PGP Tip: Marketing Your Company

Reaching prospects is the #1 task for sales and marketing. Direct mail using post cards and brochures takes your message to prospects in their offices. But when there is an opportunity to reach a group of prospects at a meeting, seminar, conference or trade show, you need to put your best foot forward. Here’s how to do it!

Participating in a group event

Participating in an event for a group of prospects has three phases:

• Preparing for the event
• Attending the event
• and Following up.

In each phase there is a need for materials to be printed, distributed and given away. These all need to be graphically coordinated to reflect your company or organization’s image or brand – especially since some of the staff at the event may not be seasoned marketing or sales professionals.

Begin by deciding on a marketing theme for the event. Tie it to your company’s overall marketing focus but tailor the theme to reflect the interests of the target audience who will be attending the group event. Some typical themes are how your product or service promotes efficiency and saves money; how it solves problems encountered by the target audience; what competitive advantage it imparts; or what enhancements to customer service it brings.

Trade show graphics

Trade show graphics are the large-scale photographs, signs, banners, posters and booth displays that are intended to draw the attendee’s interest and attract them to linger at your booth. In addition, trade show graphics can impart information that provides a context for explaining what your organization or business does or provides.

Designing for large-scale displays is different than designing for brochures and similar printed marketing materials. The primary difference is scale – display graphics are significantly larger than those used in collateral pieces and also simpler. Headlines should be trim, images large, and text short and easy to read. As a guide, think of a highway billboard that is read in three seconds or less. Your trade show graphics need to convey who you are, what you do and why a prospect should care in the amount of time it takes to stroll past your booth.

For consistency of image and brand, tie trade show graphics to your product or service marketing literature. But be careful here – the images used in a brochure may not be of sufficient resolution when enlarged to sign, banner or poster size. Ask us to evaluate the suitability of any photograph or other image you are considering.

Printed material

Besides having a supply of brochures, sell sheets and business cards to distribute during the trade show or group meeting, you might need other material to support the trade show or meeting activities such as:

• name badges for your staff and attendees
• copies of an agenda or program
• entry forms for a drawing or giveaway
• tickets to invitation-only activities such as a luncheon or sponsored entertainment
• new product announcements and product guides
• show special flyers or discount offers
• mini catalogs or CDs with product information
• order forms

As with trade show graphics, these materials will have greater impact if they are visually tied to your company or organization’s regular marketing and sales material and also reflect the marketing theme of the trade show or group meeting. Give all your printed materials a consistent look and message by using the same color palette, fonts and graphics throughout.

Promotional items

Whether you are a group meeting host providing a thank you gift to attendees or a trade show distributor who wants to attract traffic at the booth, a supply of promotional items – sometimes called advertising specialty items – are a way to be sure your company or organization is remembered after the event has concluded.

When deciding on a promotional item, select one that pertains to your business and simultaneously appeals to the target audience. A promotional item of higher quality or real utility is both more appealing and more likely to be taken back to the office and used by an attendee. If the projected meeting or trade show attendance is very large, consider having a low-cost item to attract people to your booth and reserve the higher-quality item as a prize for a contest or a drawing. It is also a good idea to select a promotional item that can be used as a giveaway after the trade show or meeting.

You may not be aware that we can be a source for any advertising specialty or promotional items that you need. We are a member of ASI, the Advertising Specialty Institute, which gives us access to over 3500 suppliers of advertising specialty items. Our membership in ASI means that we can offer you product catalogs to have handy in your office and also can search online for any of the thousands of products offered by ASI suppliers.

Your Brand . . .

Your graphical image or brand is vital to your marketing success. You have only seconds to make a first impression so it’s important to put your best foot forward. At PaperGraphics  we can help you make your next event a success. To get a free consultation call us at 254-773-7391 and we’ll schedule a meeting to assess your needs and explore options

EDDM Continued...

What Businesses Benefit Most From EDDM

EDDM's saturation mailing is different than a targeted mailing that uses demographic characteristics (such as household income, age, gender, ethnicity or presence of children) or other criteria (such as owning a swimming pool or specific make of a vehicle) for determining who to mail to. Generally speaking, unless your customers are a broad cross section of the population, a targeted mailing is probably best.

But if you are a retailer or service-based business that wants to build foot traffic and or your customers are clustered in a neighborhood, the EDDM could be ideal. A neighborhood could be a radius around your location or could be a neighborhood you want to prospect in. Some examples or businesses that benefit from EDDM include fast food, take-out or neighborhood restaurants; florists, bakeries and convenience stores; service and repair (automotive, computer); personal services (beauty and barber shops, dry cleaners; pharmacies; car washes); and home services (house, carpet and window cleaning; landscaping/yard service; pest control; handyman services).

There is no restriction on the content of EDDM, so you can use it for a variety of purposes including announcements (grand opening, business anniversary, holiday promotions); to send coupons and special offers; to promote sales and events; or to acquaint potential customers with your hours and operation and location.

Designing the Mail Piece

Because an EDDM mail piece doesn't require a large mail panel to accommodate the address and because the physical specifications for flats allow a wide variety of sizes, there are more design options than are possible with a smaller mail piece. For example, you may be able to include several coupons as part of the mail piece, to be used for different products or services, or having different expiration dates.

Because there are so many possibilities and the physical specifications for EDDM are strict, we suggest you have us design your EDDM mail piece. The USPS continues to adjust EDDM specifications, and we are notified whenever changes occur. We will make sure the mail piece complies with the most up-to-date USPS size specifications and also has the proper indicia for EDDM and wording for the simplified address.

How Often To Mail

When it comes to deciding how often to mail, EDDM is no different than any direct mail marketing program. Mailings need to be periodic and ongoing. We suggest mailing every 4 weeks and once started, to continue mailing indefinitely. The results of regular, repeat mailing are cumulative-the more you mail, the more likely the recipients will remember your name and come to your business when they have a need you can fill.

Get Results With EDDM

Since the launch of EDDM in 2012, over one billion pieces have been printed and mailed- and the number continues to grow. Businesses everywhere have come to rely on EDDM as a cost effective way to build traffic and attract new customers. For help planning and carrying out your EDDM campaign, call us at 254-773-7391. We'll show you your options and demonstrate just how cost effective marketing with EDDM can be.

Direct Mail Made Easy: USPS EDDM

Direct Mail Made Easy: USPS EDDM

In our last Blog, we discussed the viability of direct mail as a marketing tool and presented the elements that make up a successful direct mail campaign.

In this issue, we are introducing a simple first-step campaign for businesses that are new to direct mail or have a smaller budget. The program is called Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) and it does just what its name implies- the letter carrier delivers your direct mail piece to every single active address in a neighborhood along with the rest of the day's mail.

Here's what make EDDM different from regular direct mail marketing:

• you don't have to put an address on the mail piece, and
• the postage rate is the lowest one offered by the USPS- currently about 17 cents per piece mailed.

So, in addition to saving between 40% and 70% on postage, there is no need to spend money on purchasing a mail list, checking the names and addresses for deliver-ability, or affixing labels.

History of EDDM

Every Door Direct Mail was developed by the USPS as a way to help local businesses build sales using direct mail marketing. Announced in December 2010, the USPS tested EDDM for two years (2011 and 2012) before making it a permanent product offering in January 2013. During the test period, the USPS heavily promoted the use of EDDM to businesses and to professional mailers and launched a number of online tools that explain and help mailers implement EDDM. As it gains experience with EDDM, the USPS keeps making changes in the program to improve it.

In mailing terms, EDDM is a saturation mailing--meaning it targets every active residential/business address in a carrier route--using a simplified address--Postal Customer or Residential Customer and sometime the city, state and Zip Code. Before EDDM, the USPS had restrictions on using the simplified address format on city routes, making it unavailable for almost all mailers. For EDDM mailings, USPS regulations were changed to allow simplified format for city routes.

EDDM also requires that a mail piece meet the physical standards for a flat--basically, an over-sized mail piece. The reason for this is that letter sized mail, including the 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 size that is so popular for post cards and self-mailers, is provided to letter carriers in fully-sorted, line-of-travel order.

Flat mail is not co-mingled with letter mail during sortation (think of when your letter carrier hands you letter-sized mail, then separately hands you magazines, large catalogs, and envelopes and other over-sized mail). So, because EDDM is flat mail, it bypasses line-of-travel sortation and thus requires no other instructions to the letter carrier than to add one piece to the day's mail being delivered to each active address.

The requirement that EDDM be flat mail does not mean that there is only one size that meets the requirement. On the contrary, it opens up a lot of very interesting size possibilities for the direct mail piece that will:

• make it stand out from the rest of the mail;
• provide more room for the advertising message;
• still be cost-effective to print

For more information or to get started with an EDDM project, call us at 254-773-7391 or visit us at www.papergraphicsltd.com.

Elements Part 3: The Schedule

The Schedule

Direct mail is most effective when mailed repeatedly and regularly. For planning purposes, figure a typical response rate of 1-2% (though this number can change based on many factors). The response rate is cumulative based on minimum of three mailings. If your budget allows for a mailing of 6000, the response rate will be higher if you mail three times to 2000 rather than one time to 6000.

Space the mailings between 4 and 6 weeks apart and coordinate the dates with a supporting  e-mail and/or telemarketing campaign. Using more than one marketing channel will improve response rate.

Tips and Tricks

Creating a direct mail marketing campaign that also includes using e-mail outreach is becoming increasingly popular. Adding a QR code to a mail piece makes it interactive and takes the recipient to a web page for more information, to enter a contest or take a survey, or retrieve a coupon. Some QR codes make a phone number pop up on a smart phone; by clicking, the recipient is connected with a contact center-effectively completing an inbound telemarketing response.

The shoe company DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse) learned something interesting about its customer's use of QR codes: namely, that men like to use them but women often ignore them. DSW found that their male customers don't like tearing a coupon from a mailer and putting it in their wallet, but will click on a QR code that provides a coupon that can be downloaded to a smart phone. Women, who are more inclined to put something in their purses, were less likely to use a QR code-based coupon.

Direct mail is effective

Direct mail is a proven and viable method to communicate with customers and prospects. For help planning and executing a direct mail marketing campaign, contact us at 254-773-7391 or by email dennis@papergraphicsltd.com. We'll guide you through the process to bring you success.

Elements of a Direct Mail Campaign: The Mail Piece

There are three basic elements of a direct mail marketing campaign: a mail list; a mail piece; and a schedule. Each element influences the response rate (and therefore the effectiveness) of the campaign. In our last Blog we looked at the mail list, this time we will take a look at the mail piece.

The Mail Piece

There is much debate about what format for a direct mail piece is best. If the job of the mail piece is to engage the reader, then information from the Direct Marketing Association indicates that format isn't as critical as you might think. In the Statistical Fact Book for 2006, the read rates for postcards, catalogs, flyers, letters and large envelope letters ranged from 42% for postcards to 34% for letters.

So the best advice is to choose a format that is most appropriate for your message. Here are a few suggestions:

• Post card/self-mailer. Good for a message that doesn't require a lot of explanation. Use to build traffic (to a website or a physical location) or complete transaction (place an order).
• Flyer. Good for a general message or announcement, especially when the target audience is prospects rather than customers.
• Direct mail package. A large envelope with multiple inserts-letter, brochure, order form, response device etc. Used more for customers or hot leads than for general prospecting.
• Letter. Use when you want to give a personal feeling to the mailing. Because two-page letters elicit a higher response rate than a single page, either write a longer letter or include something else- a brochure, an article or a product sheet- to serve as the second page.

The content of the mail piece must always include an offer and a call to action. A good offer is relevant to the target audience; promotes only on thing; it's time sensitive (to create a sense of urgency) and is easy to understand. If the purpose of the direct mail campaign is to secure an order, the offer can be product-related (such as buy one, get on free; free trial; premium with purchase; free sample; or price discount). If you are trying to secure leads, then the offer should provide a motivating incentive (educational or information white paper, free consultation, research results).

When the target audience is consumers, include a coupon. Across all age groups, 70% of buyers respond to a message that includes a coupon.

You may be surprised to learn that the design of a mail piece accounts for only 20% of the response rate. What this means is that unless your target audience requires it, you can keep the design simple. The rule of thumb is that the recipient will invest from 3 to 7 seconds to decide whether to open and read; keep to read later or pass on to someone else; or discard. Use this time to best advantage by following these tips;

• Use a large, short headline as teaser copy on the front of the envelope or post card.
• Stress benefits, not features in the body copy.
• Make the call to action simple and easy to find.
• Include contact information prominently but not dominantly
• Keep your logo and name visible but don't make it compete with key elements of the mail piece (headline, offer, call to action).

In our next Blog, we will look and scheduling your direct mail campaign.

Elements of a Direct Mail Marketing Campaign: The Mail List

Elements of a Direct Mail Marketing Campaign

The basic elements of a direct mail marketing campaign are simple: a mail list; a mail piece; and a schedule. Each element influences the response rate (and therefore the effectiveness) of the campaign.

The Mail List

Of all the elements, the most influential is the mail list. It has been estimated that the mail list accounts for 60% of the overall response rate. Design a beautiful mail piece and include an irresistible offer but mail to the wrong audience and the response rate will be disappointing.

Today target audiences expect a direct mail piece to be relevant to their needs or interests. Personalization- such as including information about the prospect on the mail piece, tailoring the presentation of information, or including an appropriate message- are ways to demonstrate relevancy. Highly targeting personaliztion requires additional information (such as buying patterns and demographic profiling) that turns a mailing list into a database.

Any mail list- whether containing only name and address or enriched with transaction and demographic data- must be 100% accurate to be effective. This means spelling names correctly, keeping addresses current, and ensuring that demographics like age and gender are accurate. We can help you by giving you address corrections we receive from the USPS prior to mailing, but you will have to take the time to update your mailing list.

In our next Blog, we will look at the second element: The Mail Piece.

Direct Mail: Your Extra Salesperson

Here is an easy way to add an extra salesperson to your marketing staff: develop an ongoing direct mail marketing campaign. While the goal of advertising is to create brand awareness and a connection with potential buyers, direct mail marketing aims to motivate a prospect to take action and complete a transaction. A carefully planned and executed direct mail campaign can do just that.

Today more companies are turning to direct mail. According to research conducted by IBISWorld and published in its October 20,2012 report Direct Mail Advertising in the U.S., direct mail is expected to grow 1.4% annually in the next five years. This is in contrast to the 1.2% contraction direct mail has averaged since 2008. Part of this is due to incentives provided by the United States Postal Service (USPS), such as direct mail that includes QR codes and Every Door Direct Mail.

In its 2011 Channel Preference Study, Epsilon Targeting found that direct mail is the top choice of consumers for receiving brand communications, even among 18-34 year old's. Other interesting findings include:

• 26% of U.S. consumers and 30% of Canadians said direct mail is more trustworthy than email;
• 50% of U.S. consumers and 48% of Canadians said they pay more attention to postal mail than email;
• 30% of U.S. consumers said they're receiving more mail that interests them compared to a year ago, and just 50% (down from 63% in 2010) said more information is sent to them in the mail--including marketers are improving targeting efforts;
• The perception that reading email is faster declined among U.S. email account holders to 45% in 2011 (from 47% in 2010), suggesting clogged in-boxes are draining time.