The Lettershop Group (TLG), GI Solutions and Adare all worked on the relaunch, which last month saw the SMP relaunch as The Strategic Mailing Partnership: The Mailmakers, with a fresh recruitment drive and new sponsor: Royal Mail Wholesale.
All three of the companies have members on the SMP board.
The initial 150-run mailing pack was printed by TLG and sent out at the beginning of September to SMP’s members and stakeholders. The pack, featuring the SMP’s revitalised branding, included a letter from SMP chairwoman Judith Donovan, a letter from Royal Mail Wholesale director of network access Jenny Ledgar, an information sheet on the SMP and an envelope, which members can send off to receive a free SMP membership certificate.
The mailing was followed by a 12-page A4 newsletter, printed by Adare, which will be published four times a year from now on. Adare’s Huddersfield general manager Danny Narey is on the SMP board.
GI Solutions provided input by updating information on the SMP’s member database, a job overseen by GI chairman and fellow SMP board member Robin Welch.
In the next couple of weeks, SMP will also be sending out a recruitment pack to non-members, again printed by TLG, using the names and addresses of mailing houses in its database.
Launched in 2008, SMP acts as a forum for UK mailing houses and aims to provide a voice for them on any issues affecting the industry, with its board holding regular meetings with Royal Mail. It also hosts regular events and workshops across the country.
Donovan said: “I can't believe how some of these mailing houses have managed to get away without being members over the last six years.
"The initial mail packs were meant as a re-activation for our existing members. They hadn’t been quite as close to the SMP as they will be under the new relaunched model. It was a postal hug so to speak.”
The SMP will also send out regular e-shots to its members. The first of these will be sent out to members in December.
“I’m not going to forecast numbers because you can never really know, but I’m sure we will get some responses,” added Donovan.
“We are having ongoing dialogue with Royal Mail and having interesting discussions about their current products and new proposals, which is what the SMP is all about.”
