Direct Mail Still Delivers: In-plants Share Success Strategies

When most hear the term “direct mail” they have an immediate thought about what that means. Often, it conjures images of mailers sent by the hundreds of thousands to blanket a zip code, a neighborhood, or a demographic. But for in-plant operations, direct mail can mean opportunity. In IPI’s 2024 research report, Trends and Services in the In-plant Industry, 73% of respondents said they print direct mail pieces. Those pieces can take on a variety of forms.

“Most of the direct mail we produce is postcards in a multitude of sizes,” notes Alysia Robinette, publications specialist II at South Suburban College in South Holland, Illinois. “Some departments need letters, so we print the addresses directly on the envelopes. In the past, we have mailed schedule booklets, but these are no longer produced.”

Though the volume varies from year to year, the four-employee operation mails around 10,000 direct mail pieces annually.

Radford University Printing and Postal Services Manager Jonathan Mayer checks a proof printed on the in-plant’s Oki C942.

Contrast that with Radford University Printing and Postal Services in Radford, Virginia, which sends out 5-10 mailings of varying types every month.

“Most of our direct mailings are tied to enrollment; other frequent sources include fundraising, special events, and alumni engagement,” says Manager Jonathan Mayer. “Some of our postcard mailings have numbered over 150,000 pieces, but most direct mail jobs fall in the range of a few hundred to a few thousand.”

His operation has three full-time employees on the print side of the operation, and another four on the postal services side, with each also having a part-time person to help out.

And then there’s the city of Oklahoma City’s in-plant, which mails hundreds of thousands of direct mail pieces annually.

Eric Nazim

“Last year we did just under 300,000 pieces of mail outgoing,” says Eric Nazim, who manages the Print Shop. “We average probably about 25,000 or so a month.”

That said, he also notes that unlike some in-plants that are also printing everything they mail, his direct mail operation is mostly handing the printed pieces other departments are bringing to him.

“Walk-in mail is probably 75% letters, 20% flats, and then the rest is either packages or certified stuff,” he says. “The stuff we produce for mail is mostly either notices — like the planning department has to send out notices whenever there's going to be a zoning meeting or anything like that — or postcards, or larger mailers that people would call a postcard, but they're not technically a postcard, because of the size.”

Nazim has two full-time and two part-time employees to handle both the mail and other work across the printing and mailing operations.

A Changing Landscape for Direct Mail

All three in-plants note that the type of direct mail their organizations want has shifted, with new technologies allowing them to provide more dynamic pieces.

Robinette cites the ability to create personalized pieces as something South Suburban College intends to ramp up in the coming years.

“Personalized direct mail — where each piece is tailored to the recipient — would be something the college would like to implement more widely,” she says. “Students and parents respond positively when a piece speaks directly to them.”

The mail staff at the city of Oklahoma City’s Print Shop: Ian Howe and SherRon Traylor.

At Radford University, Mayer says the biggest shift has been in the size of the mail pieces themselves.

“Volume has been stable, but the makeup has continued to shift toward large postcards, up to 6x9″,” he says.

In Oklahoma City, the volume has remained steadily inconsistent, Nazim jokes. Though overall volumes are steady, he says, they can vary widely from month to month as projects start and stop. He isn’t seeing much call for personalization.

“We could do variable data where they could get it more personalized, but I don't think they have the information to personalize it, or the time to create a document that can accept the variable data for us to do that,” he says.

Among city departments, the biggest area of interest is in postal rates, he says.

“We always are looking at postage rates. We just try and keep up with questions people might have about what's the best way to send something,” he says. His in-plant only sends mail via the USPS.

None of these three in-plant managers expects volumes to decrease in the coming months or years, with the need to get information out to their communities remaining a high priority.

Direct Mail Still Works

Despite modern electronic communications, studies have continuously proven that mail is the channel that gets the highest engagement – often as much as 20%, versus an average of 4-6% for most electronic methods. For organizations like schools, cities, insurance companies, hospitals, and other organizations that operate in-plants, the need to get that information front and center remains a critical function.

So what can other in-plant managers learn from these three when it comes to building and growing a successful direct mail printing operation?

“Start small,” suggests Mayer. “Factors like size/shape, postage class, presorting, and weight per piece can dramatically affect the cost of postage. Maintain relationships with vendors who handle direct mail and mailing lists. You never know when you might need to work together on a job – plus these people have a wealth of knowledge to share. You’ll need to be able to reach out to a trusted person who has experience navigating the bulk mailing side of USPS.”

That advice is something Nazim stresses as well. He notes that having a good relationship with the USPS is critical.

“Build a very good relationship with whoever ends up being your business unit contact for the USPS,” he says. “I didn't know anything about mail when I got this job, and it's good to have that resource to answer all kinds of questions.”

“Make sure your equipment and software are capable of handling the jobs efficiently,” adds Robinette. “Beyond printing, make sure that you have the infrastructure to process mail, and the knowledge of how things need to be packaged for the post office. We found the logistics of mailing to be more difficult than the actual printing.”