If Direct Mail Is Dying, It's Sure Taking Its Time About It

Source:  Forbes, Lois Geller

Taking Its Time About It

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This is a record year for catalogs jamming my mailbox. It’s great.
It’s great that I get them, at least 100 so far this season, and it’s even greater that so many companies continue to produce them.

 

Why do they do it in this era of ecommerce?

 

Lots of reasons, but the short version is that direct mail, catalogs in particular, work. They’re profitable and they bring in revenue the companies can’t touch with electronic marketing alone.

The enduring power of direct mail is connected to two often overlooked societal phenomena:

1. The mail is often the only reliable way to reach reasonably affluent males.
2. The over-50 crowd, already large and growing, has a lot more money than younger folks and they’re just as happy to deal with you in print as they are in the cyber world.

Most catalogers still offer every possible response method: by mail, phone, fax, in person at a store. But, as often as not, most people who order from print catalogs do it online. The word synergy is overused but it fits here.

Our creative director, who gets a lot of print catalogs, orders by phone and calls around 10 at night.

Which companies are sending out catalogs these days? All the traditional ones you’d expect like Harry & David the fruit people, Hammacher Schlemmer, Smithsonian, National Geographic, Tiffany’s, Art Institute of Chicago, The Met, and so on.

And there are always newcomers, some of which are showing staying power, especially in the fields of clothing, jewelry, food, flowers, nesting merchandise and gadgets.
Catalogs have always struck me as direct-mail-written-large. They’re expensive to produce and mail so they have to be carefully targeted.

 

The catalogers adhere to the basic rules of direct mail, one of the most important of which is ALWAYS HAVE A UNIQUE OFFER and make it clear.

 

I saw several potential gifts in the Smithsonian print catalog but no offer, and yet when I went online to look around, I found Free Standard Shipping (a $7.95 value) and that’s always compelling.

Basically, everything in a marketing communication but especially in direct mail has to answer one question right away: What’s In It For Me? If the answer is clear, the prospect starts to get interested and look around.

 

It’s quite a different process from, say, a customer at a retail store like Best Buy who walks in with a specific purchase in mind.

The great catalogers test all the time: different covers, different offers, different lists, different prices, different product placement on page, and on and on. They test and track the results and use the information to get more profitable every time out. (See The Ridiculously Inexpensive Magic of Direct Mail Letters for more about this.)

• Price offers can include discounts, specific dollars off, Buy-One-Get-One and variations on that theme. A 15% discount might very well bring in more bottom line revenue than a 10% discount but you’ll never know until you test.
• Flex-Pay. When QVC offers easy payment terms, they feature the monthly payment. Very popular.
• Samples are a terrific way to get people trying your product. Cosmetic companies have been doing this for years. Get the first one free, then once you like it: you’ll buy it again.
• Early Bird Offers often work for our hospitality clients. If you reserve during their quieter times, you get a discount on spa services, or complimentary breakfast. Airlines do this, too.
• Deluxe version of whatever you usually sell. We’re offering one at Kickstarter.com for our dog book. Sometimes the deluxe version can also be a free upgrade gift.

Online marketing is a terrific force and it will grow, even as states and cities force marketers to charge sales tax.

But direct mail is not going away. I get a couple of thousand offers by mail every year. They arrive all year long, trending heavier in the last few months and in January and the number is growing. The industry is still selling billions of dollars’ worth of products and services. It’s not hip and happening, not “now” but it is highly effective and very profitable.

Sen. Baldwin says bulk mailing rate amendment will help printing firms

Source:  The Business Journal

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is championing an amendment to the postal reform bill that would curb large increases in postal rates for bulk mailers.

Baldwin visited Quad/Graphics in Sussex Wednesday morning and spoke with Milwaukee Business Journal reporters and editors Tuesday to talk about the impact of the amendment on Wisconsin’s economy. She outlined how the amendment would give postal customers “pricing predictability” and benefit forestry, paper and printing companies throughout the state like Quad/Graphics.

“Forty percent of the paper we produce ends up in the mail stream… any significant – beyond inflation increases in postage – affects our paper industry very dramatically,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin’s amendment strikes a section of the bill that would allow rates to be increased beyond the rate of inflation for bulk mailers.

“It’s pretty simple math for these folks that the postage is a significant part of their bottom line,” Baldwin said. “If it goes up, they are mailing less and nobody benefits. It’s a very important provision to get rid of.”

Joel Quadracci, president and CEO of Quad/Graphics, spoke about the issue during committee hearings on the topic earlier this year in which he told the committee: As discussed, above-inflation postage rate increases cannot be part of this solution (whether they are from straight rate increases or reductions in work-share discounts). The rate caps enacted as part of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) have worked well to control postage rates and provide our clients with that much needed certainty.

Jeff Landin, president of Wisconsin Paper Council, supports the amendment.  “Now, unless changes are made to Section 301, an already difficult coated paper market is likely to see more damage due to further declines in mail volume,” Landin said. “Your efforts to provide predictable and moderate rate increases will not only benefit the paper industry in Wisconsin, it will help the USPS by providing more mail to deliver.”

More than 600 companies, retailers, nonprofits, newspapers and other organizations around the country support the amendment.
The bill is still in committee, Baldwin said.

THINK BIG!!!  GET YOUR BRAND OR BUSINESS NOTICED!!!

Big ideas, big dreams, big plans? Then you need big printing. Large, glossy, full-color wide format is increasingly a smart marketing choice for making a bold, clear statement. Think about the visual impact you could make in your business with banners, adhesive wall clings, car wraps, event signage, posters, window graphics, floor graphics. High quality design and signage is now affordable for every budget and versatile for every structure or medium. It is also easy to change up to reflect new information and stay fresh in the public eye.

Take a moment to look around at any of your large blank walls, windows or spaces in any public area of your business and you begin to realize how that visual canvas is not being utilized to represent your brand, your message, your mission. It is being seen… it should be getting noticed and remembered! And not all wall coverings need to be advertising copy or photography. Perhaps you can simply use shape and color to “brand” your walls or windows for visual interest, keeping them in accordance with your brand’s palette.

Consider what might very well be your most valuable advertising real estate: storefront windows, waiting room and lobby walls, even shop floors. They are encountered by every customer or client, and even others just passing by – you should be using that marketing opportunity to relay your message and reinforce your brand. When you start looking around you will discover many creative ways to use large-format printing:

• banners
• removable vinyl wall graphics & murals
• car wraps
• event signage
• posters
• floor graphics
• window clings
• mounted trade show displays
• sale announcements or information
• directional signage
• product exhibits
• decorative designs and murals to compliment your brand

Thinking big will grow your business and sales in the new year, and wide format printing is a versatile, affordable and smart component of that winning marketing strategy. It allows you to see your business with an artist’s or architect’s eye. Enjoy being creative with your marketing.

DIRECT MAIL IS KING AGAIN!!!

Direct mail continuously proves that it is king. DMA states the response rate of direct mail is more than 30 times higher than that of email, with an average response rate of 4.4% compared with the 0.12% of email. When consumers are exposed to nearly 3,000 messages a day, but only notice about 50 and remember just four, earning a spot in the “final four” is the goal. Marketers need to focus on personalization and relevancy to cut through the clutter.

The key to successful direct marketing has always been personalization. The data that drives a personalized approach is more accessible and useful than ever. A print production and media provider that truly understands data is your best strategic partner for driving sales forward.  An effective direct marketing campaign is like composing a great song and direct mail is the king in lead generation.

 

Creating A Brochure: Design Importance

Substance might be more important than style in many things but every good marketer knows that brochure design is just as critical as the brochure’s content, if not more so. Many a novice advertiser has made the mistake of scrimping on a brochure design, opting to stuff the brochure with information instead. With the kind of money that you spend on advertising materials, that’s one mistake you literally can’t afford to make.

Getting a Sneak Peak with your Brochure Design

First impressions last; so says a well-known adage. Customers often get their first look and their very first impression of your company from the printed material that you provide, which is why it is so important for you to invest in your brochure. Design elements from the smallest change in colors to the biggest product images could even make or break your company’s advertising campaign.

Visual and tactile quality should be one of your highest priorities when it comes to planning and designing your brochure. The final product should look and feel well-made and polished. Your brochure is practically your company’s calling card; it should represent what your company is all about and send a positive message to the customer.

Getting it Right with Brochure Design

Your target market is usually a good thing to consider when planning your brochure design. That, however, isn’t enough. You also have to consider where your brochures will be distributed and the kind of visual stimuli that can be found there.

For example, if you intend to place your brochures in a typical brightly colored fast food restaurant, using similarly loud colors will be a losing battle for you. People passing by can easily mistake your brochures as part of the décor, and the brochures won’t attract the attention they were supposed to. Opt instead for paper colors and brochure designs that are a stark contrast and will really stand out against the given background.

Sell It!

Brochures are your opportunity to introduce your company and your product to a likely customer, but it shouldn’t stop there. Your company’s brochure should also sell your product to the reader. Don’t just let the reader know about your product; make him or her want to buy it.

Although specifications and technical data are definitely helpful, photos and product comparisons are more powerful when it comes to persuading customers to buy. Give them an idea of how the item will look when they’ve purchased it. Give them an idea of how it looks like when used. Give them an idea of the advantages of your product over others. Emphasize those points in your brochure design and be as explicit about them as possible.
You can improve the selling power of your brochure design by adding images. If pictures are indeed worth a thousand words, they have the value of a thousand sales pitches when used in a brochure. Provide prominent, detailed and attractive photographs of whatever you’re selling. Dazzle the customer with all the colors and variants available. Make your product look like something that the customer would and should buy.

Never, ever forget to give the customer a way to contact you or buy the product – a phone number or email address would suffice. Relying on the customer to seek out your store – especially if you’re a yet unknown brand – will defeat the purpose of using brochures in the first place. Remember, the point of brochures is to make customers buy. You may as well make it easier for your customers to do so.

Source:  Print Marketing Inc.

Top 5 Trends in Direct Marketing

1. Hyper-local and hyper-targeted marketing The use of Smartphones and Tablets has redefined direct marketing. Now you can target ads to the consumers most likely to respond to the offer based on their age and proximity to your location. Not only does SMS (short messaging service, or text messaging) offer hyper-targeting, it also enables you to create time-sensitive offers and announcements – giving you the best possible response and ROI.

2. Direct mail Old school tools re-emerge with better direct marking applications. With the price of digital printing rapidly declining, postal drops return as an inexpensive way to reach customers and encourage them to interact with your brand. Using a tie in to your website or Facebook page can energize your campaign and engage both potential and existing customers. Putting something in someone’s hands can be extremely powerful, and the use of clever creative coupled with dimensional mailers are still powerful tools.

3. Targeted digital couponing As with hyper-local and hyper-targeted marketing, brands are able to target coupons directly to consumers most likely to redeem them – as quickly as real time. Direct marketers are able to target shoppers with new products in the store, offers over and above shelf tag discounts, or when they are at the point of purchase to encourage them to spend more.

4. Big Data It seems to be on every direct marketing professional’s lips – Big Data, and when you think big, you should think FAST, too. With all the hyper-personalization of information being received, the direct marketing trend is to make sense of it quickly and segment it into groups. With information being collected from online and brick and mortar transactions, social media, and mobile devices, providers are in a hurry to package the data and get it to direct marketers to use it ASAP.

5. Retargeted Ads What better way to hit your target than to advertise to someone who has already visited your site? With retargeted ads, when someone visits your site and then leaves, they get a retargeted ad the next time they surf the web. By using retargeted ads, your message can be a subtle, “hey, come back and see us sometime” to a hard-hitting, “act today and you’ll get the best deal available”. Either way it encourages others to interact with your brand and revisit your site!

Hey! Where’s Direct Mail in This Survey List?

By Heidi Tolliver-Walker on July 13th, 2013

I was browsing email subject lines and one about Millennials using print caught my eye. Every now and then, you see data showing that direct mail and other print media carry weight — and influence — among this coveted and digital-media-heavy demographic.
I clicked through, and the data from was Experian (Digital Marketing Report 2013).  It did show Millennials using print, but it was newspapers and magazines. In a seven-day span (“seven-day platform reach”), the chart indicated, approximately 70% of 18-24-year olds were reading newspapers and magazines.  Nice to know, but . . .

Television, mobile phone, radio, newspaper, home computer, magazine, work computer, game console, MP3 player, tablet, e-Reader. Those were the categories included, leaving magazines and newspapers the print representatives.

Where was direct mail? Despite the power that print continues to show in influencing consumer decisions and as part of consumers’ preferences, somehow it was not included in the media mix being studied.  How did direct mail get overlooked?

Yes, postal volumes are dropping, but direct mail is still a powerhouse in terms of marketing influence. Every time media influences are studied, direct mail shows tremendous power influencing buyer decisions. Response rates to personalized mail are consistently high. Studies show that especially for certain products (high-end, financial, health, and other categories deemed to be more personal) consumers overwhelmingly prefer marketing by print rather than email. The list goes on. So how did direct mail get overlooked here? If it was intentional, it was a really unfortunate (and inaccurate) message to send.

Hey researchers, let’s not forget about one of the most powerful tools marketers have!