When it comes to marketing, no channel reigns supreme. Every channel has its strengths and weaknesses, and part of creating relevance is capitalizing on the strengths of each one. For example, email is powerful for flash sales and quick updates, while print has a beauty, longevity, and stopping power that digital channels can’t replicate. Here are some ways to capitalize on the strengths that are unique to print:
Category: Direct Mail
Information about general mailing practices
Why Direct Mail Postcards are Worth Every Penny
Although postcards are one of today’s beloved print pieces, they had a humble beginning. Direct Mail Postcards followed a little later.
The earliest postcard dates back to 1840 when an English man named Theodore Hook sent one to himself. By 1861, the US Congress allowed privately printed cards, weighing one ounce or under, to be sent through the mail. That year, John P. Charlton copyrighted the first postcard, and by 1901 postcards were a regular part of mailed communication.
Why Direct Mail Marketing is a Brilliant Investment
When email marketing began around 1978, its low cost, speedy delivery, and great response rates made marketers wonder if direct mail would disappear forever.
Today, that couldn’t be further from the truth. An overload of digital messages has caused open and click-through rates to decline substantially. Many spam filters and firewalls block emails altogether.
5 Design Tricks that Command Attention!
Craft First-Class Flyers with 5 Quick Tricks
Want to grab attention for your event, promotion, or group?
Flyers are a low-cost form of mass communication that can be personally delivered, distributed through mail, posted in public places, or sent via e-mail. Flyers are fun to create and provide a great place to experiment with unusual images or layouts. As you explore the possibilities, here are five areas to sharpen your design:
Personalization: Why It Works
Everywhere you look, marketing content is personalized. From grocery store receipts to your Amazon recommendations to postcards in the mailbox, companies are personalizing their communications to address who their customers are and what their customers need.
Are you capitalizing on those opportunities, too?
How to Design Direct Mail That Sells
If it sells, than it must be creative.
David Ogilvy, a legendary designer and author, says that is the very first rule for designing direct mail.
But how do you know what sells?
Here are 5 tips to keep in mind when you design your next direct mail marketing piece to improve it’s chances of success.
Inspiration is in your own mailbox.
Don’t forget that you own a mailbox too!
Just check out what is being mailed to you and see if any catch your eye.
If you’re like everyone else on the planet, you most likely receive a lot of direct mail on a weekly basis.
Set aside the ones that make an impression on you, whether because of the wording, images, call-to-action, or format.
Odds are, the company that sent you those mailers spent a good amount of money on researching the best methods.
So why not learn from their research for free?
Beat your own PR.
Just as athletes strive not only to win but also to beat their own personal records, so should you!
Try optimizing an older piece of mail and play around with the images and wording to see if you can improve it.
Sometimes even minor changes can make a significant difference in the response rate.
If you see a change, continue to send out different versions of that design to similar groups in your database, and take note to which one receives the most responses.
Then test it, and test it again!
Sorry, one mailing doesn’t count as marketing.
A single mailing is considered a test.
On average it will take 7-9 mailers to get a prospect’s attention.
Don’t give up if you don’t get a response on the first mailer.
With each additional direct mail piece you send, you should see an increase in responses.
Remember to personalize.