Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
Mailer Design 101
Posted by 
on Saturday, April 18, 2009 
at 6:21 AM 
in Mailer Design 101
I’m asked to do various task concerning design elements throughout each week – but one of the most common would be to design a direct mailer.
Direct mail is one of the most popular ways to reach out to prospects and here are a few things to keep in mind when designing what will land on their doorstep.
Know Your Contact:
It’s important to send mail that is relevant to your prospects wants and needs. If you send out content that is in no way helpful to them, you’re now spamming your prospects, and what good is that? Make sure you address them directly. Personalize your direct mailer “Hello Jamie” is probably the simplest way but if you have more data put it to use. “Hello Jamie, just a reminder that your dog Teddy is due for his monthly grooming.” Small bits of personalization can keep your mailer in hand, instead of in the trash.
Don’t Overwhelm:
We’ve all come across commercials on television that screams at you “THIS WEEKEND ONLY!”, “OUR CUSTOMERS LOVE US – YOU’LL LOVE US”, “YOU KNOW YOU CANT MISS THIS” – There’s text everywhere, images flying across the screen, fast music, its overwhelming! When you send your mailer out it’s important to put as little text as possible. Simplicity is key, let your prospect take in your point; intrigue them, if they want to know more they’ll follow up. But, if you send them a card full of testimonials, one time only deals, and a full description of your company’s history you’ll lose them before they read one line.
Try Out Different Designs:
Don’t stick with the first idea that comes into your head – Grab some markers and scrap paper and just sketch. You don’t’ have to be an artist to layout a mailer. A box can represent an image, scribble line – well that’s text. No one needs to understand it but you! Once you find a layout that works throw in some filler text and images in a design program, print it out and let it sit in front of you for a few days. You’ll notice type that you want larger, colors that could work better, and show it to friends for feedback.
What did you measure today?
When it comes to marketing, one of the greatest value points that you can offer your staff or your clients is this – you can collect and measure feedback from the recipients.
An interlinkONE customer recently ran a campaign for one of their clients. The media was a direct mail piece with a personalized URL. The target audience were all former customers of that client.
The goal of the campaign was two-fold:
- To re-ignite interest among their previous customers
- To gather feedback on why that person had fallen into the category of a “previous” customer, as opposed to an active one
Each recipient was presented with a series of questions when they visited their personalized URL. There has been quite a good response to this campaign so far… here is a summary of the feedback that our solution has enabled this client to gain:
Tags interlinkONE at the On Demand Expo ‘09
We recently exhibited at the On Demand Expo in Philadelphia, PA. Before the show, there was some chatter online about how many people would actually attend.
Well, we can tell you first-hand that it was a very good show. There may not have been as many attendees as previous shows… but, everyone that was there seemed to come with a purpose. People that stopped by our booth either wanted to talk about marketing efforts for a specific campaign or industry, or a storefront to increase their business, etc.
Also, we were fortunate to see many of our customers there, and that is always quite a treat.
Our President and CEO, John Foley, Jr., presented at the show as well. He delivered the presentation with Mark McIntosh of Cedar Graphics. The title was “Sweet Success of Transformation – Becoming a Marketing Services Provider”.
They received very favorable reviews after their presentation. If you are interested in what they presented, please feel free to contact us.
Oh….. we also brought our camera….. if you’d like to see pictures from the show, please click here.
It’s not how many leads you have, it’s….
If you are involved in the marketing efforts for your company, I am betting you would agree that the lead-generation process can be a lot of fun.
It typically goes like this – you come up with an interesting bit of content… Maybe it’s a mailer, an email, a blog post, a video, etc… You entice people to respond to that media and then provide additional information.
Each time someone clicks and submits, congratulations – you’ve got a lead.
As great of a feeling as this can be, there is more satisfaction to be found if you look further down the sales funnel. Yes, the role of a marketer is not just to bring in leads; it’s just as important to provide content that helps sales people convert the lead into a customer.
I found a statistic recently that said this: “80% of all sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact”.
So, that’s where the real challenge lies – can you provide enough interesting and compelling content to enable your sales people to “touch” their prospects that many times?
Below we’ve provided a few different ideas on what steps might make up those touches. It is by no means a magic formula. But if you are scratching your head right now, wondering what touches 1 through whatever could consist of, here is a possible list of materials or events that allow you to reach out to a prospect (in no particular order):
· Company Overview (PowerPoint on file)
· Product Features and Benefits (fact sheets)
· Direct Mail/Postcards (perhaps from a recent campaign? or a standard one that promotes benefits of working with your company)
· Case Studies
· Articles from the press (newspapers or magazines that you’ve appeared in)
· Phone Calls – checking in on the prospects
· E-Mails (allows you to check-in, without the fear of interrupting someone’s day with a phone call)
· Demonstration of your product or service
· Reference from another client, or testimonials
· Hand-written thank you note (perhaps the day after they sit through a demonstration)
· Monthly newsletter
· Social media - Friend them on Facebook? Send a message on Twitter? Reply to a post on LinkedIn?
That is a list of 12 unique ways to reach out to a prospect… Of course, there will no doubt be multiple phone calls, emails, and perhaps mailers in your relationship with a prospect. Those will all help you to make multiple touches.
Some prospects will buy before they reach the 12 touch. Others will opt-out before that point. But the bottom line is, moving people through the sales funnel can be just as important and satisfying as it is to bring in the lead in the first place.
The importance of self-promotion
At a recent MFSA (Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association) chapter meeting, nearly all attendees present expressed their interest in offering marketing services. However, when asked if they were currently involved in efforts to market their own company, the response was, well… a bit less. There is no better way to ensure future success than to start marketing your company and services now. If you are a print, fulfillment, or mail services provider, and are looking to add marketing services to your offering, running a self-promotional campaign can assist you in two ways that you might not have yet realized:
- Develop your internal campaign building team: if you have recently invested in a marketing software package, there certainly may be some training needed. By running your own campaign, your staff will become familiar with your new tools, and will also learn the ins and outs of running a successful campaign. (Some might also say that it’s safer to learn on your own campaign!)
- Support your sales staff: To sell marketing services, your sales staff needs help… With a self-promotional campaign, you can help educate and energize them. As the campaign runs, they will learn first-hand what your company’s marketing services can do. Each time they see a lead come in, they will not only be excited by the pipeline increase, but they will be able to better describe to others just how your company can help them close the sales loop.
