Two Common Direct-mail Production Issues

1) The timeliness of mailings, i.e., trying to get them out as quickly as possible; and

2) Finding what Hitchcock calls that "sweet spot" of cost effectiveness.

In terms of the timeliness of mailings, Hitchcock says there's always a desire on the part of the direct-mail production staff and the printers to have a certain amount of lead time. Balancing this with the need for staff to agree on things like the text of the letter is where the challenge is. Hitchcock says timeliness also is a factor for some clients that deal with emerging issues or breaking news, whose challenge is to keep the production time gap as narrow as possible.