We presented a video on a previous post from Ford Saeks about direct mailing fundementals. Here is part two of that video series. We found it to be very informative. Enjoy.
Filed under direct mail, direct mail campaign, direct mail tips by on Aug 24th, 2009. Comment. 
There has been an ongoing debate about if direct mail is dead. With the “hyper” hype about the internet and email marketing and how much less it costs to “send” virtual mail out….the jury is still out!
EMAIL
So, email is supposed to be the “saviour” of getting your advertising message out to the thousands, hundred thousands and millions of people on your list. It is supposed to be cheaper to execute, doesn’t irriate the recipient by the ugly “junk” mails in their real mailbox, more efficient because you can measure ROI metrics within minutes of doing an email blast.
DIRECT MAIL
Direct mail’s cost per thousand prospect names are, in reality, cheaper than buying, or shall I say renting a list of like quantity in the online world. Undeliverability is up 20% lately from these online lists for the internet marketing crowd. Reason is there is more spam filters, corporate firewalls are set even tighter to keep out even legitimate emails, and the higher frequency of the recipient to mass delete emails for fear of email overload. Direct mail, on the other hand gets almost a 95% deliverability rate because good list managers scrub their lists on a regular basis.
Finally, with email, you only get 2 seconds or less to get the attention of the receiver or it gets deleted. Direct mail gives you 5 seconds or more to catch the attention of the receiver. That is huge!
So when thinking “old school” direct mail, always know it has a useful function in your marketing arsenal!
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail, direct mail costs, mail services, targeting your market by on Aug 18th, 2009. Comment.
We found a great video for you that talks about the benefits of direct mail and the successful strategies related to it. Enjoy!
Filed under direct mail, direct mail campaign, direct mail tips, targeting your market by on Aug 7th, 2009. Comment.
We have a video below that you will be interested in regarding how you design a successful direct mail piece that gets opened. Enjoy.
This video has been brought to you by, Business Helpers Mail Center out of Scottsdale Arizona. Feel free to contact us for a quote on your next direct mail campaign. Call us at 480-483-7677.
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail, direct mail campaign by on Jul 24th, 2009. Comment.
Generally speaking, it is not wise to bring a mailing into the Post Office for processing right before a holiday. The Post Office tends to run a skeleton crew the day before the holiday, especially when the holiday falls on a Monday or Friday as most of them do. The net effect of this is that if you bring a mailing in for processing, it will likely sit until the first working day after the holiday.
Further, when the postal employees come in to work the first day after the holiday, they start helping new customers and, to nobody’s surprise, the new mail is put on top of the mail that was brought in before the holiday. As is human custom, the mail that is worked first is the mail that is on top.
Therefore, mail that is brought in after the holiday is usually worked and processed before the mail that was brought in just before the holiday. Bottom Line: try to avoid bringing mail in for processing to the Post Office until just after the holiday. If you have the time, I highly recommend waiting until the second working day after the holiday – this ensures timely processing of your mail.
Filed under direct mail, direct mail tips, mailing schedule by on Jul 3rd, 2009. Comment.
The most important part of marketing your business is finding new ways to capture prospects and turn them into paying customers. We have given you some ideas, such as postcards but there is more to it than just mailing out something. You have to have a proven system.
In this post, we will go into a direct mail campaign. If you are a small business owner, this system works like a charm. This allows you to direct your prospects to a particular response mechanism. This could be in the form of a response form to fill out and send back, a phone number to call back to take advantage of a time sensitive offer, or direction to a website in order to purchase a product or service.
What you will need for a simple direct mail campaign:
1) a prospect list
2) a response mechanism (i.e. phone number, web page, form, etc.)
3) collateral materials
Purpose
It is most important to outline the purpose of your direct mail campaign. Do you want to expand your leads list? Do you want to retain current customers from your existing list? Do you want to make sales now? Once your purpose has been decided, then plan out your process accordingly. It is quite simple, really.
Additional Tips
Determine a timeline of your campaign. Make sure you have a way to measure results. Set a starting budget that would include postage, paper, printing, list rental, and any outsource services.
In today’s marketing climate, it has proven that coupling telemarketing as a response vehicle can dramatically raise salse conversion rates.
In future posts, we will reveal successful case studies of this simple method of effective marketing.
Filed under direct mail, direct mail campaign, direct mail tips, telemarketing by on Jun 26th, 2009. Comment.
In preparing any direct mail campaign, you naturally start with both an idea and a budget. Before getting too involved in your project, be sure to check that your concept works well with your budget, both in terms of postage and post office delivery and processing time. A good suggestion is to run the size and design by your mailing house for feedback.
Automated and machineable pieces are always quickest for the post office to process and deliver. At the same time, these pieces also receive the least expensive postage, the greatest dollar savings.
What makes a direct mail piece machineable? Several items to check:
- 1) Size. Letter size mail always processes quicker and costs less in postage, regardless of whether it is being mailed first class, presorted first class or presorted standard. Non-letter size mail can cost almost twice as much in postage. Square and odd-shaped pieces are not only considered non-letter size, but are always processed manually by the post office and, therefore, more time consuming to process and more expensive in postage.
- 2) Thickness. Be sure the mail piece is at least as thick as the minimum postal standards and will withstand post office equipment processing. Conversely, make sure it is not too thick so as to require manual processing.
- 3) Location of Address. Be sure the address can be placed where you can receive automated discounts. Also make certain it is the first address that will be read by the post office machinery. Post office processing equipment reads addresses from the bottom up and from right to left. If a destination address is placed higher on a mail piece than a return address, the post office might attempt to deliver all of the mail to the one trying to send the mail. If the mail piece is non-letter size, be sure the address is positioned in the top half of the piece. If not, there are no postal discounts available; you would have to pay full first class postage on every piece.
- 4) Room for a Barcode. A barcode is just under 3″ wide and you may not print the barcode in the ½” closest to the right margin. You should also have at least ¼” clear on the left side of your barcode. A good rule of thumb is to keep a 4″ area clear from the right side of the mail panel. Having a barcode speeds delivery and can significantly lessen postage.
Remember, any good direct mail house will always be willing to look over the design of your mail piece before it is printed. This way, potential problems can be caught while they are still an easy fix.
If you have some tips that you can add to this, we welcome your comments.
Filed under direct mail, direct mail campaign by on May 19th, 2009. 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.
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.