In our last blogpost, we started a two-part series focused on the offerings and features that larger organizations need from their print and mailing services providers, in addition to the basics. It’s not just about submitting a file, having the printer create the collateral, and then mailing it out to the addressees. For clients such as national corporations, city and state government agencies, and those in the financial or insurance space, there are additional features that must be in place.

Our last blogpost focused on data security elements. The SOC II Type 2 certification and HIPAA compliant practices that we maintain here at Spectra include an array of best practices, digital security tools, and meticulous documentation to make sure our clients are protected from data security breaches as thoroughly as possible. Once those necessary protections are in place, we can move on to discussing the many other advantages that an experienced, well equipped service provider like Spectra has to offer.

3. Cost Savings on Postage

The costs associated with actually mailing print materials to individuals are always rising. There are, however, strategies that some printers can use to lower those costs and pass on the savings to their clients. Small printers don’t always have access to these opportunities due to their relatively small volume of business with the US Postal Service, and it takes a good bit of experience within the industry for a project manager to use the benefits to their full potential.

Perhaps the most important practice that we follow at Spectra to trim postage costs is called commingling. While one client’s project may be too small to qualify for lower bulk postage rates on its own, we have the ability to combine it with other clients’ projects for pickup by the USPS to form a much larger batch. The lower rates on postage for this large batch benefit all the clients involved.

4. Fulfillment Integration Opportunities

While some clients work with our team solely to print and mail collateral, many of our clients need to print materials as part of their larger e-commerce or B2B fulfillment activities. Spectra, with both a print facility and a world-class fulfillment center, provides unique and incredibly valuable advantages for these clients. 

Combined with all of the important factors that we have covered so far in this blog series, our integrated fulfillment and print clients also gain the benefits of having their print services and inventory management/fulfillment services managed by the same expert team. When clients have to work with both a third-party printer and a third-party fulfillment provider on the same project, there are often delays, miscommunication, and other obstacles that prevent the system from working smoothly.

Having Spectra print materials such as instruction manuals, advertising collateral, catalogs, and other items that need to be included in shipments to B2B or B2C customers cuts out the additional step of coordinating multiple providers and thus accelerates the process. 

5. Reliability

In the end, the most valuable feature of any third-party print and mailing services provider is reliability. Even the most committed, hard-working small print provider will inevitably experience disruptions to service due to circumstances outside their control. The decades of experience and the size of the operations at Spectra allow our team to ensure that each client’s projects progress from start to finish in a predictable, dependable manner.

• Consistency in color and quality, even with very large volume orders. We use the HP Indigo 7000 digital press as the cornerstone of our print facility, which has the capability to execute unprecedented accuracy on projects of all sizes.
• No disruption to service during peak seasons or periods of unusual volume. The unique combination of equipment and experience at Spectra allow us to anticipate exceptionally busy periods, strategize to meet demand, and keep each client’s projects on time no matter what else is going on.
• Recovery from unpredictable events. The global disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic are still fresh in everyone’s memory. Spectra was proud to give our clients excellent service throughout this difficult period, making agile adjustments to product sourcing and other activities in order to continue providing high quality service. While all disruptions cannot be anticipated or avoided, the knowledge of an experienced print provider is a key factor in getting things back to normal as quickly as possible following an incident.

There are many other advantages that clients discover when they switch to Spectra for their print and mailing services. We can’t address them all in this blog series, and many advantages are very specific to the industry in which any given client works. For instance, an official agency that needs to reach members on a regular basis with updates concerning medical or financial matters needs services such as pressure seal mailers to keep data private during the mailing process.

A franchisor, on the other hand, may need to print seasonal marketing materials to offer to its franchisees. Spectra can offer this type of B2B printing with incredible flexibility, including variable data practices to customize print collateral for individual end users. Spectra’s projects span the spectrum from standard marketing materials to official correspondence involving personally identifiable information and everything in between.

Whether your organization is an e-commerce startup looking to engage with a third-party printer for the first time, or whether your company is outgrowing its current relationship with a print provider, it’s time to set up a consultation with the experts at Spectra. Large and small organizations alike discover that there are valuable benefits available as soon as they launch their partnership with Spectra, and those benefits only increase and grow as the relationship develops. 

Chatting with one of our print experts is as easy as booking an appointment through our website. Let us know what type of print projects you need help with, what your data security requirements are, and whether integration with our expert fulfillment arm is a potential game-changer for your organization.