Tag Archive for: direct mail

Tips To Help You Design Engaging Direct Mail

Direct mail is a great marketing tactic to build rapport with your customers. A great mail piece is something that will make a lasting impression on your target audience. It speaks directly to the consumer and relays a message that resonates to their needs. Today, one of the most important components of a mail marketing campaign is the element of graphic design.

 

As experts in direct mail graphic design, we’ve learned the best approaches needed to pull off a successful direct outreach campaign. If you want to put together more creative direct mail designs, then make sure you practice these strategies:

Keep It Simple:

By now, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “less is more.” This is extremely vital when your company is putting together a mail campaign. When it comes to direct mail marketing, simplicity is the best approach to take. Don’t overfill your mail piece with pictures and long content. Use simple pictures and relevant information that is easy for readers to remember.

Be Brief And Quick To The Point:

Active images and a distinctive design are the most important parts of any tangible mail piece. A high-quality piece of mail always has one clear call to action boldly labeled. Aside from that, you want to use as little content as possible in order to get your message across. Be direct and use brief details.

Add Color:

When you are designing and printing mail advertisements, color is one of the essential elements that will enhance your piece. Use an eye-popping color that grabs the reader’s attention. An appropriate color scheme will trigger an emotional connection with the reader.

Utilize Imagery:

Adding graphics to your design is a great way to convey your message. A powerful image will stimulate the brain much faster than reading text. Be creative and avoid using  stock images as much as possible. Don’t over clutter the design with a bunch of different images. This can be overwhelming for your audience to look at. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to use two to three images per piece.

Use Sense-Appealing Elements:

Colors and graphics are usually the most exciting parts of your design, but it’s important to use the right ones. Additionally, it’s also important to design a piece that appeals to the rest of your senses. Don’t just create a design that looks great. Make sure the body of the document is a smooth, yet enticing texture. If you really want to make the right impression on your audience, then choose a comfortable texture like a glossy finish.

Size Appropriately:

When it comes to direct mail, the size of the finished product can be a major difference maker. There’s nothing wrong with standard postcards, but sometimes it’s best to go against the grain. Sending out prints that are noticeably larger or smaller will stand out to prospects and customers. This is a subtle way to differentiate you from your competitors.

Create Personal Messages That Resonate:

Personalization and authenticity are key to sending mail that will persuade your audience. Personalize your designs towards individuals on your mailing list. This shows customers that you genuinely care about solving their problems. Offering a personal service in your mail piece will show people that you have a trustworthy solution that serves their needs.

 

How to Make Direct Mail Work for Your Business

Over the years, digital marketing and social media have been making a splash in the advertising industry. This is a mass-marketing tactic that reaches large audiences quickly. If you own a business, it’s good to have the right people running these marketing campaigns, but even better to have a direct mail strategy in your arsenal. Direct mail is a great way to make a personal connection with your target customers, but, unfortunately, not everyone knows how to execute this type of marketing service properly.

As an experienced direct mail company, our team knows how to pull off a successful mail campaign. In return, this can help you generate better conversion rates and a more successful bottom line. If you want to take your business to another level, it’s important to practice these printing and mailing strategies:

Enhance Your Social Media Presence

Online advertising alone isn’t the best way to get your message noticed. In fact, according to a recent survey, 71% of people say they don’t pay attention to most advertisements online. This includes emails, display ads, and targeted campaigns. Compare that to 63% of the same respondents reading printed advertising mail that is addressed to them and delivered to their homes. Online ads allow you to go in-depth and give people an easy way to contact your business, but people have a degree of mistrust for online content. Direct mail is tangible and can drive people to go online and find out more about your products and services.

Make Your Call to Action Clear

When it comes to direct mail, it’s important to have a clear and concise message. You should have one main call to action listed on the mail piece. This eliminates confusion and helps you generate the business you’re looking for. Make your call to action jump out at the reader in the title or on another headline.

Use Split-Testing Techniques

Be unique with your postcard designs. When it comes to postcard printing, it’s important to have multiple copies and designs ready. Create different custom pieces to send to different people on your mailing list. Send two different designs and see which one generates the most successful traction. If one design generates a higher response rate, it’s probably best to use that type of custom design going forward. This sets the tone for the rest of your direct mailing campaign.

Check in on Your Customers

Direct mailing is all about building loyalty and trust with your customers. If a prospect purchases one of your goods or services, follow up with them to see what they thought. This will help you build rapport with your customers and show the appreciation you have for their business.

Influence People to Visit Your Website

Sending direct mail is a great way to cross promote the other services you offer. Entice readers to visit your website to learn more about your company’s solutions. It’s always a good idea to supply your prospects with a redeemable code or coupon that can only be activated online. This should help you generate more traffic, sales, and conversions from your website.

Personalize All Messages

Personalization and authenticity are the key components to a successful mail marketing campaign. Tailor your message around the individual as much as possible. If they are a previous customer, try to bring up something you know will interest them. This shows customers that you want to provide an honest service that solves their specific problems.

Use Brief and Relevant Content

Don’t waste time cluttering your mailed piece with content. Be brief with your text and use relevant details. The fact is that readers typically have a short attention span. No one wants to spend time reading a postcard that is flooded with words. Provide them with a piece that is direct, catchy, and meaningful.

 

How Direct Mail Can Boost Your Online Presence

As an experienced direct mail company, we’ve learned that this most important thing is to reach your target audience with the right mail pieces. With the evolution of digital technology, this has become easier than ever. It’s important to present your customers with a call to action that can only be accomplished online. Printing and mailing business cards and marketing assets is a great way to help you draw traffic to your company’s website. By utilizing the right marketing approach, you can expect to generate a greater ROI as a result.

These are some of the ways that direct mail campaigns can level up your company’s presence online:

Integrate With Your Digital Marketing Efforts:

Direct mail and digital strategy are a powerful  combination for search and reach strategies. When you send a direct mail piece, you usually have a higher response rate than any other outreach method. If you send a postcard printed to a client or prospect, your goal is to persuade the target to visit your website. In turn, this will help boost conversions that can only be accomplished online.

Reach Multiple Audiences Faster:

Direct mail is a less intrusive way to get your brand in front of the public eye. In order to effectively execute this outreach strategy, it’s good to analyze the traffic your website already brings in. This gives you the chance to see where most of your visitors are coming from. When it comes to mail marketing, this is an easy way for you to develop target lists early on. In turn, you’ll be able to distribute mass amounts of direct mail to the potential customers much more quickly.

Avoid Digital Roadblocks:

Digital marketing comes with many opportunities, but it also creates a lot of challenges to get around. For instance, an email advertisement can be easily blocked or filtered into a spam folder, never to be seen. Users install ad blocking software to deter digital ads away. Designers and copywriters spend long hours creating these pieces, so don’t let all the hard work go to waste. If you really want to make an impression on your audience, then it’s good to execute a direct mail marketing campaign as well. This ensures that the custom design at least reaches the intended prospect.

Compel Customers To Visit Your Website:

Who doesn’t love a discounted service? Sending direct mail is one of the best ways to inform people about sales, discounts, and reward opportunities. Motivate your prospects to visit your website by providing them with coupons to go along with your direct mail pieces. Customers that want to use the coupon will have to visit the website so they will be able to claim discounts, giveaways, and more. This usually results in people exploring your website to learn more about the other services that are offered.

The Importance Of Variable Data Printing

Marketing is constantly evolving and direct mail tactics are transforming with the evolution of digital technology. Nowadays, companies use high-quality software to put a personal touch on all mailed pieces. Businesses rely on variable data printing (VDP) technology to help create more engagements and responses from clients and consumers. If you are a business owner, it would be in your best interest to adopt VDP to boost the results of your marketing mailing campaigns.

 

New printing technology can bring a fresh new aspect to your marketing strategy. Take advantage of the top perks and watch your business grow right in front of your eyes. These are some of the ways that VDP software can help your business generate a greater ROI:

Build Attention-Grabbing Mailing List Data Sets:

Increase the response rates from customers and prospects by filtering out any sets of irrelevant data. With VDP technology, you have the ability to build specific mailing lists that pertain to different audiences. This software generates analytics and insights about where people live, their marital status, occupation, and so much more. Variable data printing is one of the best tools for you to utilize when you’re building a strategy for mailing campaigns.

Create Automated Mailing Processes For Multiple Locations:

When you are sending mail to businesses, make sure you send it to the right branch. If you are targeting a company with multiple franchises, it’s important to send your piece to a decision maker at his main office. Variable data printing allows you to print pieces that are most convenient for that targeted recipient. This helps if there are multiple store locations available. With VDP, you have the ability to see which address makes the most sense. You’ll get access to the zip codes and distances

Generate Analytics To Target The Right Market:

With variable data printing support, you have the ability to discover demographic data and consumer interest information. VDP offers sophisticated targeting applications so you can determine which audience is best to send mail to. With VDP software, you’ll always have the metrics you need to get the right reach. Additionally, you can also integrate VDM software to monitor website traffic and digital strategy approaches. Using VDM gives you the ability to detect the interest of your website visitors. If you run a digital advertisement, you can track how many engagements that specific ad generates.

Save Time And Money:

A variable data printing system will help you eliminate the frustration that comes with mass printing. With VDP, you have the ability to print the exact amount of mail pieces that you need. This eliminates waste and duplicate prints. In addition, VDP reduces the amount of time  spent on labeling. VDP systems grant users the ability to print addresses directly onto the mail piece. Just type in the information and when the piece is printed out, you have the advertisement ready to mail.

Create Custom-tailored Mail Pieces

Create custom-tailored mail pieces with VDP software.  Variable data printing systems give you a gallery of fonts, colors, and other custom applications to create an authentic marketing piece. Thanks to these advances in technology, you have the ability to create a piece that makes a direct connection to each client or consumer..