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!

Ok, so you thought snail mail was being replaced by all of this “high-tech” stuff, right? Well, you’re partially wrong. Snail mail is being used more strategically than ever. You’ll be surprised to see #1 on this list… Check it out!

TOP 5 REASONS TO USE SNAIL MAIL

#5. Emails can easily get lost in junk mail filters. It’s far less likely that the US Post Office will lose a letter in the mail when compared to emails trying to make their way through spam filters, junk mail filters, and more.

#4. There’s no virus attached. Sending snail mail makes it extremely hard to attach a virus to it that’s going to affect your computer right on the spot when previewing it or opening it. That’s not to say it couldn’t happen, but the chances are much less for catching one opening a piece of snail mail.

#3. There’s more privacy to snail mail. Snail mail offers more privacy than when sending an email. It’s much harder to intercept and read a piece of snail mail and you can typically tell when your mail has been opened. Try doing that with email when there are all kinds of hidden viruses that can do malicious things to your data, computer, and your contacts and spread like a wild-fire!

#2. People tend to write in complete sentences more with snail mail. Forget trying to figure out what different acronyms mean. OMG, ROFL, LOL, and the list could go on and on. (Want a good laugh? Check out this list of text acronyms.) In general, people will revert back to using proper English and grammar when writing a formal letter or handwriting one. Instead of getting a list of code words that you might not know what they mean (LOL, OMG, ROFL), you’ll get clearly written thoughts. If nothing else, sometimes it’s just good to know that you can still write a good, effective letter.

And the #1 Reason for Using Snail Mail is….

#1. Even Google is doing it… Google has decided to add snail mail as part of its marketing strategy in an effort to create buzz for their online project by printing and mailing a limited edition of Think Quarterly as a hardcover book. A small group of marketing executives and agencies have been selected to receive it this week in the mail.

What’s Your Top Reason For Using Snail Mail?







Photo Credit: Alex Bruda