Measuring the Impact of Mail Pooling and Co-Mailing on Cost Savings, Part 2 of 2

4. Is your co-mailing inline or offline? Does it depend on finding a partner, or will I co-mail in a regular weekly pool?

5. How is the cost of co-mailing calculated? Do you take 50 percent of the savings from the tier-qualification discounts? Are there other charges for processing my mail tapes?

6. How long have you been co-mailing? What are the restrictions in terms of trim size, weight and ink addressing live area that I need to be aware of?

7. Do you deliver the mail into the postal system, or do you use a consolidator?

Dig into your printer’s potential for postal savings through mail pooling, co-mailing and co-binding. It’s going to take some work on your end to sort out the differences between printers and how their different programs translate into bottom-line dollars. But it’s worth it. Finding the lowest postage may be the biggest cost savings you realize this year.

Jim Coogan is president of Catalog Marketing Economics, a Santa Fe, N.M.-based consulting firm focused on catalog circulation planning. You can reach him at (505) 986-9902 or jcoogan@earthlink.net.