More than just printing…

Every good marketing campaign is backed by a strategy. The question is what do you hope to achieve from a customer or prospect? Many print, web and media designers hope to create an impression from a slick marketing campaign.

Come’on, you remember the neat campaigns by VW, Coke, Pepsi and the purveyors of alcohol. Of course they want you to ultimately buy their product/service, but to have their brand resonate is also equally important. Using the medium of direct mail is often more copy-intensive than its image counterparts of media.

Who is your target? What are you seeking? What repeat business do you hope to gain?

Start With Your Reply Card on Your Direct Mail Piece

Remember the intimate aspects of knowing your customer? Knowing your customer or target audience more intimately is always a plus. It allows you the opportunity to achieve a better response to your offer. Relevant questions can be strategically asked on a reply card, regarding areas of interest for this audience. Obtaining information about their personal habits and enjoyments will allow a more successful, repeat targeted campaign.

Start with your reply card or return mechanism and work backwards. Think objectively about your theme. Elicit the help of a creative designer to help drive your message in an appealing and balanced way, perhaps a copywriter to help enhance the theme as well. A nicely designed direct mail package with a poignant message is a good first step.

Paper Choices: It’s all in the details

Paper is the substrate that carries your message and offer. Don’t ignore this important detail. A coated bright-blueish white reproduces a sharp image and lends itself to crisp products and brilliant color copy. A warmer-reddish coated paper fits better with flesh tones and delicate copy themes. An uncoated paper can also have a pleasing effect of warmth, write-ability and is also available in a wide variety of colors, hues and textures.

Does Your Copy Sell Your Incentive?

Don’t obscure your offer with many lines of small type or heavy body-copy. Feature the offer outright with brilliant photos and inviting headline copy. The offer is the “incentive to act” that you’re seeking. Don’t be afraid to pursue this behavior repetitively.

Direct Mail Ideas to Consider

• Using Variable Image Print (VDP) or personalizing your offer can give you a far better return.
• Let’s not skip other details at the print stage however. Full color printing or black & white? Color printing can boost results!
• Rich, lush and broad photographs of a black and white nature can have a very positive impact but can be diminished in their tonal range, if not printed in 4 color process application.

Overwhelmed by the details? Remember that direct mail is not an exact science, but marketing campaigns that follow a regimen tend to be more successful than most others.

You get what you plan for!

“If you build it, they will come.” Imagine a builder who chooses to build a house in the middle of the deep woods. The enthusiasm he must feel, knowing this is one of the most gorgeous houses to ever exist in a secluded location. Then, he puts up a “For Sale” sign at the front of the property.

A week goes by, nothing. A month goes by, nothing. 6 months go by, still nothing.

Sounds a bit silly to think a house with a “For Sale” sign in the middle of the deep woods is going to sell this way, doesn’t it? But this is tantamount to having a QR code without a marketing strategy.

QR codes (aka Quick Response codes) can enable expanded creativity on marketing collateral that may otherwise be less interactive. Simply placing a QR code on a marketing piece that drives customers to the homepage of your website and no call-to-action isn’t going to cut it.

Establish Business Goals

It’s important to have a specific business goals established, such as:

• Increased sales
• Increases awareness of your business
• Increased visitors to your website
• Increased stickiness of your site
• Get more repeat clients

Once business goals are established, you’re going to need to implement the right marketing strategies in order to achieve success. Knowing what you want to achieve before thinking about a QR code is a must.

Create Marketing Strategies

It’s important to recognize that the need for marketing strategies has always been the case over the many years of businesses existing. What’s changed are the technologies utilized to evolve marketing strategies.

With that said, it’s time to rethink your journey to ensure you are including new technologies that can no longer be ignored. Knowing which technologies are right for your marketing strategy can be challenging.

Do we use these newfangled QR thingee’s or a GURL, maybe a PURL or VDP?

Maybe I should use a QR codes on my DM and send it VDP for best results ASAP, maybe with some FAQ’s, on a One to One for the best ROI?

This just has to have great results… It sounds so hi-tech.

But, before implementing a QR code, there are some things to take into consideration. As Chris Silver Smith pointed out in his blog post, “Are QR Codes Good For Local Marketing? A Contrarian View,” QR codes can be challenging for people to utilize for various reasons. This is why it’s important to know who your target audience is, what overall technology they are comfortable using and understand how to implement an effective marketing strategy.

Most cellphone providers have caught on to the problem of there being varying QR code apps and have since started preloading a QR code app on the cellphones. [i.e. ScanLife has officially partnered with Sprint and Verizon]

Implement Technology That Will Work With Your Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy will determine which tools are best to employ and technology to meet your goal(s). It involves creating strategies that are designed for the different marketing channels that will reach your intended customer.

Equally important is to measure, track and analyze your campaign results while efficiently managing the data accrued that will lead to your next follow-up campaign.

Remember, there’s always another goal soon to follow and yes, another campaign.

Work smarter, not harder.

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Here’s an example of a great marketing strategy:

Overview: Bloomingdale’s Spring 2011 Campaign, “Color Yourself” Contest.

Target: Men interested in color trends and the latest fashion available for Spring.

Strategies: Get target audience to:

1. View the promotional video.
2. Engage and participate in Bloomingdale’s contest to win a $5,000 shopping spree at the 59th Street Flagship Store in NYC (hotel and limo ride included) by submitting a personal video or pic of one’s own personal style.
3. Shop online at the e-commerce Bloomingdale’s website.

Possible Goals for this Campaign:

1. Increase website visits
2. Increase sales for Spring Line
3. Increase awareness of new Spring Line

Calls-To-Action (CTA):

1. Visit a URL on the web to view a video (print to web) (Click here: Bloomingdale’s QR Code Campaign Video )



2. Text in code to receive a MMS message including a video (print to mobile)
3. Scanning a QR code, arriving at a mobile landing page to view a video (see image below) (print to mobile)

Notice the mobile landing page above follows K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid), showing only Bloomingdale’s logo, the video, and a link to start shopping Bloomingdale’s mobile e-commerce site. Having clearly defined goal paths increases conversions, keeping the user’s focus on this campaign.

Bloomingdale’s continued this marketing campaign by using catalog space to promote the new contest in an effort to get their target audience into their stores. As you can see in the ad below, a QR code is prominently displayed with the call-to-action, “Shop, Scan, Win.”

After scanning the QR Code, you arrive at a simple mobile landing page, focused at getting the target audience to view the promotional video and/or shop at Bloomingdale’s e-commerce website.

We would love to hear your feedback about the use of QR codes.

Have you tried them out? What type of strategy did you have in place?