Statement Printing

There are often many goals associated with any direct mail campaign but the ultimate goal always seems to be to drive potential customers to your business and increase sales. Achieving this goal is not simple, however, and the planning begins long before the piece is designed. A firm understanding of your target market and what offer will capture their attention is the first step.

As an example, if you are a restaurant that has a strong customer base for your “happy hour” time, but want to draw more of a dinner crowd, offering a free drink might not be the best offer. Instead, something like $15 off any purchase of $25 or more (excluding drinks) might be a better idea.

There is a fine line when considering what to offer customers. You want to increase sales in the immediate future, but the best offers are ones that draw in potential customers who are likely to come back. Knowing your audience and really considering or even testing different offers is the best way to meet your goals through direct mail.

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Your construction is complete, you’re ready for your opening night, and you’re capable of handling a large crowd in your new location, now what? You need to let people know you’re open for business! Often, businesses seem to overlook the important step of letting people in their surrounding area know they are open. Sure, there might be grand opening celebration, but if it is poorly advertised, then it will not be successful.

One of the most effective ways to let people know you’re new business is up and running is to mail out the potential customers within 5 miles of your new location. You can target them according to specific demographics so that your mailing will be effective at targeting the customers you want to get into your business.

Here are two examples I have seen recently. A movie theater opened with a huge grand opening celebration event. They did not mail to potential customers in their area and many people didn’t even know the event was happening or that the theater was open until weeks later. A few months later, a new restaurant opened in the same area and mailed out a special offer to potential customers. People know the location is open and the owners are happy with the sales they have seen as a result of the mailer.

As a business owner, you only have a small window of time to grab and hold your potential customers’ attention so why not do that as soon as you’re open for business?

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When completing any mailing, the appearance of the envelope can impact whether your mail piece gets opened. The options for outer envelopes seem endless and the choice can sometimes be overwhelming. I want to highlight just a few of the options using the #10 envelope for my example. The #10 envelope is 4-1/8″ x 9-1/2″ and the most common business envelope size. Specifically, I want to give some options for window placement. Here are a few options and why they are useful.

•One large “picture” window- this type of window is useful if you have a premium that you want to show an image of through the envelope. As an example, if you give away pens with an order, a picture of the pen shows through the window.
•A card-size window- this window is great for anyone mailing out a membership card so the recipient will not discard the piece.
•Double window- this option is also good to show a membership card on one window and recipient address through the other window.
•L-shape window- Using an L-shape window is good if you want to show some teaser text, such as an expiration date.

These are just a few of many options, but as you can see, it is important to consider what your are mailing and what will need to show through in order to get your piece opened.

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There is an innovative direct mail piece being used by some major retail chains right now. It’s a great piece for membership cards or discount cards. The piece is an 8.5” x 11” tri-fold card stock mailer. The bottom third is laminated and features a detachable credit card sized cars and can have a key tag too. It’s a self contained mailer that is tabbed closed.

This piece is exciting because it offers more security than a card mailer with an exposed detachable card. It is the perfect option for any sort of membership card, specifically insurance cards. The piece is more visually appealing than a standard letter in an envelope and can feature full color images.

So far, the retailers that have used this piece have seen great results and plan to incorporate the piece into their 2010 marketing plan. I have only seen a few vendors that have created this piece but expect that many more will join in once they see the quality and effectiveness of the mailer.

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