Wide-Format Printing Thoughts              
Source:  John Carew

Recently a colleague approached me regarding a straightforward wide-format graphic print and installation project. As the dialogue continued with the client, we realized the details surrounding the project were adding a level of complexity that required a higher level of attention. This post is designed to give you a basic sense of the questions to ask when approaching a wide-format graphics project.

Whether your wide-format printing project covers an office wall, conference room window, high-end window display, or city apartment building, considering a few key points can make the project more successful.

DurationHow long will the graphics remain in place?

Wide-format substrates can vary significantly from one to another. The material used for a massive billboard may cost as little as a quarter per square foot, whereas the more versatile vinyl used for vehicle wraps may be more than a dollar per square foot. It is critical to the success of any wide-format printing project to know how long the graphics need to be in place in order to the best substrate for the installation.

SurfaceWhat type of surface will the graphics be installed on? Glass, drywall, concrete, metal?

A project can fail––literally fall off the wall onto a client or customer’s head––if the wrong material is selected. The complexity of a specific location can add hundreds of dollars to the installation cost as well.

ImageryWhat kinds of images will be printed? Full-color images or type only?

Believe it or not, not all digital output devices are created equal, and not every wide-format printer prints using the same settings. One printer may be running its machines at a higher resolution while a lower-priced vendor is running them at the bare minimum. In reality, if the graphics were intended to support the sale of a high-end product, the print from the lower-cost vendor using lower resolution would most likely detract from the buying experience. It is important to provide an early mock-up of the planned graphics for the wide-format project. If the project is printing skin tone, cosmetics, or a neutral color like silver, color consistency and high resolution will be critical, whereas large solids and small images may make the lower-cost printing option work out just fine.

LocationWhere will the graphics be installed?

Is the location outside or inside?

“Location, location, location” applies to wide-format graphics as well as real estate. Indoors or outdoors is the biggest factor, but if graphics will be installed on a narrow, closed window in direct Miami sun for 10–12 hours per day midsummer, that could make or break a wide-format graphics project. Graphics installed against the top edge of a wall in close proximity to an air conditioning vent will, with the changes in temperature and dust produced from the ventilation system over time, peel from the wall if not properly reinforced and printed on the correct substrate for the wall type.

There are several other dozen factors that should be taken into account when printing wide-format graphics, but considering duration, surface, imagery, and location will get you on the right path.

5 STRATEGIES  FOR PLANNING YOUR NEXT DIRECT MARKETING  CAMPAIGN

 

Source:  Melissa Cober

Effective and memorable direct marketing campaigns do not simply materialize based on luck; they require lots of hard work, planning, and strategizing. Don’t jump into your next direct marketing campaign with blinders on. Follow these 5 strategies to ensure your next campaign’s success!

1. Plan your campaign based on ROI rather than savings. Too many businesses get caught up in the process of trying to save as much money as possible in the initial phases of their direct marketing, without considering the high ROI that an effective campaign will garner. A dirt-cheap, low-quality mailing list may save you some money now, but your ROI will also be significantly lower than a campaign based around a quality list. Always keep the big picture in mind, and don’t let initial campaign prices distract you from what’s really important – making money.

2. Set realistic expectations. In order to determine whether or not your direct marketing campaign is successful, you will need to set goals ahead of time. However, you also need to make sure these goals are realistic. Without realistic expectations, you will most likely have a skewed impression of what’s working for your business and what’s failing. For any direct marketing effort, it is imperative to calculate your break-even point before executing the campaign. If you have decided to purchase a mailing list or email list, the best way to ensure your expectations are realistic is to ask your list specialist what response rates they typically see on the file you will be using. If the response rates they mention align with your break-even point, you can feel confident pursuing that campaign.

3. Target your audience. Don’t waste your resources reaching out to people who have no need for what you offer. Know who your consumers are, understand their motivations, and know how to reach them. Make your campaign relevant to them; speak to their needs, fears, and desires. If your consumers don’t use the Internet regularly, don’t try to force an online relationship. Meet them in their comfort zone, not yours.

4. Simplify your message. Oftentimes businesses just want to say too much! This is confusing for consumers; if they can’t immediately understand the most important things your business has to offer, they won’t remember you at all. Make sure you have one simple, concise message across the entire marketing campaign. Create a “message hierarchy” to prioritize your messages, and make sure everyone working on the campaign understands this hierarchy. Essentially, don’t bombard potential consumers with too much information.

5. Present a strong call to action. Consumers can’t read your mind, so when you plan your direct marketing campaign, don’t leave them to guesswork: Tell them exactly what you want them to do. Effective calls to action are not about subtlety. They need to be worded strongly, and they need to quickly communicate how that person will benefit from responding to your offer. This is not the time to beat around the bush; be clear about what you want, and then don’t be shy about asking for it.

7 DIGITAL MARKETING TACTICS THAT BOOST OFFLINE SALES

Source:  John Faris

It's clear that digital marketing is influencing offline purchasing behavior more than ever. In fact, 89 percent of consumers who buy in key retail categories in-store have conducted online research prior to purchase (Google, 2010), and offline sales influenced by online research are expected to top 1 trillion dollars in 2012 (Jupiter Research, 2007). To capitalize on consumers' new inclination to research online before purchasing offline, marketers need to go beyond awareness and direct response campaigns, and start influencing the purchase decision-making process.

Identify brand promoters
Customer relationship marketing is a critical component to every company's digital marketing mix. Loyal customers who act as brand evangelists can increase sales and drive word of mouth. Identifying your brand evangelists is a crucial first step. If you have a customer database with emails or phone numbers, you can easily pinpoint brand evangelists with a net promoter score (NPS) survey. The survey need only ask one simple question -- "How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" Customers respond on a 0-to-10 point scale, and those who rate you highly (9 or 10) are your "promoters." If you deploy the survey in-store or on your website or blog, make sure you capture emails or phone numbers so you have the ability to tie the response back to the individual.

Online reviews
Eighty-three percent of consumers say online customer reviews influence their purchase decisions (Opinion Research Corp., 2008 -- PDF). So the more positive reviews you have, the better. Not to mention, Google favors local listings that have more reviews with higher rankings. Faking reviews or incentivizing positive reviews is frowned upon, and against the policies of major review sites. But there is nothing wrong with asking your most loyal customers to advocate for your brand. So once you have promoter segments set up in your SMS and email databases, ask your brand advocates to write online reviews through a standalone message.

Customer support community
Another way to identify and amplify the voices of your loyal customers is to provide a moderated on-domain customer support community. Not only does a support platform with answers to FAQs reduce customer service costs, but it also creates a significant amount of SEO-friendly user-generated content. Since most of this content is directly related to your brand, you'll increase control over what shows up when people search for your brand. This is critical because search engines are the No. 1 source (online or offline) used by consumers to inform purchasing decisions (ZMOT, 2011).

Social monitoring and engagement
Of course, you can't just set up a community on-domain and hope that you'll capture all of the conversation surrounding your brand, industry, competitors, and consumer segments. According to reports from Forrester, consumers spend about 25 percent of their web browsing time on social media sites, consuming more than 500 billion social brand impressions per year. Consequently, it is essential to monitor and engage on external social media networking sites to track and respond to relevant conversations. This is by no means limited to responding to customers talking about your brand. Engaging with consumers in non-brand-oriented conversations will help personalize the brand and position your company as a credible industry resource.

SMS and email campaigns
Social media has sucked up a lot of air in the room. But given that 93 percent of U.S. online consumers receive at least one permission-based email a day (ExactTarget, 2010) and the volume of text messaging is growing beyond comprehension, these two permission marketing channels are still huge opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell customers and prospects. The key is to make sure that you incentivize the right actions (profitable ones) and that you can track ROI. Coupons are the easiest way to do this, but you have to be wary of training customers to wait for a coupon before purchasing. Also, when promoting coupons via SMS, make sure you have a mobile coupon code or a smartphone-friendly coupon landing page. Mobile campaigns that keep users within a mobile experience tend to perform best.

Brand search advertising
While most successful companies engage in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on search engines, many marketers are hesitant to bid on brand terms in their campaigns. While it seems redundant or wasteful to bid on terms that you already rank first for in the organic results, it is generally a very good idea to do so.

A recent Google study of 400 different AdWords accounts showed that 89 percent of clicks on PPC ads were purely incremental (i.e., if the ads were paused, organic search would have picked up only 11 percent of the clicks). Furthermore, it is crucial to capture brand awareness from traditional (TV, print, radio) advertising with relevant messaging in your branded PPC ads. In other words, your PPC ad headline and description should closely match your predominant offline ad messaging. That way, consumers experience continuity when prompted to conduct a brand search by an offline ad.

Local and mobile search advertising
With the drastic increase in GPS- and mapping-enabled smartphones and the prominence of map results on search result pages, local search is rapidly becoming a critical marketing channel. Representing a significant shift away from yellow pages and 411 services, 70 percent of local business searches are now conducted online (TMP Directional Marketing, 2010). Of those using a search engine on their smartphone to find local information, 77 percent end up contacting a business and 44 percent end up purchasing (Google/IPSOS, 2011). Needless to say, these are hot leads. To capitalize, ensure that your PPC campaigns are geo-specific and set up properly for mobile. Make sure the keywords, ad copy, and landing pages are concise, as consumers won't spend much time typing or reading on a smartphone.

Retail is not a field of dreams. Your company will quickly fail without a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Offline media is great for driving brand awareness. But you can't rely on radio and TV ads, newspaper and print ads, and yellow page listings to close the deal anymore. If you haven't noticed, consumers' media consumption habits have shifted, and the web has taken a prominent role in the purchase decision-making process. That doesn't mean that you need to have a million-dollar e-commerce site to survive. What it does mean is that you have to think about how consumers research your brand online and develop campaigns to adapt accordingly.

Top 5 Things a Professional Website Should Have

Plenty has been written about how to setup an effective website, from designing a home page to effective SEO management and employing promotional lead-generation tools. But in thinking about all I've read and written on the topic, I’ve boiled it all down to five amazingly simple features and sum it up this way: be direct and to the point.

1) Simplicity – How many times have you gone to a website that was so full and so complicated that you became tired touring and clicking around? Too much hyper-interactivity without a defined purpose is just activity and sure to turn off visitors. One simple message is easy to understand, easy to use and, best of all, easy to purchase.

2) Design – With literally hundreds of millions of active Web pages available, it's essential that yours be well designed. Good design attracts a person’s attention. This seems so obvious, and yet there are millions of websites that have skipped this essential ingredient to success.

3) Communications – Another key to a successful website is to establish a conversation with your visitors. A weekly or monthly enewsletter allows you to stay in front of your visitors and allows them to let you know what they think about what you have to say.

It's essential to establish a voice in your market. But don’t be too loud, by the way. Be very sure your message truly represents who you are and what your company offers.

4) Opt-in – A lot has been written about collecting data on visitors as they download your information or play your videos, etc. With all of the research we’ve conducted, there is much evidence to support that you are better off giving away quite a bit of information without asking for any from your visitors. This seems to encourage increased visits and requests, which are many times more meaningful than trying to push visitors into action.

5) Be responsive – I admit this is somewhat of a gripe of mine, but it never ceases to amaze me when a company receives a request of ours and does not follow up. The company probably got busy with something else and just forgot about our request or it received so many it had no way to process them. Either way, it lost a potential customer and that’s never a good thing.

Suffice to say, it’s important to communicate your interest in all you do and follow through with all of the promises you make in your marketplace.

Source:  Tom Marin, Printing Impressions 2012

WHAT'S IN YOUR MAIL?

Does it seem like your direct mail ideas are less than creative, or maybe your response rates aren't quite where they need to be? If so, it's time to shake things up and try something new.
Direct mail comes from nearly every organization, which may be why its response rates keep falling. But you can combat your declining response rates by thinking of new ideas for your next campaign. The trick is to think “outside the envelope.”

Even in this digital age, people are still bombarded with mail every day, most of it in standard white envelopes. Most people throw it out without even bothering to open it. If they do that to your package, you won't get your message out, which means less revenue down the line.

To break the cycle, make your mail package impossible to ignore. Here are a few creative direct mail ideas that'll get your mail out from under the bottom of the stack.

• Personalized MessagesYou see your name in the address on the envelope, but how often do you see it in a handwritten note? Probably never, but if you did, you'd definitely notice it, which means your mail recipients would notice it, too.
  
  Use a handwriting font to add an informal, personalized message to your envelopes, or go the extra mile and hire professional handwriting specialists to write on the envelopes for you. This costs more than the handwriting font, but it has an added benefit - because it uses real ink, skeptics who wipe it will know for sure that it's real. However you do it, a casually written, personalized note on the outside envelope increases the chances of the person opening up the package to see what you're sending.

• Thicker PackagesYou know what's in a flat envelope - usually paper and nothing else. But when you get mail that's wider than a millimeter, you always want to know what's inside. You open up thick packages, so you can bet your prospects will as well.
  If you want your mail to get noticed, place a promotional product right in the package. The possibilities are endless:
  • Key chains
  • Refrigerator magnets
  • Pens or pencils
  • Flash drives
  • Bottle openers
  • Mini flashlights
  Any product that fits neatly inside a mailbox and can be imprinted with your organization's logo can turn into one of those creative direct mail ideas that gets your package opened and increases response rates. Besides, the recipient will see your logo and company name every time they use that item!

• A Mail Miniseries
When a TV show ends with "To Be Continued," do you shrug it off? Of course not - you tune in the following week to see what happens. Apply that same principle to your next direct mail campaign and your prospects will be on the edge of their seats.

Most direct mail packages are self-contained. They make an offer, cover all the talking points, and have a call to action. But if you stagger that over a series of mailings, readers will be more curious about your final pitch. Tell a story over the course of several letters or postcards. Promise helpful tips and then offer only one tip per mailing, ending with your message. Emphasize that there's more coming later and your recipients will start reading the packages now.

When brands get personal...

Source: Ryan Joe, senior editor, Direct Marketing News

Successful marketing is about continual evolution. It's about being flexible with constantly changing consumer preferences, whether that means altering one's message to stay current, overhauling a marketing strategy in order to reach out to a new customer base, or pushing new strategies into new communication channels.

The most prominent instance of this latter example: Facebook commerce, informally known as f-commerce — the parameters of which are still being defined by analysts and marketers. Yet, the advent of f-commerce marks a clear transition in the way brands now approach social media. Whereas just one year ago, enterprises tentatively set up Facebook pages simply to indicate their presence on the site, now there is legitimate debate, reported on in-depth by staff reporter Erin Dostal, around using the social network as a medium to drive sales. The question of Facebook as a legitimate e-commerce platform isn't without its nuances. It's notable that while established brands, like JCPenney, might have limited use for Facebook as a sales channel, smaller companies like Hari Mari, a Texas-based flip flop company, has had 40% of its e-commerce traffic originate from its Facebook page.

Dostal writes that the small companies that benefited from a sales standpoint did so because they can interact directly with potential customers. It's a message echoed by Steve Thomas, CMO of Edible Arrangements. Thomas oversaw new marketing initiatives that sought to build continuing relationships with clients — one that allowed customers, in his words, “to connect emotionally.”

That a company like Edible Arrangements benefits from more personal customer connections is not a surprise. However, there's also a shift, as noted by staff reporter JoAnn DeLuna, as health insurance companies seek to reach out directly to consumers. The catalyst in the case of health insurance is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that requires uninsured individuals to meet basic coverage standards. This means that insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield, which devotes the bulk of its marketing efforts on b-to-b endeavors, now must become more adept at reaching out directly to consumers. As such, they're investing in data to learn more about customers at an individual level — from basic demographic information to behaviors and lifestyle decisions.

The ability to reach out to customers in as many places as possible, and backing that outreach with analytics, is key for marketers going forward, said Yuchun Lee, VP of enterprise marketing management at IBM Industry Solutions. Featured as our Q&A in The Work, Lee detailed another key emerging channel marketers must account for: mobile. He discussed why it's crucial that brands leverage mobile buying tendencies and how those tendencies can possibly contribute to sales in brick-and-mortar outlets.

All of this ties in neatly with our Agency Business Report, in which we discovered that the availability of data positions digital and direct marketers advantageously. Brands might have access to data, but they need help structuring it and turning it into actionable intelligence. However, while copious data may be great, it's also important not to overlook the importance of creative.

12 Fast Direct Mail Tests for Cheapskates

So you want to boost your direct mail response? Okay, just start shoveling money into a few dozen tests and …

What’s that? You don’t have a big budget for all the testing you’d love to do? You don’t have time to run a bunch of tests? No problem.

One of the great things about direct mail is that, with just a little ingenuity, you can test quickly and on the cheap to improve your results.

Here are 12 quick and easy testing ideas for cheapskates:

Change your outer envelope. A new color or a different size may be all it takes to get people to take a second look at a package they’ve seen too many times. You can also try switching from a teaser envelope to a plain one or vice versa. And faux express envelopes are often worth a test.

Test a new letter. It can be an all-new letter from scratch. Or a longer version of your current letter with more detail. Or a shorter version with less detail. Or a modified version with a new spin on the headlines and opening paragraphs.

Remove your brochure. Believe it or not, response often picks up without that elaborate brochure. It may be that removing the brochure simply gets people to read the letter more thoroughly. This doesn’t always work, but as tests go, you can’t get any simpler.

Include a stand-alone reply form. You should be doing this anyway, but if not, try it. It doesn’t matter if another piece already has a reply form. This is just a test. And if it works, you can make further modifications later.

Insert a lift note. This is an easy way to overcome a major objection or highlight a key benefit. Just remember to keep it short and have it signed by someone other than the person who signs the main letter. If you have a celebrity or authority who can sign it, all the better.

Strengthen your offer. This is where you can usually make the most difference. All things being equal, the best offer you can make is a free trial. The second best is a money-back guarantee. If you don’t want to change your offer completely, try turning it into a yes/no offer, or a yes/maybe offer where “yes” is a purchase and “maybe” is a request for more information. Of course, sweepstakes can always add a lift, but your customer quality will usually go downhill.

Offer something free. It’s generally better than discounting your product and gives you the opportunity to use the magic word “FREE.” It can be a free gift, free shipping, free add-ons, free subscription to your newsletter or catalog, whatever.

Add a time limit. This almost always boosts response. You can connect the time limit to your main offer or to your premium. One easy way to add this to a preexisting package or mailer is to create a simple piece of art that looks like you’ve rubber-stamped the deadline. It should be ugly and realistic.

Highlight your guarantee. In a package, you should feature it prominently in the letter, brochure, and order form. If your guarantee is strong—and it should be—you can also create an insert or lift note that explains your guarantee in detail. In a self-mailer, you should place your guarantee on the primary selling panel and on the reply panel.

Build a package around your self-mailer. You’ll need an outer envelope, basic letter, reply form, and BRE. Add your self-mailer as the brochure and presto! You have a complete direct mail package. It’s not an ideal solution but good enough for a quick test.

Mail your print ad. Just print it, fold it, and insert it into a plain envelope with a little note that says something like, “I thought you would find this interesting” or “Try this. It works.” You might also try adding a BRE or reply envelope with a live stamp to help ease response. You may even try adding a reply form so people don’t have to cut out the coupon.

Try the two-step. First mail a postcard or small self-mailer offering free information on your product. Then fulfill requests with your direct mail package. Just make sure to modify the package with envelope copy that says something like, “Here’s the information you asked for.”

Contributed by: Dean Rieck