and it also builds on the IP the printer has for that customer as they may already be printing the blank forms and other stationery,” he says.



For small to medium sized printers a mailing system may well be their best, easiest and least expensive route to a new revenue stream.

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