How to select mailing software
The goal when purchasing mailing software is to save time by eliminating preparation through automatically sorting mail and producing all proper marking and postal reports, and to save money by obtaining the lowest allowable postage rates that only mailing software can achieve.
Many software products promise to help you achieve this goal. They all seem similar, at least based on an overview of their product literature. Yet their prices vary, and sometimes greatly.
If it is true that these products all do the same thing, then your task becomes simple: select the lowest-cost product.
But as you've probably guessed, there's more than meets the eye. The truth is that the better the mailing list software program you purchase, the more money you will save as well as earn, and the more free time you will have as your efficiency improves from the greater capabilities you receive from a quality program.
Your number one goal should be an attempt to get every possible piece of mail you send properly delivered, because failing to do so entails greater cost than you might think.
The better programs will always do a better job of ensuring all your mail pieces are delivered.
Just as the lesser programs will ensure that fewer of your mail pieces will reach their proper destination.
Consider what happens, or more likely, what does not happen, when people on your mailing list do not receive your information. If the intent of your mailing was to attract potential buyers for your product or service, then what if many people from your mailing list do not receive the mailing? Those people are no longer potential buyers. Depending on your profit margins, the loss could be significant.
This opportunity cost is easily proven. Simply make a copy of your list or lists and process them with the different products you are considering. The CASS Certification engine (corrects, validates, and encodes your records) that prepares your list will determine the number of records that will be accurately delivered. All programs will vary with regards to this. You will most likely be very surprised at the results and hopefully you'll see the value in using only the most competent mail management programs.
The following factors are equally important for consideration, as they'll ultimately impact the performance and capabilities of the program and, ultimately, your sales goal:
Stability of the Software - There are a lot of buggy programs in this industry that frustrate users with glitches, crashing and erratic behavior. You won't read about this in the product literature.
Ease of Use and Simple to Teach - An obvious attribute, though surprisingly not that common among mailing software. This should receive greater consideration than it does, as many individuals using these products are not MIS personnel, nor do they generally have much computer technical training.
Quick and Proper Compliance with the Ever-changing Postal Regulations and Technologies — You would expect this, and you'd be naive to do so. Most programs fail to meet all the postal changes in a timely manner. Therefore, you can expect some problems. And the impact is not insignificant. Failure to quickly comply with regulations and technologies means rejected mail for you, i.e., lost time, money and opportunity.
Key Features Lacking or Less Effective in Various Programs - Any feature you need that is void is a benefit you can't realize. The real cost varies as the importance varies, and depends on your participation applications. For example, if you needed to process mail on pallets or you wanted to sort in "walk sequence." Both of these features will save additional money on the presort. The pallet preparation option also minimizes mail handling. These features are hard to find in most mailing programs.
Quality and Power of a Program's Ability to Detect and Eliminate Duplicates from One to Several Lists - Besides the obvious, cost of material and prep time, imagine the impact when your most cherished contributor receives more then one request letter.
Ability to Sort to the Class of Mail and Sortation Level You Choose - Strength here will assure the best possible postage rates.
Quality and Power of the Address Correction Portion (CASS) of the Program - TAs we mentioned earlier, this area may be the most important of all. This encompasses all the problems when mail never reaches its target. Wasted time, money and opportunity loss because the potential purchaser of your product or services never received your offering. Most people are unaware of the often enormous difference from one program to another. Therefore never actually realizing what they missed. The cost will be significant. Pay strict attention to this area with any program you consider. More information on the importance of the CASS engine.