Have Success From Direct Mail

1 Have Success From Direct Mail EFFICIENT MARKETING www.bluefrogdm.com

2 Who Are We? Blue Frog offers a wide range of services, from assistance with the creative process and production of marketing materials to development of a strategic marketing plan for your business. Whether you have your own marketing department and simply need production services or are a small business just starting out, we can provide you with streamlined, cost-effective, and powerful marketing solutions. Blue Frog efficiently delivers the services you need and maximizes the value you receive from your marketing investment. While fullservice agencies have their place, many charge rates that are cost prohibitive for some of the more basic services such as graphic design, printing, mail services, social media, and web design. Because we manage both creation and production, we provide more efficient service with greater responsiveness to the individual needs of your business. The result is high quality work, efficient processes, and personalized service.

3 PRINT PROVIDES RESULTS 76% OF SMALL BUSINESSES STATE THEIR IDEAL MARKETING MIX IS A COMBINATION OF PRINT AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS. NEARLY 90% OF CONSUMERS SAY THEY WANT TO RECEIVE SALES AND PROMOTIONS VIA DIRECT MAIL. 67% OF ONLINE SEARCHES ARE DRIVEN BY OFFLINE MESSAGES, AND 39% OF SHOPPERS MAKE A PURCHASE. THOSE SHOPPERS WHO RECEIVE A DIRECT MAIL PIECE DIRECTING THEM TO AN ONLINE SITE SPEND AN AVERAGE 13% MORE THAN THOSE WHO DO NOT RECEIVE A PRINTED PIECE. COMBINING DIRECT MAIL WITH OTHER MARKETING ACTIVITIES INCREASES CAMPAIGN PAYBACK BY UP TO 20%. DIRECT MAIL IS AN ESSENTIAL MECHANISM IN THE MARKETING MIX FOR CONVERTING DESIRE AND INTENTION INTO ACTION.

4 PRINT IS ALIVE & WELL! Consumers continue to view mail as a highly relevant and significant part of their lives. Research shows people learn more effectively from print than from a computer. Paper has major advantages in supporting annotation while reading, quick navigation, and flexibility of spatial layout. This allows readers to deepen their understanding of the text, extract a sense of its structure, create a plan for writing, cross-refer to other documents, and interweave reading and writing. It is all about the mix: Readex Research, survey specialists serving publications, associations, and corporate researchers, conducted media usage studies between September 2010 and May 2011. They found that professionals regularly use these media to keep current:.77% report regular use of search engines..74% say they rely on print editions of magazines. 74% say they depend on e-newsletters related to their industry. Readers are more likely to achieve a deeper understanding when reading printed material rather than viewing it on a computer.

5 GOALS OF A DIRECT MAIL PIECE Generate Leads Promote your sales and offers to attract people to do business with you. Inform people of what services your business offers. Create New Customers Update Current Customers Be top-of-mind with people who already have done business with you. Inbound links Make people aware of your business persona, position your company in people s minds. Build Brand Awareness

6 WHAT MAKES DIRECT MAIL SUCCESSFUL? You must know your target market: The better you know your customers, the more effective your direct mail campaign will be. Is there a specific type of person who purchases your goods or services? The majority of the time, it is much more effective to send out several hundred pieces to your specific target market such as recent retirees, young families, or college students, rather than to blanket neighborhoods at random. You can get lists of your prospective customers from list brokers who sell contact information for different groups of people. Have a sequence: The majority of people who send direct mail send out one letter or postcard and then stop. To crush your competition, you must have sequential mailings. We recommend a minimum of three mailings for each campaign. To increase the effectiveness of each direct mail piece, reference the previous letters you have sent instead of sending the exact same letter or postcard every time. Have the piece professionally designed: People are buried with advertisements from TV, radio, online, and direct mail, so you must make your direct mail piece visually appealing and relevant to your target customer. An engaging headline is key. The headline is the most important part of any sales letter because if you do not grab attention with the headline, then your prospect will not care to read the rest of your message. Make the right offer: The offer is simply stating what you re willing to give and what particular response from prospects or customers you want in exchange. Included in the offer are price, terms, guarantees, and extras. The right offer isn t necessarily the one that generates the most responses or that generates the most profitability from the effort it requires; the right offer is the one that ultimately contributes the most to your business. Offers are normally driven by the objective of the direct marketing effort lead generation. Tailor the copy to your readers: Appropriate wording is essential. If your prospects do not understand your message, they will not proceed with the sales process. Make sure you understand the audience to whom your message is being delivered, and speak at their level of knowledge about your products, services, and industry.

7 WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN USING DIRECT MAIL Use a Great Printer: Find a printer with a reputation for a high quality product and superior customer service. A printer of choice will send you samples so you will be able to see the quality of the finished material in your hands. Pricing should not necessarily be the determining factor in choosing your printer. Quality print has a high value to your business because you not see a benefit from sending out direct-mail marketing materials with streaks or poor color quality. Let Your Printer Do The Mailing: Most reputable printing companies have a mail house, or partner with mail houses, to deliver your direct-mail marketing materials. This can save time and money because your mailing list can be addressed as the materials are printed. You won t have the extra costs associated with shipping your materials from one place to another before actually mailing them to your prospects. Experienced printing companies are knowledgeable in printing regulations and postage pricing, so they can get you the best deal possible on bulk mailings. Send coupons: People understand how coupons work. They are tangible pieces that your prospects can hang on their refrigerators or put in their purses. You can also collect the coupons to keep track of your ROI. Track Your Leads and How Much They Cost: Tracking your leads and costs per lead can improve your response rate and increase your effectiveness. Split tests are a great way to track your marketing to see what is working the best. Send out two or more different mailings with different messages and designs to prospective customers, and monitor which version achieves a better response rate. When prospects begin to call, ask them how they heard about you. Keep in-mind of all of the factors that can make a direct mail campaign successful offers, design, target market, timing, etc. To get a good idea of whether your mailings are working, you should send out a minimum of 500 direct mail pieces at a time. Coupons are an easy and excellent way to keep track of your return on investment. SAVE $

8 WHY A DIRECT MAIL CAMPAIGN CAN FAIL Targeting the Wrong Prospects: The single most important rule for successful direct marketing is to target people who look most like your best customers. They are the ones who will understand your value proposition and be most likely to want what you re selling. Marketing to people who do not have a strong interest in your product or service, or who do not have purchasing authority, is like throwing money away. Failing to Test: The ability to test is one of the great benefits of direct marketing. If you do not take advantage of it, you are missing an opportunity to gain knowledge that will be valuable for future marketing campaigns. Test something every time you mail or email, something such as prices, offers, or lists, to see if you can increase response or reduce the cost of acquiring a new customer. Poor Lead Follow-Up: Establish your lead qualification, fulfillment, and sales conversion plan up front, prepare the sales team to act when leads come in, and get leads out fast. Isolating Direct Mail From the Rest of Your Marketing Strategy: Direct marketing campaigns should be developed as elements of a comprehensive marketing communications plan that supports your marketing strategy and integrates your messaging and branding across all media. You have the ability to direct prospects to your website and to post the offers via social media channels. Mail campaigns should work in conjunction with your other marketing outlets.

9 WHAT CAN BLUE FROG DO FOR YOU? Blue Frog is one of the fastest growing providers of commercial print services in Des Moines. Because of our extensive capabilities and thorough understanding of the print production process, we are able to offer the best prices and fastest turn times. As a marketing team, we will learn about your business and create a profile of your ideal buyer. From there, we will be able to assist you with selecting an appealing offer and writing copy. Next, we begin the design process. Blue frog has an in-house graphic designer who will work with you to design the most appealing direct mail piece for your target market. If you already have artwork that you love, that works for us, too! We then send the artwork for printing. It is important that you understand USPS mailing requirements. If you are inserting your piece into an envelope, you will need to be aware of the various envelope options that are available. If you are doing bulk mailing with an envelope, make sure you tell Blue Frog up front, and we will look for machinable envelopes. Machinable envelopes can be run through an inserting machine, so each piece does not need to be hand inserted. This will save you significant cost on the job. Some envelope types are either unavailable or very difficult to find in a machinable variety, so early communication and planning ahead are important. You may wish to take advantage of our variable data printing capabilities. We are able to accommodate changes in images or text from one piece to the next. Marketers often use this option to add a level of personalization to each individual direct mail piece. Once all the pieces are ready to ship, Blue Frog will handle the mail services for you and make sure your attention-grabbing mailer gets into the hands of your potential customers.