The nitty-gritty of a direct mail campaign doesn’t look the same at 10,000 items as with one million.
At 10,000, you might find it relatively easy to manage files, production, checking and fulfilment. At 100,000, those processes become trickier. At a million or more, you’re looking for trouble.
So, the important question to ask isn’t simply whether a mailing provider can produce a million pieces of mail. It’s whether they can scale without compromising your accuracy, turnaround times, data security or continuity.
Scaling direct mail successfully is ultimately about building a process that can grow without becoming unpredictable. Since we want your mailing to be as successful as possible, we’re sharing everything you need to know to get that right (or pick a mailing partner who’ll do so):
Why Scaling Direct Mail Can Get Complicated
Increasing from 10,000 to 1 million mail pieces isn’t simply a case of adding another zero. Every stage of the process becomes more significant.
There’s more data to process, records to validate, personalised content to generate, documents to print and more items to fulfil and dispatch. If manual intervention is important in your workflow, it becomes a lot harder to depend on when volume increases.
Why? Well, a process that works perfectly well for a smaller campaign can start creating bottlenecks when the volume increases.
Perhaps files need to be manually reformatted, or different teams have to pass data between systems. Perhaps production information is managed across spreadsheets, or quality checks are performed manually when automated validation could handle much of the work.
None of these necessarily become problems with a 10,000-item mailing. At a million items, however, they’ll affect deadlines, costs and customer experience.
This is why scalability needs to be designed into the workflow rather than added at the end.
The Foundation of Scalable Mailing is Good Data
Large-scale direct mail magnifies data problems. A small number of duplicate, outdated or incorrectly formatted records in a 10,000-record file can become suddenly super wasteful when volumes increase.
Data cleansing can help identify and address these issues before production begins.
At bakergoodchild, data can be securely submitted via SFTP, API or our GDPR-compliant DataXchange platform. Data is then standardised, processed and cleansed using secure in-house programmes, with reporting available alongside the updated data.
This can include address matching against Royal Mail’s Postal Address File, de-duplication and screening for contacts who are deceased or have changed address.
That’s important for two reasons: First, it reduces unnecessary print, fulfilment and postage. Second, it provides a reliable foundation for everything that follows.
Automation Makes Volume More Predictable
We always love automation, but there’s no doubt that it becomes a lot more valuable at scale.
If a process depends on people repeatedly downloading files, checking them, moving them between systems and manually initiating production, increasing the volume usually increases workload too.
Automation changes that relationship.
The team at bakergoodchild’s developed an in-house Automated Data Processing System (ADPS), designed to automate the end-to-end data processing workflow and customise it around individual client requirements. Its impressive workflow can include data collection via SFTP or API, validation, production optimisation, mail sort, composition, reporting, batch and item tracking, and a fully auditable process.
In other words, the workflow can be built around the data rather than around a series of manual handoffs.
From Manual Triggers to Automated Communications
API integration takes this a step further.
Instead of waiting for someone to prepare and upload a file, systems communicate directly. A new customer can trigger a welcome letter, an invoice can trigger a printed document, and the status of a letter can be queried and returned to the client’s own CRM system.
The objective isn’t simply to make things faster. It is to reduce the number of opportunities for something to be missed, delayed or entered incorrectly. Which, for recurring or transactional communications, creates a much more predictable operating model.
And when the same workflow can handle increasing volumes without a corresponding increase in manual intervention, that is where genuine scalability starts to show.
And Then There’s Print Capacity
Of course, a scalable direct mail operation still needs sufficient production capacity. After all, there’s no point having an excellent automated data workflow if the print operation itself becomes the bottleneck.
bakergoodchild’s print operation is designed to handle everything from smaller jobs to very large-scale production. Our sheet digital and inkjet printers can produce up to 30,000 A4 images per hour, while our continuous reel-fed inkjet printers can produce up to 1.2 million full-colour duplex A4 pages per working day.
That capacity gives businesses room to scale without necessarily having to redesign their entire mailing operation every time volume increases.
It also means that smaller and larger campaigns can sit within the same broader infrastructure. Anything from a single printed item to millions of printed letters and envelopes will work with bakergoodchild.
That said, capacity alone isn’t enough. The real win comes when data, print, fulfilment and postage are connected in one controlled process.
Variable Data Shouldn’t Become a Bottleneck
There’s a common misconception that personalisation becomes harder as campaigns get larger.
In reality, the challenge is less about personalisation itself and more about the design and efficiency of the production process.
Variable data printing automatically changes content to better reflect your customer. That could mean different messages for different customer groups, personalised account information, individual offers or tailored communications.
With the right workflow, the fact that every document is slightly different doesn’t have to mean every document is handled individually.
Automated data processing, composition and production controls can manage those variations systematically. At bakergoodchild, the ADPS workflow includes composition, including barcodes and other production controls, alongside batch and item tracking and reporting. Particularly valuable when the campaign contains hundreds of thousands of individual records.
Predictable Mail Means Predictable Business
Scaling direct mail isn’t just about having the capacity to print more. For communications such as invoices, statements, renewal notices, debt recovery letters and time-sensitive customer communications, delays can affect cash flow, retention and customer experience.
As such, a mailing partner needs to maintain reliability as volumes fluctuate, whether you’re sending 10,000 items one month and 1 million the next.
That requires more than production capacity. Automated workflows, integrated data processing, batch and item tracking, reporting and reconciliation help keep large-scale campaigns controlled and visible from data processing through to fulfilment.
At bakergoodchild, our end-to-end approach brings data, personalisation, print, fulfilment and postage together, reducing the number of handoffs and dependencies involved.
The result is a mailing process that can adapt to peaks and changing volumes without disrupting the communications (or the revenue) your business depends on.
What should you ask a mailing provider before scaling?
If you’re planning to take a campaign from tens of thousands of items into six- or seven-figure volumes, it is worth looking beyond a simple question about maximum capacity.
Ask how the provider handles:
- Data growth: Can larger files be securely transferred, validated and processed without creating a manual bottleneck?
- Production peaks: What happens when your usual volume suddenly increases?
- Personalisation: Can variable data be handled efficiently at scale?
- Integration: Can your CRM, ERP or other systems connect directly to the mailing workflow?
- Quality control: How are errors identified before they become large-scale production problems?
- Tracking: Can you see what’s happened to batches and individual items?
- Reconciliation: Can the final output be checked against the original data?
- Continuity: What processes and infrastructure support your communications when volumes change?
- Security: How is customer data protected throughout the process?
These questions will give you answers about a provider’s ability to scale, not simply how many pieces of mail it can print.
Planning Your Next High-volume Mailing?
Whether you’re preparing for a one-off campaign or looking for a more scalable process for communications that need to go out every month, bakergoodchild can bring data, automation, print and mailing together.
Just give us a call at 0800 612 1972 or fill in our contact form, and we’ll be sure to get back to you to discuss your next mailing campaign, be it big or small.
