Archive for February, 2008

The Creative Benefits of Direct Mail Marketing

Creativity is very important when creating a direct mail marketing campaign. The shape, size, colors, images, and offers all play an extremely important role in the customer’s decision to first acknowledge the direct mail piece and then whether or not to act on the offer being provided.

In “Creative Strategy in Direct Marketing,” Susan K. Jones lists the creative advantages of using a direct mail marketing campaign to market your business’ product or service. According to the author, if taken advantage of, these factors can help you stand out from your competitors:

- Almost unlimited format opportunities – size, looks, colors, papers, use of gimmicks, extent of copy, three-dimensional packages, pop-ups, and so forth.
- Extremely well targeted if market segmentation is done correctly.
- You may utilize all technological advances as they hit the market – you needn’t wait for the medium to catch up, as you often do in dealing with print media.
- Ability to take advantage of database management and computer applications to reach highly defined markets with highly targeted messages.
- Helps you learn in a controlled environment. You can develop test cells you want, not be at the mercy of a publication or broadcast medium, or limited by their ability to do A/B splits, geographic and lifestyle splits, and the like.
- Highly responsive – only telephone marketing has higher response rates among direct marketing media.

When planning a direct mail marketing campaign with the use of statement printing, invoice printing, or direct mail, take the time to create a piece that will catch the recipient’s attention. Because of all of the different choices you have with direct mail, you have the opportunity to create something unique.

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Direct Mail Marketing Programs and Membership Cards

If you’re looking for a way to stay in touch with past customers and encourage them to make new purchases, you might want to try a direct mail marketing program where membership cards are sent to your best customers. After deciding the criteria for the group, you can send monthly mailings with discounts and special offers that will make your customers feel appreciated and give them incentive to return to your business.

In “Direct Marketing Success Stories…and the Strategies that Built the Businesses,” Bob Stone explains how mailing membership cards helped his casino increase productivity and ROI. The author asked himself, “Why were we only mailing to our now total list of 15,000 customers several times a year? Why not select our best customers and mail them more often? We would enroll them in a very special club: The Gordon’s Gold Card.” According to the author, after mailing out the membership cards, “These customers received a notice of something “special” once every three months, then every two months, then every month. The return (average 25 to 30 percent) remained constant.”

Using membership cards in your next direct mail marketing program is a great way to distance yourself from your competitors. Direct mail, statement printing, and invoice printing are all great ways to keep in touch with your best customers. By partnering with a direct mail service and online statement printing company, you can accomplish this while saving time and money.

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Communicating with Your Customers

In order to run a successful business, you need to be constantly establishing and maintaining relationships with your customers. Communicating with your customers is the key to doing this. Research has found that using plastic card mailers is a very effective way to stay in touch with your customers and market your products or services at the same time.

In “Strategic Database Marketing: The Masterplan for Starting and Managing a Profitable, Custom-Based Marketing Program,” Arthur Middleton Hughes explains how The Customer Connection (TCC), helped a restaurant increase sales by giving out “frequent diner membership cards” to its customers. According to the author, “During the week before the cards went out, these patrons visited the restaurants 1,050 times. During the 13 weeks after receiving their permanent plastic cards, these same patrons visited an average of 1,400 times per week – an increase of 33 percent. They spent $156,000 more than they were spending before the cards were mailed. What is most significant is that there was no special promotion associated with the plastic cards. There was no additional discount offer. The plastic cards were simply a substitute for the paper cards. They were a form of customer communication. Communications programs work!”

The use of card mailers in your direct mail marketing campaign is an easy way to increase sales. Even without a special offer or discount, card mailers will encourage customers to visit your business.

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Networking with Direct Mail

If you want to be successful in business, you need to constantly meet new people and initiate new relationships with other people in your industry. Networking is the process of creating groups and sharing information and direct mail is a great way to do this.

Direct mail marketing programs in the form of statement printing, card mailers, or postcards, allow you to meet new people and stay in touch with those you’ve met in the past. By sending a direct mail piece to other men and women in your industry, you can find new contacts and possibly even establish a partnership.

Networking through the use of direct mail can be a cheap and easy way to make your presence known. By partnering with an online statement printing service or direct mail marketing service, you’ll be able to sit back and reap the rewards while they do all of the work.

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