Schlagwort-Archive: direct mail

Marketing

Direct Mail: Return To The Future

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The topic of integrated direct marketing has been discussed for years and fiercely debated. But everyone agrees on one thing: it’s not just a buzzword.

Having said that, you would be mistaken if you said direct mail is an „add-on“ to a modern integrated direct marketing campaign. You might be forgetting that for many years, direct mail was the ONLY way to reliably reach consumers at home and was employed extensively because it was so effective.

Perhaps it was employed too much because over the years customers became increasingly irritated by what they termed „junk mail.“ (Except when they discovered a coupon for their favorite pizza, of course!) Because of that, some direct mail clients turned sour on the medium, even though it was still an incredibly effective direct marketing channel and remained a cost-effective response vehicle.

However, in a „return to the future“ development, USPS direct mail is enjoying a renaissance of sorts in the opinions of both clients and their agencies. You see, in today’s cluttered media environment, consumers are smothered with email, web ads, mobile ads, texts, TV and radio spots all day long. Research has shown that consumers have chucked their past irritation to direct mail and are receptive again to opening a piece of physical mail.

Moreover, statistics show that 85% of consumers look through and read certain direct mail pieces every day. 75% of the public report that they are scanning their direct mail more deliberately during the past 12 months to look for coupons and other discounts. 40% of prospects say they have tried a new business after receiving a direct mail piece and 70% have re-entered a customer relationship with businesses they had previously ceased patronizing.

Although consumers may be getting less USPS direct mail, they’re getting more targeted direct mail — pieces that have interest and value for them as individuals. This is because direct mail agencies are getting choosier about what they mail and who they mail it to. This is why direct mail is making a comeback in the integrated marketing mix.

Want to learn more about direct mail in St. Louis? Then visit Commercial Letter’s website for all your direct marketing needs.

Marketing

Appeal Of A Handwritten Thank You Letters

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The ability to convey any type of emotion or expression of any kind is a very common process that people endure on a regular basis. The emotions and expressions commonly conveyed are aimed at making sure that any message one is considering is as powerful and effective as possible at any point in time. People that are looking into this process usually seek out the appeal of a handwritten thank you letter for a powerful form of expression.

The process of simply saying thank you is something that is performed by most people throughout the course of each day. There are many people that feel as if this expression can be too casual and starts to lose its meaning without changing it up a bit. People often become creative and more thoughtful in their approach when delivering this message.

Handwriting a through or idea of any kind is often considered to be an outdated form of communication. The invention of the internet and electronic modes of communication have quickly replaced this process with more innovative options. The benefits of actually writing a note to someone often help guide the entire process of expression.

Most people find that this particular options provides a more personalized and effective meaning. Sending out this format of expression allows the person an opportunity to show emotion through their writing which is often a main premise of function. This is typically the main reason it is even performed initially.

People also commonly find that this is a very simple means in which to communicate as well. Many people are unable to use computers or wish to avoid it as they are much too difficult to understand. Simply using a pen and paper is all that is required.

A handwritten thank you letter is associated with the benefit of being creative. Using a pen and paper is often much more versatile when trying to express a message for the sender. This is helpful in keeping the entire effort as well managed and fun as possible.

Learn more about Handwritten Thank You Letters. Stop by Genuinely Penned’s site where you can find out all about handwritten direct mail and what it can do for your businesses.

Marketing

What is the definition of Direct Mail?

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For years, the answer to that was easy: direct mail was good old, USPS delivered letters and postcards. These days, there isn’t a single „one-size-fits-all“ answer as to what exactly constitutes it. Truth be told, the definition of direct mail seems to change every day.

Now that it’s no longer limited to the USPS, direct mail today can also be email, a text message, an instant message, a Facebook post, or any of a number of different kinds of social media communiques, from chat room interaction to a wiki entry.

The method of delivery for direct mail is important, sure. (And we’ll go into the pros and cons of direct mail media below.) But even more important is distinguishing between direct mail and display advertising. Ads placed on the side of a website, and in an actual physical newspaper, are not directed towards anyone; they are billboards hoping frantically to catch anyone’s attention that happens to glance over. Conversely, direct mail marketing focuses on speaking to people, treating them as individuals and getting as specific as possible.

In a perfect world, a fully-realized marketing approach that includes both old and new media may be the way to go. Herewith, a brief summary that will help clarify your thinking regarding your options.

USPS Direct Mail Advantages

*Less annoying: People may dislike ‚junk mail,‘ (at least when it comes at inopportune times) but they hate spam more;

* More involvement: Printed mail is tactile, attractive and can even smell good! All of which serves to command attention;

*Better lists: Because direct mail has been around longer, you’ll likely have better access to solid lists, as opposed to email lists that are collected online.

Disadvantages:

* Cost: Designing, printing, mailing and list costs are not cheap; email, by comparison, is cheap as dirt;

* Response rate: The typical response rate for direct mail is 1 to 2 percent. It’s not unheard of today to beat that response through targeted email;

*Not so green: Direct mail produces paper waste which is often not recycled.

Email/Text messages Pros

*Cheap: Even if response rates are small, you’re talking less loss than an investment in a printed DM campaign;

* Quick: Not only can recipients receive email as quickly as you can send them, replies can just as quickly come back to you;

*Tweakable: You can change headlines, pump up offers, even completely overhaul the entire piece in seconds, and send out the next blast in minutes, not days.

Cons

* Will your email even hit the inbox? With spam-blocker software use growing, it’s problematic. People are loathe to click on email, even from companies with whom they’re familiar.

*Lists: Decent email lists are hard to come by; you never know how good they are beforehand. But this is a problem with regular print mail, as well. Pick your mailing company wisely.

*Be careful: The CAN-SPAM law is of the highest importance. The general rule is you can’t email to any recipient who hasn’t given their thumbs-up to it, even if that approval was to a third party.

What’s the take-away from all this? Do your homework. Then choose the medium — or media — which is right for your campaign.

Looking to find the best deal on email and direct mail, then visit Commercial Letter’s website to learn more.

Marketing

Locating The Best Direct Mail Solutions

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Company owners of today are faced with all kinds of competitive pressures and sources of difficulty when trying to grow. These are often stresses that center on how to differentiate what they offer from their competitors through marketing campaigns and techniques. Anyone that is facing this particular scenario should understand the basics of locating the best direct mail solutions, to fulfill their marketing needs.

The use of direct mail is usually seen as one of the most fundamental processes businesses use to reach out to consumers. This is a process that offers the ability for consumers to learn what the business has to offer in regard to products and services. There are many businesses that are heavily focused on making sure the best techniques possible are carefully considered.

Any business that is considering this effort usually finds a vast array of opportunities available to them. There are many instances where these options are very stressful to sort out and weigh in as necessary. Locating the very best options available is made possible after actually reviewing all that is offered.

Many businesses focus on the use of automated software systems for this process. These are systems that are designed to help businesses reach out to interested consumers in an efficient manner by tracking any current customers as well as prospects for growth. These are usually continually updated throughout use and quite effective to consider.

Hiring marketing companies is also seen as a major format of success in this process. The utilization of various companies that are equipped with all kinds of demographic information are able to guide consumers toward this process in an effective manner. They are actually very reasonable in cost and quite effective to use.

The best direct mail solutions, include the option of postal programs. Paying for each letter that is sent out can be astronomically high in expense. Working out bulk packages is often seen as the primary source of keeping all costs as low as possible.

Looking to find solution for using handwritten mail for your business? Genuinely Penned offers solutions on Direct Mail Solutions for your marketing needs.

Marketing

Mixing and matching Email with Direct Mail is a Recipe for Success!

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Not long ago, marketers used to argue constantly over the strengths and weaknesses of email and traditional direct mail. Now, a truce has been declared: both media are powerful when couple with each other in a single campaign. The ability to apply these tools is now wide-spread, but not as frequently employed as they should. You should keep in mind these five elements that form the backbone of your campaign: Brand, timing, lists, Calls-To-Action and assessment.

1. Branding

This is the heart of the campaign: the branding message. Your e-mail should contain the same slogans, logos and other identifying marks used in the print piece,and both channels must reference the other. For example, the email subject line should repeat the envelope headline or a prominent head in the postal piece. Keep the subject line REAL short-30 to 40 characters-and make it extremely benefit-driven. The „from“ line should exactly match the name used on the printed piece. The channels have different strengths but the message should be the same in both. Create custom landing pages that are identical to your print offer. Feature the url in every piece and link to it from your e-mails.

2. Timing and Frequency

Entire books have been written about when to send email — what day of week and time of day. While the answers are not clear, the statistics are compelling for the timing of a coordinated email/DM campaign: direct mail should come first, the email about a week later. The snail-mail goes first because it tends to hang around longer than email, which is usually either read, trashed or pushed out of sight in two or three days.

3. The List

The job of compiling a mail list for these kinds of coordinated campaigns is obviously twice as hard as other DM campaigns because you need a list with both kinds of addresses. Remember: always add the recipients name to the „Dear“ line. This signals some kind of pre-existing relationship with the recipient. Avoid using too many graphics and pictures. And keep the size of your entire email under 60kb.

4. CTA

Your calls-to-action should be very visible; in email, use text in addition to image-based links to guarantee they can be viewed even if images can’t be displayed. Your CTA should be in the top half of your email so it can be viewed in most preview panes.

5. „After Action“ Reports

Some marketers insist on quantifying success by judging results from each channel, but that’s wrong-headed. The results should be viewed together as either successful or not. For example, the prospect may respond to an e-mail for convenience sake, but it is entirely possible the postal piece closed the sale. Or the customer may phone in an order after reading both a direct mail piece and/or an e-mail.

Both media must work in coordination for an effective campaign and results should be assessed that way too.

direct mail and email? Then visit our websiteto get expert advice.

Marketing

5 Marketing and Advertising Tips to Guarantee trade show Success

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Exhibitions and trade shows can be highly effective for all different sized businesses in getting their products and services noticed. If a show goes well for you it can really boost your sales and your brand awareness. Here we explore five of the best marketing secrets that can guarantee you trade show success:

Plan Ahead

While it may seem obvious, some businesses neglect to set in place a clear planning strategy. Your plan should include staffing of the stand, your budget and the theme of your display.

If your budget allows, a custom built exhibition stand is a great way to attract crowds at any trade show. Planning the design of your exhibition stand is essential as this will dictate how your exhibition pans out. Your stand will need to be built so allow enough time for the exhibition stands contractors to do their job.

Inform Existing Customers of Your trade show Appearance

Don’t ignore existing customers as they are likely to be attending the trade show as well. Ask for advice on what customers would like to see at the event and encourage them to spread the word. Customer testimonials instill confidence into those looking to use your services.

Make Sure you Integrate Your Marketing

Make sure you use direct mail and social media marketing to draw attention to your upcoming exhibition. It is easy to keep in touch with existing customers with the numerous forms of media available. Create a conversation about the event, encouraging visitors and attendees to share experiences. Direct mail can be useful for getting people’s attention and asking them to checkout your YouTube channel or Facebook page to uncover a sneak preview of what’s to come at the show.

See What Your Competition are Doing

Do your research on the competition you’ll face at the trade show. Pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses. Concentrate on promoting your unique selling point (USP) and just why people should use your products and services over others.

Ensure your exhibition stand has impact. Creative exhibition stands, giveaways and product demonstrations are a great way of encouraging visitors to your stand. Your main priority is to get a good return on investment (roi).

Follow Up

After your exhibition, review your success. By collecting visitor’s details on the day you can then send them sales literature after the show and ask for feedback. This will help when planning your next exhibition. If you know what you’re doing well – and not so well – you can improve your trade show success every time.

Planning your next tradeshow? RB Design & Display specialise in portable, custom built and modular exhibition stands. Contact them now to see what they can do for you.

Marketing

Using Direct Mail to Deliver Targeted Traffic to Your Company Website

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There are many options to promote your website, such as email, radio, TV and billboards. One commonly overlooked method is direct mail. This may not be the cheap marketing strategy, however, it works. It adds to the credibility of your website while preventing problems like click fraud and unsolicited email complaints.

With the use of printed envelopes, you can control exactly how your mail shot is presented. Unlike emails, it won’t look different depending upon the recipient’s computer or email software. You can either outsource the skills and equipment required to create a mail shot or do it yourself depending on your setup. You could use a print management company who will create and post your mail shot. This would mean all you would have to do is design the content.

Your direct mail campaign should be well thought out and optimised in order for it to achieve optimum success. The key is to entice recipient’s to open your mailing when it lands on their doorstep. This is where printed envelopes comes in. Just informing people of your web address will only result in a few curious people to your website. People respond to targeted offers that call for specific actions. This call to action will work best if recipients are sent to a specific landing page which contains the information which they were initially interested in. If you have a specific offer or new product that you are promoting then send them to this. In this way you can track the effectiveness of the direct mail campaign.

It is advisable to create a short website URL which directs people to the relevant page and is easy to type into the address bar quickly. It is a good idea to wait until the search engines have indexed the short URL if it has been newly created. This will ensure that even those people who type the URL into the search engine will still end up on your website. Making your mailings personal to the recipient can also improve response rates. The very least you should include on there is the recipient’s name and address.

Promoting an offer is a good idea as it allows you to set a specific deadline. If potential customers have only a week to take advantage of a special price, it makes them less likely to set aside the advertisement and forget about it. Just don’t neglect to fully consider the amount of time it will take to print the ad and send it to the destination. People may not check their mail straight away, particularly if they have a post office box.

This type of promotion has already been used to successfully drive traffic to many different websites, so there is no reason why it shouldn’t work for you. The first step is to devise a rough draft of your advertisement, taking into account the paper it will be printed on and the printed envelopes you will need to have designed. It may be that a letter would work best, but there are other options available so do some research. Next, you can set up printing and delivery.

Go for printed envelopes to increase the success of your direct mail marketing campaign.

Design

Wealth Development: Make Your Portfolio

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To be a physician, is your wealth manager asking the right inquiries to manage your investment portfolio? From a previous post I discussed the most significant part of taking your financial life in order-and that’s to determine what exactly your goals are. All you do falls into place and contains a purpose considering your financial goals.

Then, before actually building wealth you ought to protect anything you currently have and proactively protect what you could have through appropriate asset protection and insurance planning.

Only after you’ve done that can you focus on building your success to own goals you’ve set.

Prosperity development may be categorised into 2 areas: investment profile management and retirement planning.

One of the things that irks me about most financial advisors is that they dump their customers money right into a mishmash of investments without any sense of purpose or working out the amount risk you really need to take in order to achieve your goals. Additionally , they typically examine investments in isolation for the rest of the prosperity enhancement process, and that’s a mistake.

Precisely what could be the questions you or your advisor should answer before implementing a success building strategy?

Here’s a start:

Just how much risk are you able to ingest your savings? Simply how much risk are you willing to consume your investments? How much risk do you ought to consume your investments to achieve your retirement goals? (This really is A very important question) What’s the proper combination of investments (asset allocation) that meets your ability, willingness, and must decide to try risk? How will you reprogram your asset allocation as your age and as your life circumstances change? How would you properly diversify a wise investment portfolio? What specific investment products do you need? What specific investment products in case you avoid? (This is just like crucial as determining the things you need) How do you minimize taxes inside your portfolio? Simply how much do you must save to satisfy your financial goals in retirement? What would be the chances you will meet your retirement goals? What options have you got if you can’t meet your ideal retirement goals? How can minimize the possibility of outliving your hard earned cash? (This really is The greatest goal of any financial plan) How does inflation impact my future spending and what makes that effect my savings rate and asset allocation? How can I allocate investments across different accounts? What is the role of annuities, and do you need an annuity? Which kind of retirement accounts are appropriate personally (IRA, SEP IRA, solo 401k, etc.)? Can i invest profit Roth accounts or traditional accounts? When do i need to take Social Security? Must I need long lasting care insurance therefore how much and what type? As you have seen your financial plan’s not simply about investments It’s about integrating your investment funds with the other critical parts of success advancement and ultimately your comprehensive success management plan.

Freelance MD is an active community of physicians that gives them more freedom and control of their medical practice, income, and lifestyle. Freelance MD provides physicians with cutting edge information on everything they need to broaden their careers and make their lives more manageable.

Design

The Vaccine Scare + Lawyers

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Are legal professionals seeking to sue drug companies behind for that bogus vaccine autism study? There are numerous news about Dr. Andrew Wakefield along with the dirty vaccine study.

Here’s section of a CNN story. What I find most disturbing is really a sentence that I’ve bolded at the end.

Vaccination rates dropped sharply in britain after its publication, falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply during the ensuing years.

Inside the United States Of America, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 compared to another year since 1997, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Above 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.

„But perhaps as necessary as the scare’s influence on infectious disease is the energy, emotion and funds which have been diverted faraway from efforts to be familiar with the authentic factors that cause autism and how to help children and families who live with it,“ the BMJ editorial states.

Wakefield has been not able to reproduce his results in the face of criticism, and also other researchers have been unable to match them.

Most of his co-authors withdrew their names from the study in 2004 after learning he had had been paid by way of a law office that meant to sue vaccine manufacturers — a critical conflict of interest he didn’t disclose…

…According to BMJ, Wakefield received more than 435,000 pounds ($674,000) through the legal professionals.

A law office that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers paid the doc almost seven hundred thousand dollars to finance a study so that they could begin suing manufacturers? This might be probably the most cynical ambulance-chasing I’ve have you heard of.

Freelance MD is an active community of physicians that gives them more freedom and control of their medical practice, income, and lifestyle. Freelance MD provides physicians with cutting edge information on everything they need to broaden their careers and make their lives more manageable.