Statement Printing

In a recent blog post, David Meerman Scott hits the nail on the head when he says all advertisers want is attention! There are a few ways that he mentions how advertisers can get attention. First, he said you can “buy attention” through advertising. He calls the next method “begging for attention” or Public Relations. He then says you can “bug people for attention” through Sales. Finally, he says you can “earn attention” through mediums like social media marketing.

Scott’s descriptions of the classification of each method do seem to point to which one he thinks is best simply by the names, but he does say the following in his post:

“Nearly all organizations should be doing some combination of all four ways of generating attention.”

The more blog posts and studies that I read, the more this statement comes up. You cannot rely on one way of getting your message across to your customers. A marketing and sales strategy that combines all of these methods of getting attention is the only way to succeed.

But, getting any form attention isn’t good enough. Companies need to get positive attention! One thing that will always remain true is that customers love getting something for nothing (or little effort). So, one way to market your product or service and combine these methods is to send them an offer directly in the mail (“buy attention”). You can use this direct mail piece to get their attention and offer them something now. You can also use this direct mail piece to offer them more if they sign up to follow you on Twitter or register on your website (“earn attention”). Of course you can follow-up this mailing with sales calls (“bug people for attention”) to urge people to use your offer and promote the offer through PR campaigns (“beg for attention”). This is just one example of combining the methods mentioned, but any company is bound to gain positive attention when combining these 4 methods in the correct way.

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Many companies have seen success in the form of dramatically increased sales using plastic card mailers as gift card direct mail pieces for their customers. One business recently used this idea, but creatively added the element of surprise to their mailer. This restaurant created a “mystery card” with an encoded magnetic strip. Recipients present the detachable credit card-sized card at the restaurant location to receive between $5.00 and $500.00 for use at the restaurant.

There are a few elements of plastic card mailers that helped make this marketing campaign successful. First, the magnetic strip allows the client to load varying dollar amounts on the cards. The restaurant can then track the spending on their POS system, assuring the security of the piece. The high quality of the plastic card mailer allows the piece to stand out among other mail pieces. Recipients take notice of this mailer and because it is easy to remove the credit card sized card from the all-in-one mailer and carry it in their wallet, they remember to use this offer. In the approximate 5 weeks that these mailers have been in-home, 7.44% have been redeemed.

With the rising popularity of Twitter, one question for businesses is “how do I get my customers to follow me?” One solution is to reach them through direct mail. Businesses can use a plastic card mailer to offer their customer’s an incentive for now; say a discount to their restaurant. Then, the business can invite their customers to follow the business on Twitter to receive additional discounts.

Both of these new uses of card mailers display the importance of having a varied marketing campaign. In the first example, the restaurant is combining direct mail and online marketing since they also invite their customer to visit their website on their card mailers. In the second example, we can see how direct mail and the use of Twitter can be combined for an effective marketing campaign.

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There are so many elements that go into in-house printing and mailing. Think about all of the costs involved in printing and mailing:
• machinery
• paper
• envelopes
• ink
• maintenance
• staff
• postage and
• time.
All of these costs add up to an average of $.876 to $1.46 per piece for in-house printing and mailing.

Many businesses like the control of having their print and mail functions in-house, but what if there is an unforeseen event that prevents you from mailing out your company’s crucial business mailings? Customers who outsource their print and mail activities to a trusted vendor can be assured that their pieces will mail out because of redundancies in their system. They will have backup print and mail facilities in place to ensure their customer’s mail pieces go out as scheduled.

Further, customers enjoy savings on all of the elements of print and mail when outsourcing print and mail activities. On postage alone a business can typically save $.08 per piece through their vendor co-mingling all of their clients’ mail to get the maximum postage discounts possible. If a client prints and mails 10,000 pieces per month, the postage savings adds up to $9,600.00 per year or $48,000.00 over 5 years!

Reliable vendors can also get their clients’ mail pieces out more quickly through the use of PostalOne!®, a service from USPS that allows for the streamlining of the process for mail entry. This shortened in-home time can be especially important in the case of invoices because the turnaround time for payment can be reduced which can speed up your business’s Accounts Receivables.

In times when saving time and money are a top priority for any company, a print and mail company can help by serving as a trusted outsourcing vendor.

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Many companies that use direct mail marketing often settle into one form of the medium. They know it works for them, so they stick with it. But, what if there is something out there that can get an even better response? Failing to test different forms of direct mail can lead to a company not making the best use of their direct mail marketing budget.

Sure, testing takes time and effort, but the payoff can be huge. As an example, one company currently sends out direct mail pieces that look like checks and offer a discount to their retail locations. This form of direct mail works well for them and gets them between ¼% and ½% redemption for each mailing. They are resistant to alter the form of their direct mail. What if they could get 7% redemption or higher by using plastic card mailers though? Wouldn’t it make sense to at least test this form of direct mail in this case?

Companies that use direct mail don’t always have to change the form of their direct mail. It might be as simple as altering the envelope color or size so that the piece stands out from other companies’ direct mail pieces and from pieces that company sent out in the past. One company that handles magazine renewals is particularly good at this type of change. They will test different color envelopes, envelope size, letter format, and letter appearance from month to month to see what works best. As in any experiment, they are careful to only change one element at a time to get the best data possible. This type of experiment will take some time, but in the end, your company will know which type of direct mail works best for you.

One way to alleviate the hassle of testing different types of direct mail campaigns on your own is to work with a direct mail marketing company that can handle all of the changes for you and help you to manage the results to determine which type of direct mail piece works best for your company. So, testing different direct mail formats is a process, but one that pays off for any company who completes the test.

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