Should you outsource your marketing fulfillment?

If your company handles marketing fulfillment in-house, could you do better by outsourcing?

Ask yourself:

• Are facility costs, utilities, equipment maintenance, shipping and supplies eating up your budget?
• Are you looking at significant investments in new staff, equipment or technology to keep up with your fulfillment needs?
• Do you have seasonal lulls that leave your warehouse staff underemployed? Or spikes that make them scramble to keep up?
• Are you neglecting important marketing initiatives because of these and similar issues?

If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, it may be time to consider outsourcing your marketing fulfillment program.

What's Holding You Back?

One of the most common reasons businesses keep marketing fulfillment in-house is concern about the cost of using a third-party vendor. But, in reality, a good fulfillment partner can actually save you money.

Outsourcing allows you to shed the internal costs of rent, labor, training, equipment purchases, maintenance, software and systems associated with your program. Instead of paying fixed costs, whether your staff and equipment are running full-time or not, you'll pay a specialist to utilize their expertise, facility and equipment. But you'll only pay for what you use, instead of paying for downtime. The money you save can be put to work expanding your marketing reach through new channels or additional campaigns.

You may also worry about losing control of your program. But think about the time and effort you and your staff are putting in to produce, inventory, ship and track your materials.

• How many vendors, systems, processes and procedures are involved?
• Are your materials consistently getting delivered quickly and accurately?
• Do you get the data you need regarding inventory and usage levels, shipping times and costs, reorder quantities, etc., to make good decisions going forward?
• Is managing this function a good use of your time? Or could you achieve better results if you were able to spend more time focusing on actual marketing?

Consolidating production, warehousing, ordering, shipping and tracking with one company, one integrated system and one dedicated account executive gives you the control you need with less hassle.

Beyond Basic Services

Outsourcing can also provide capabilities that you don't currently have and which may be too expensive to add in-house. For example, in addition to pick-and-pack services, Iron Mountain offers:

• Custom kitting and booklets to assemble documents, samples, promotional items and/or products into one attractive, well organized package.
• Template-based digital design capabilities to create customized materials for different audiences.
• Digital printing for short-run, variable or personalized documents.
• Electronic document delivery to deliver critical information when physical inventory is low or out of stock.
• Offset print management to ensure high quality production at the best price and terms.

Remember: marketing fulfillment is a critical link between your business and its customers, distributors and other audiences. Don't let less-than-stellar performance make a poor impression or hurt your results. If your in-house program isn't top of the line, talk to Iron Mountain Fulfillment Services.