Direct Mail - Don''t Forget The Envelope

Direct Mail - Don''t Forget The Envelope Keywords:

Related Article:Direct Mail - Don''t Forget The Envelope

All you wanted to know about Direct Mail and Newsletters

Article Title : All you wanted to know about Direct Mail and Newsletters

Article Content:

What is direct mail?

Direct mail (or direct marketing) is a highly targeted method of marketing a service or product. In direct mail, communication is sent directly to a prospective consumer. This is unlike mass media, where every viewer or reader of a particular medium is exposed to the communication, regardless of whether he or she is a prospective buyer. Direct mail works over traditional mail as well as email. Newer channels of direct mail include SMS and telemarketing.

What are the advantages of direct mail?

Lester Wunderman is traditionally acknowledged as the pioneer of direct marketing in the 1970s. It was his success on brands like Amex and Columbia Records that pushed direct mail into the spotlight.

Direct mail allows marketers to record, analyse, and track consumer responses with far greater accuracy than mass media. Marketers know very quickly whether their communication is working or not. If, for example, a marketer gets a response from 1,000 consumers after sending out 20,000 mailers, he knows it's because of the direct mail. Mass advertising, however, does not show such immediate response.

While direct mail can be highly personalised (based on past history of the consumer), it also costs more (in terms of cost per thousand customers reached) than mass media.

What are the downsides to direct marketing?

The downside to direct marketing is that there is so much of it being done by so many businesses. As a result, direct mail is often seen as unwanted junk or spam by the recipient and most end up in the trash can. The same is true in both the real world and the virtual world. In fact, software filters make it very difficult for marketers to reach users via email anymore. Generally, users online only read and respond to emails from companies they've interacted with before.

What are the types of direct mail?

There are three primary types of direct mail, these include:
Low-volume mailers. These are generally used by niche products that cater to a select target audience.

For example, Rolls Royce would only send mail to former customers, celebrities, and very well-off businessmen, as these are the only consumers who can afford their products.

High-volume mailers. These are used by mass marketers like clothing stores, malls, retailers, etc. They generally aim to reach as many people as possible to drive footfalls to their store.

Business-to-Business (B2B) mailers. These are from one business to another, for companies that sell to other companies.

For example, a digital processing house would send a B2B mailer to advertising agencies with their rate cards, work samples, etc.

What are direct mail channels?

There are also many different direct mail channels, including:
Catalogues. These are usually done to showcase a variety of products, usually by the retail or fashion industries.

Single-fold mailers. These are one-sheet folded mailers. Generally, they have a teaser message on the outside and the main message within. They would also include a reply coupon or some other call to action.

Postcards. These are simple and inexpensive, yet highly effective.

Envelope mailers. Examples of these are seen with credit card companies. They usually have one message on the envelope and your card statement inside, along with other material like gift brochures for reward points, etc.
Innovative mailers. These are generally far more creative. For example, an office furniture firm once sent customers a small pillow, to highlight how their furniture provides a comfortable working environment.

What is a newsletter?

A newsletter is a distributed publication targeted at a specific segment of society.

Newsletters could be general interest or they can be specific. A general interest newsletter could have articles about things such as:

1) Politics
2) Sports
3) Weather
4) Opinions
5) Humour
6) Fiction
7) And more

A specific interest newsletter, on the other hand, is generally about one topic such as:

1) Mobile phones
2) Writing
3) Pharmaceuticals
4) Stamp collecting
5) Or whatever else the business is selling

All articles in such a newsletter would revolve around the specific topic the newsletter caters to.

Who uses newsletters?

Newsletters are generally published by clubs, societies, organisations and businesses. Companies generally place a lot of stock in newsletters. They send out newsletters to both clients and employees. It isn't unusual to see every arm in a large company circulating a newsletter of its own.

Web sites also send out newsletters. These newsletters could be used to update subscribers about new content, new product offerings, etc. These e-newsletters are often viewed as spam, however, and often end up in the trash can.

Newsletters are a powerful tool in connecting with consumers. A company's newsletter builds upon a relationship and urges consumers to keep building that relationship. It is an important tool in establishing a company's credentials.

For example, a newsletter from Johnson & Johnson talking about baby care practices immediately establishes it as a leader and expert in the field, thus building further consumer trust.

About the Author:

Rajesh V. Tavakari, Senior SEO of WebPromotionGuru.Com. Offering affordable website promotion and natural optimization services since 1998. Website : http://www.webpromotionguru.com . You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice, author name and URL remain intact.

When Does Direct Mail Work the Best?

“When does Direct Mail work the best? Here are some tips on when direct mail should be your first marketing choice. Keep in mind that the more of these tips that apply, the more likely it is that direct mail will be your best bet. 1.   If you can clearly define your target audience, direct mail will work. Direct Mail is about targeting. The more precisely you can identify you best prospects, the greater the likelihood of success. 2.    Whether your sales message is short or long… direct mail works. 3.    Direct Mail works when you need to control the entire selling process. You don't want layers of contact between you and the decision maker. 4.    When other distribution channels don't work as well as going direct to your audience.

Forget Email! Use Direct Mail To Explode Sales

For example, some companies that use direct mail to increase sales send out small packages instead of just letters or flyers. In these packages, they can send small gifts that relate to what they can offer to a business. A company that has checkout services for businesses might send out tiny shopping carts. A company that caters to pet owners might provide their customers or potential customers with tiny stuffed cats or dogs. The list of ways that a company could use direct mail to increase sales is almost endless.

By offering more than a simple flyer, a company can use direct mail to increase sales without seeming as though they were marketing to people simply to get them to buy its products or services. The key to using direct mail to increase sales is to show the customer that the company wants to create a business relationship, as opposed to only trying to get money. Naturally, the main goal of the company is to make money from customers that buy its products and services, but developing good relationships through finding ways to use direct mail to increase sales can help bring in more money and build a better customer base in the long run. Being innovative and ensuring that all potential customers are marketed to as skillfully as possible is the best way to use direct mail to increase sales, no matter what company or product is being marketed. Dave Roth runs a site that reviews lead management software available on the market. Not only does the site provide information on popular hosted crm, it provides sales techniques that are proven to work in any market and with any customer For information, visit his site and see for yourself.

All you wanted to know about Direct Mail and Newsletters

What is direct mail?

Direct mail (or direct marketing) is a highly targeted method of marketing a service or product. In direct mail, communication is sent directly to a prospective consumer. This is unlike mass media, where every viewer or reader of a particular medium is exposed to the communication, regardless of whether he or she is a prospective buyer. Direct mail works over traditional mail as well as email. Newer channels of direct mail include SMS and telemarketing.

What are the advantages of direct mail?

Lester Wunderman is traditionally acknowledged as the pioneer of direct marketing in the 1970s. It was his success on brands like Amex and Columbia Records that pushed direct mail into the spotlight.

Direct mail allows marketers to record, analyse, and track consumer responses with far greater accuracy than mass media. Marketers know very quickly whether their communication is working or not. If, for example, a marketer gets a response from 1,000 consumers after sending out 20,000 mailers, he knows it's because of the direct mail. Mass advertising, however, does not show such immediate response.

While direct mail can be highly personalised (based on past history of the consumer), it also costs more (in terms of cost per thousand customers reached) than mass media.

What are the downsides to direct marketing?

The downside to direct marketing is that there is so much of it being done by so many businesses. As a result, direct mail is often seen as unwanted junk or spam by the recipient and most end up in the trash can. The same is true in both the real world and the virtual world. In fact, software filters make it very difficult for marketers to reach users via email anymore. Generally, users online only read and respond to emails from companies they've interacted with before.

What are the types of direct mail?

There are three primary types of direct mail, these include: Low-volume mailers. These are generally used by niche products that cater to a select target audience.

For example, Rolls Royce would only send mail to former customers, celebrities, and very well-off businessmen, as these are the only consumers who can afford their products.

High-volume mailers. These are used by mass marketers like clothing stores, malls, retailers, etc. They generally aim to reach as many people as possible to drive footfalls to their store.

Business-to-Business (B2B) mailers. These are from one business to another, for companies that sell to other companies.

For example, a digital processing house would send a B2B mailer to advertising agencies with their rate cards, work samples, etc.

What are direct mail channels?

There are also many different direct mail channels, including: Catalogues. These are usually done to showcase a variety of products, usually by the retail or fashion industries.

Single-fold mailers. These are one-sheet folded mailers. Generally, they have a teaser message on the outside and the main message within. They would also include a reply coupon or some other call to action.

Postcards. These are simple and inexpensive, yet highly effective.

Envelope mailers. Examples of these are seen with credit card companies. They usually have one message on the envelope and your card statement inside, along with other material like gift brochures for reward points, etc. Innovative mailers. These are generally far more creative. For example, an office furniture firm once sent customers a small pillow, to highlight how their furniture provides a comfortable working environment.

What is a newsletter?

A newsletter is a distributed publication targeted at a specific segment of society.

Newsletters could be general interest or they can be specific. A general interest newsletter could have articles about things such as:

1) Politics 2) Sports 3) Weather 4) Opinions 5) Humour 6) Fiction 7) And more

A specific interest newsletter, on the other hand, is generally about one topic such as:

1) Mobile phones 2) Writing 3) Pharmaceuticals 4) Stamp collecting 5) Or whatever else the business is selling

All articles in such a newsletter would revolve around the specific topic the newsletter caters to.

Who uses newsletters?

Newsletters are generally published by clubs, societies, organisations and businesses. Companies generally place a lot of stock in newsletters. They send out newsletters to both clients and employees. It isn't unusual to see every arm in a large company circulating a newsletter of its own.

Web sites also send out newsletters. These newsletters could be used to update subscribers about new content, new product offerings, etc. These e-newsletters are often viewed as spam, however, and often end up in the trash can.

Newsletters are a powerful tool in connecting with consumers. A company's newsletter builds upon a relationship and urges consumers to keep building that relationship. It is an important tool in establishing a company's credentials.

For example, a newsletter from Johnson & Johnson talking about baby care practices immediately establishes it as a leader and expert in the field, thus building further consumer trust.

About the Author:

Rajesh V. Tavakari, Senior SEO of WebPromotionGuru.Com. Offering affordable website promotion and natural optimization services since 1998. Website : http://www.webpromotionguru.com . You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice, author name and URL remain intact.

Direct Mail - don''t forget the envelope

Having worked in the direct mail industry for a number of years, I've seen many mistakes made, some avoidable, some not so. I can honestly say that one of the most frequent and most avoidable errors I've seen made is not applying any thought to the envelope until the last minute. A little forward planning in this respect can save a lot of frustration, and ultimately a lot of money. You can also achieve a lot more with envelope design if you have time, and some good advice from your friendly envelope manufacturer.

There is a primer on envelope production here, which will give you an indication of why it's a bad idea to leave it until the last minute. In brief though, envelope machines are big! They can take hours to set up, and it's still very much a case of allen keys and spanners to adjust them. Special sizes can be enormously expensive to produce unless the quantity of envelopes required is very large.

There lots of disciplines that make up a direct mail pack of which envelope production is only one. When compared to other areas such as copywriting or printing of the inserts, the production of the envelope can seem insignificant. Thinking this way has the potential to be a big mistake.

The envelope may seem insignificant, and in terms of cost the envelope quite possibly is one of the most insignificant parts of the pack. Realistically though, you can't send the pack without an envelope. Your carefully designed, printed and copywritten pack has very little value until you have an envelope because you can't send it until you have one.

So, when you plan your pack, think about the envelope at the same time and ask yourself a few questions.

Does the size of the pack that you have designed correspond with a slightly larger sized envelope available from a wholesaler? If it does, then good, but you're still not home and dry yet.

If a stock envelope is available, do you need to print it? You almost certainly will if it's a bulk mailing. Overprinting is a cheap option for stock envelopes but is your design suitable to overprint? There are some considerations and compromises that must be made for overprinting envelopes, and especially for overprinting envelopes in four colours. These are too numerous to mention, but any professional envelope overprinting company will be able to advise on this.

At this stage you may have established that your envelope design can be overprinted, and that you have a stock envelope available easily. If that's the case you can rest easy.

You may, however, have discovered that a stock envelope isn't available, or your design isn't suitable to overprint. If that's the case, you need to be thinking about a special making of bespoke envelopes. In this instance, pre-printing your envelopes as flat sheets becomes a possibility and you can also overprint on bespoke envelopes, but the actual making is now a major consideration.

There are two main kinds of envelope production, reel fed and blank (pre-cut envelope shapes) fed. It's unlikely that you will be able to make the envelope from the reel since you have already established that there isn't a stock envelope available, or that you can't overprint. In either of these scenarios, it's likely that you will need to producing an envelope from blanks.

With blank fed production you need to check for availability of a cutting tool. These are extremely expensive to make, and there can be very long lead times. If you want to avoid the cost of this tooling then early planning will see you obtaining a list of cutting tools from your envelope supplier, that are close to the size you need. Provided tooling is available you then need to ensure your envelope is ready in good time.

Again though, the simplest advice is to plan ahead. Find yourselves a reliable and knowledgeable envelope producer and ask their advice at the earliest opportunity. If they know their onions, then they will be able to advise how to stay within any budget you may have, artwork specifications to work to and when you need to think about ordering. Lead times can be surprisingly long in the envelope world, and you don't want to be the unfortunate soul who has to order bespoke envelopes at the last minute. You can bet, it will cost you extra to do so.

10 Elements Every Direct Mail Piece Should Have

1. A clear, bold headline. On the envelope or front of the mailer there should be one central message. The best way to achieve that is with a bold, clear headline that’s not cluttered up with other text. A good guideline is to have the headline fill up at least 15% of the front of the mailer.

2. A graphic that supports the message. The graphic should be easy to understand and add to the message the headline is trying to convey. For instance, if you are trying to get people to list their home you would want to show a home with a SOLD sign clearly visible out front. That graphic reinforces the message more than a simple picture of a home.

3. Color that pops. Make the headline and other text stand out by using a color that stands out from the background color. When you look at the card, ask yourself, "What do I see first?" If your answer isn't the headline, you might want to tweak the colors.

4. Subheads that lead into text. If you have a couple of paragraphs of text with no lead in, there’s nothing to entice people to actually read the copy. A subhead will give people a place to start reading. If you have only a 100 words or so you may be able to get away with it, but if the text gets any longer than that the average reader will want to have some guideposts along the way.

5. Benefits, benefits, benefits. One of the biggest errors people make in advertising is stating features, rather than benefits. For example, never assume recipients know what benefit can be derived from a lower interest rate on their mortgage. Let them know how their monthly payments will go down.

6. The offer. An offer is always a good idea and should represent a specific reason to call now, such as “Limited supply” or “Interest rates are climbing.”

7. Your company name and logo. Although this needs to be on the mailer, it shouldn’t overshadow the offer. Customers care most about what you can do for them.

8. Call to action. Tell prospects exactly what you want them to do. “Call today for more information” or “See us online” are two of the most common desired actions.

9. Contact information. Provide your name, phone number, and Web address directly following the call to action. Whatever you ask prospects to do, give them the means to do it easily.

10. Return address. A return address ensures you’ll get returned mail from the post office and sends a message that you’re an established professional. People feel better knowing the company they’re dealing with has an actual location.

Joe Niewierski, the VP of Marketing & Promotion at PostcardMania, became a published writer after graduating with a BA in Advertising from the University of South Florida. Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2005 the company did over $12 million in sales, employed over 100 people and made Inc. Magazine’s prestigious Inc 500 List as the one of the 500 fastest growing companies in the nation. Gendusa attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. 70% of her staff are young creative minds under the age of 35, like Joe. Visit her web site at www.PostcardMania.com

What Really Works When It Comes to Direct Mail Marketing

Promotional Keyrings - Your Key To Business

Increase Direct Mail Response Rates With Double Window Envelopes

Direct Mail - Don''t Forget the Envelope

Leave Comment