Mailing houses: streamlining your direct mail campaigns

If your business has marketing goals you’re looking to achieve via the medium of direct mail, a mailing house will be able to help.

In this blog, we take a close look at:

What mailing houses do
The benefits they can offer
How to find the right partner for your business

What is a mailing house?

A mailing house is a service provider that can offer all the support and solutions you need to plan, produce and deliver a direct mail marketing campaign.

That might include:

Printing your promotional materials as cost-efficiently as possible
Providing a range of fulfilment options, depending on the details of your mailings, budget and marketing goals
Helping you to save money on postage
Checking the accuracy of your data

The mailing house you choose to partner with should be able to assist with a range of different campaign types, from straightforward mailshots and postcards to items requiring more complex fulfilment and distribution.

Key services offered by mailing houses

Design and personalisation

Eye-catching and memorable design is a key factor in the success of any direct mail campaign.

It’s worth bearing in mind that your design decisions should be based not only on what looks good, but what will fit comfortably inside the dimensions you have available.

This is where an experienced mailing house can provide value by advising on how to design your campaign and explaining the pros and cons of different printing and enclosing options.

You can also add to the impact of your design by incorporating a level of personalisation into your direct mail. There are various ways to approach this, such as tailoring written content to be more relevant to individual customers based on what you already know about them. Images can also be adapted, taking into account what will be most useful and appropriate for recipients in certain locations, for example.

Printing and production

Working with a mailing house can unlock various options when it comes to printing your direct marketing materials.

Litho printing, for instance, offers excellent colour quality and can be a cost-efficient choice for larger runs, while digital printing could be the way to go if you’re prioritising speed and personalisation.

Envelope printing is a good option if you’re looking to grab your audience’s attention from the moment your letter comes through their door.

Having a knowledgeable partner on-hand can be a big help when you have specific questions about printing options, such as what types of litho paper stock are suitable for digital printing.

Data management and processing

The return on investment (ROI) you get from direct mail campaigns depends partly on the quality of your data. That means it’s important to think about the accuracy of the information you hold on your customers and how it can be improved.

A mailing house can audit and cleanse your data, to ensure you’re avoiding pitfalls such as sending direct mail to recently deceased individuals or people who have opted out from unsolicited marketing.

Mail fulfilment and distribution

When it comes to the mail fulfilment stage of your direct marketing campaigns, a mailing house can help by offering a range of solutions for you to choose from, based on the particular requirements of individual projects.

Your partner will also be able to guide you through the distribution stage of the process, including potentially securing postage discounts.

Find out more about direct mail fulfilment.

The benefits of partnering with a mailing house

Building a strong partnership with a mailing house can unlock all sorts of advantages for your business and your direct mail marketing.

For example, it could give you access to:

Time savings: Spending less time on the details of your direct mail campaigns gives you more time to focus on other priorities, such as planning your strategy and measuring ROI.
Cost efficiency: Mailing houses have established partnerships with Royal Mail and other delivery providers, which puts them in a better position to secure discounts and cheaper postage rates.
Greater simplicity: Working with a mailing house that handles everything in-house removes the complexity of dealing with multiple vendors.
More choice and inspiration: Specialist providers of mailing services can supply the resources, expertise and ideas to expand your direct mail campaigns beyond what you might be able to do yourself. This could help to set your marketing apart from the competition.
Insights and intelligence: An experienced mailing house can share their industry knowledge with you and answer questions that have had you scratching your head for some time. They might be able to tell you why past campaigns haven’t worked, for instance.

Choosing the right mailing house for your business

When the time comes to choose your mailing house partner, it’s a good idea to follow a clear process that will help you get the information you need and ultimately make the right decision.

Be clear in your needs and goals: This will help you establish whether a potential partner can deliver exactly what you’re looking for.
Consider your budget: Knowing how much you’re prepared to spend means you can assess the viability of different providers and pricing models.
Look for experience in your industry: You might find it reassuring to work with a mailing house that has been there and done it before for businesses similar to your own.
Ask for case studies: It’s often useful to look at real-world examples of how providers have delivered results for clients in the past.
Get a quote: This will give you an idea of the sorts of services and solutions you can expect to receive from a mailing house and at what price.

The Mailing People: your trusted partner in direct mail

We deliver everything you need to take advantage of direct mail’s potential to engage and get a positive response from your audience.

That includes printing all of your campaign materials in-house, sharing our expert recommendations on fulfilment options and finding ways to save you money on postage. We can also give your data a free health check to wipe out inefficiencies and improve response rates.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. The results we’ve delivered for past clients speak for themselves.

Our success stories

Bibliophile: We helped this online book retailer cut costs with services including efficient laser printing and data cleansing to remove duplicates.
Adoption UK: We’ve been working with this charity since 2016 and have helped them save the equivalent of £2,430 per year on postage.
Combined Academic Publishers: This company uses us regularly due to our value for money, excellent print quality and quick turnaround times.
Corcentric: We’ve worked with Corcentric since 2017, supporting the business with accurate stock control, printing and same-day mailing.

Get in touch with us today to talk about your direct mail marketing plans and how we can help.

Our accreditations

Frequently Asked Questions

An experienced mailing house can share industry knowledge, audit your previous campaign data, look at print/design/distribution issues and help explain why results may have fallen short. And of course, suggest improvements for next time.

Very. If your data is poor (duplicate records, outdated contacts, people who have opted out or incorrect addresses), your response rates will be dragged down and you will burn money on print, fulfilment and postage that goes nowhere. A mailing house can audit your data file, showing you exactly where the issues are, outlining the cost of fixing them and quantifying the savings. They’ll then clean and correct the data for you, leaving you with an accurate, usable dataset for future sales and marketing activity.

They make your life easier! Working with a mailing house means that you spend less time on operational details, you save money through their industry relationships and you only communicate with them and not multiple vendors. But most importantly, you have access to their expertise and ideas.

Personalisation can lift the effectiveness of your direct mail when done properly. Tailoring messages, offers or visuals to what someone cares about makes your direct mail piece more relevant and more likely to convert. But it only works if the data behind it is solid. Your mailing house can help you remove bad contact data (names, addresses, duplicates), but the personal or behavioural data in your CRM is on you. If it’s unreliable, don’t use it. Poor segmentation or flawed personalisation doesn’t just fall flat – it can actively undermine your campaign. Investing time upfront to validate your data and segment accurately is what turns personalisation from a marketing tick-box into a genuine performance driver.

You should expect help with the whole process, not just posting the letters. That usually includes design and personalisation, printing (whether digital or litho), data cleaning to ensure your client list is accurate, and all the fulfilment work such as folding, gluing, tabbing, enclosing, sorting and getting the best postage rates. A good mailing house handles the practical bits so your campaign runs smoothly from start to finish.

Good design catches attention and ensures your message fits the format you’ve chosen (for example, the size of your chosen envelope, leaflet or card). A mailing house can advise on design decisions (paper stock, format, finishing options), ensure it’s print-ready and help you consider personalisation visually as well as textually.

Litho printing is generally better for large runs where you want premium colour consistency and the best unit cost. Digital wins when you need speed, flexibility or heavy personalisation. But you don’t have to choose one or the other. By spot-sealing sections of your litho-printed items, your mailing house can over-print names, addresses, promo codes and more, giving you the cost efficiency of litho with the personalisation power of digital.

Using a mailing house, like The Mailing People, means your mail gets turned around far faster thanks to high-speed automated enclosing and streamlined production workflows. Instead of tying up your team with slow, manual fulfilment, you free them to focus on higher-value work. On top of that, you cut costs through efficient machine processing, optimised print sourcing and access to negotiated postage rates that you simply won’t get in-house.

Mailing houses: streamlining your direct mail campaigns

What is a mailing house?