We would like to welcome you to our new site that deals with everything in mail marketing. How often do you wonder about how you can improve your profits just with some little “inside” information on your side? We have many years of experience in the direct mail service field and now want to share with you, the ins and outs of doing bulk or custom mail for your business.
We are a division of Business Helpers out of Scottsdale Arizona. Please stay tuned for more details on our business and more importantly, how we can help you maximize profits in your mailing campaign.
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail, mail services by on Apr 2nd, 2009. Comment. 
The question is often asked whether it is better to use a printer to do both the mailing and printing of a direct mail campaign, or to use independent places. The answer lies with the motivation of each.
A printer makes their money based on the quantity of pieces they print and what they look like. Therefore, the printer’s motivation is not necessarily in the customer’s overall best interests.
The mail piece’s design should be maximized to produce the greatest results and need not be the most extravagant. It should balance the desired image. This may be counter-productive to the printer’s bottom line.
Additionally, the mailing list should be cleaned and honed to produce the greatest results and need not be the greatest number, just the most targeted number – cleansed for move updates, the removal of duplicates, and, if appropriate, the removal of moves out-of-the-area. This, too, may be counter-productive to the printer’s bottom line.
Lastly, each company should do what they do best. The printer should print. The mailing house should direct on the mailing options, the postage costs, the delivery considerations, the cleansing and/or selection of the mailing list, and the processing of the mailing.
Filed under direct mail campaign, mail services, printing services by on Apr 10th, 2009. Comment.
If you are planning a direct mail campaign and you put the job out for quotes to a mailing house, do not look only at mail handling costs and believe that printing is printing and postage is postage. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The amount of money you spend for a direct mail campaign should be the bottom line that it costs you – printing, mail handling and postage, balancing your desired delivery times.
A mailing list should be cleaned and refined before the print order is given. Very often, a mailing list could be reduced 10% or even more after the list is cleaned for move updates, the removal of duplicates and bad addresses and, if appropriate, the removal of moves out-of-area. Why waste money on excess printing and mail handling? Be sure that the expert you hire to do your mailing is proficient at this and will work with you to provide your list clean-up in a timely manner prior to placing your print order.
Similarly, the class of mail should be examined based on balancing estimated delivery time and postage cost. It could be that you are preparing a very time sensitive mailing where 40% is nationwide and 60% is local. You have asked mailers to quote the job for presorted first class mail. A good mailing house will direct you to consider mailing the nationwide pieces presorted first class and the balance presorted standard, maximizing postage savings and delivery time. You may not have thought of that – mailings is not your business, why should you?
And, finally, postage is not always postage. The more sortation you can do on a mailing decreases the amount of processing the post office needs to do and lessens postage. Where a mailing house takes the mail to be processed can also lessen postage. Again, this is not your business to know, but don’t you have the right to expect your hired expert to direct you.
Look at all these factors before you compare the total cost, not a single one.
Filed under direct mail campaign, direct mail costs by on Apr 13th, 2009. 1 Comment.
When it comes to direct marketing – especially to prospects – there’s no mail like the printed mail. Email does not bring the same response as receiving a piece in the mail box.
There are two major reasons for this. First, people are afraid to open mail from an email address they don’t know. Fear they could get a virus. Fear they could have their computer hacked and sensitive information could be acquired. Fear they could receive a cookie which tracks their internet activity. In today’s electronic age, it is very easy for unwanted problems to befall computers just by opening unknown emails. Is it really worth the potential risk?
Second, most people like to receive information about a new product or service via paper. From the prospect’s point of view, they do not want to waste either their time or supplies (ink and paper) by printing the information themselves. Seldom do you want to read the information on the computer screen. You generally want to take it elsewhere and read it leisurely with less eye strain.
From the direct marketer’s perspective, you get an added bonus when you use direct mail instead of email. Your recipient receives a mail piece with your desired design and layout, type selection and sizing and maybe color that they might not see if they were to print the piece on their own computer. Remember, for someone new to want your product or service you have to make your piece attractive to them, approaching your pitch from what the product or service can do for them. If you make the prospect do the first work by printing the piece, you’ve lost an edge you can never get back.
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail, printed mail by on Apr 17th, 2009. Comment.
The world is your oyster! Do not limit yourself unless you must.
One of the critical components in any direct mail campaign is the mailing list. Not “who do I want to mail to?” but “who do I want to become my next customer?” “Who can benefit most from my offer?”
The more you can define your best existing customers, the clearer you can be about the demographics to use in purchasing a mailing list of prospects. Always build the universe without constraints. Only build those in as you must. The “must” being determined by the cost and availability of the selection criteria.
Define the factors and refine your ideal model. If it’s residential: geography, age, gender, marital status, presence of children, household income, home value, age of home, religious affiliation, lifestyle interest, etc. If it’s business: geography, business category, sales volume, employee size, number of years in business, single vs. multiple locations, franchises vs. independent ownerships, etc.
As you select these direct mail criteria, remind yourself that you are not trying to reach everyone. Of course everyone can use your service or product. That’s not it. Where can you have the greatest chance of the highest positive response? Go after that. You may pay more for your mailing list, but your increased positive response should more than make up for any additional cost. Further, you may find that you can cut down the size of your mailing this way – saving far more than the additional cost of the mailing list in printing and postage dollars.
Filed under direct mail campaign, targeting your market by on Apr 21st, 2009. Comment.