Is "Every Door Direct Mail" For You?
Category: Planning & Strategy
Tuesday, 20 December 2011 14:45
If you are doing any kind of geographic-based direct marketing, you may want to consider a new program from the United States Postal Service. It’s called Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). This program allows you to reach every customer in specific neighborhoods even without needing to have their names or addresses. Best of all, what’s the cost? As little as 14.2 cents per piece on postage.
Sound too good to be true? There are a few requirements, but overall, this is a great deal.
No need to rent a mailing list or print names and addresses.
No need for a postal permit.
Send to every mailbox along the carrier routes you designate.
Designate by city, county, zip code or location.
With the EDDM program, you aren’t going to be able to address by name, personalize, or more deeply segment and target the mailing, but you are able to target based on a common denominator—geography. This makes EDDM great for store openings, event announcements, and discounts and coupons for local merchants and other highly location based marketers.
Let’s say you’re a chiropractor who opens a second location across town. You know that there are several upscale neighborhoods within several miles of the new office. In those carrier routes, most of the homeowners have a high likelihood of having good jobs and comprehensive insurance. They also have close proximity to your new office. That’s a perfect opportunity for Every Door Direct Mail. With the postage savings, you might even get creative and use a skeletal die-cut. Now that would grab attention!
One of the requirements of the Every Door Direct Mail program is that these mailers be flat and not standard size. Maximum dimensions are 15" x 12". Minimum dimensions are 11.5" x 6.125". In addition, mailers cannot be not timesensitive, since they are not given the same time priority as first-class mail.
Although EDDM mail is larger than your average mail piece and may cost you somewhat more to print, for the savings in postage, it can be worth it. Especially since the oversize causes these pieces to really stand out in the mailbox. If you mail a 6.25" x 9" or larger flat, for example, you have a virtual billboard for your message, yet it costs 9 cents less! So take the savings and get creative. Try unusual folds to diecuts to make your mailers really shine. You might pay a little more, but you’ll get more attention and increased ROI.
Every Door Direct Mail gives you tremendous opportunity to reach new locations and experiment with new, creative solutions. For the right campaigns, this can be a highly cost-effective way to grow your sales. Talk to us about how this program can work for you
Going Postal: Revised Folded Self-Mailer Standards
Category: Planning & Strategy
Wednesday, 07 December 2011 14:59
The USPS just released their final ruling on Folded Self Mailer changes which will go into effect January 5, 2013. They recommend adopting the new standards ASAP, but you have a year to actually make the changes. Mail that does not comply will pay non-machinable rates.
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New Self-Mailer Rules Beginning January 5, 2013, folded self-mailers (FSMs) that do not meet the requirements listed below will be assessed postage as follows: • First-Class Mail® and Standard Mail® customers will pay nonmachinable prices See the entire notice at http://www.gpo.gov In-Home Delivery Dates
In the past, the Postal Service offered bulk mailers an opportunity to designate the date they wanted mail delivered based on an In-Home Delivery Window, which was also printed on the mailpiece. This could result in received mail being staged in order to best hit this window. However, the Postal Accountability Enhancement Act of 2006 requires that the Postal Service self-report delivery performance against published Service Standards. Holding mail for any reason would negatively impact on the delivery performance reported by the Postal Service. Therefore, processing mail based on in-home dates has been discontinued. Instead, mail will be processed based on these criteria: Mail Entry Location, Critical Entry Time, and Applicable Standar
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- Tabs cannot be placed on the bottom open edge of an oblong-style FSM.
- The final fold must be at the bottom for all designs except oblong style pieces. For oblong-style FSMs the final fold is on the leading edge.
- A minimum of two tabs will be required to seal all FSMs when tabs are used as the sealing method. Tabs used as seals may not have perforations. Glue may be used as an alternate sealing
- Increase the allowed panel count to 12 for FSM's constructed of non-newsprint
- Increase the allowed panel count to 24 for quarter-fold FSM's
- Expanded that materials for tabs to include non-paper, but perforations are still not allowed
- Added the option to seal using glue on lead and trail edges (instead of tabs at the top) if the final fold is on the bottom
- lowered the cut-tie ratio to 1-1 for perforations
- It is recommended, not required to print address information in a mid-to-left position because testing revealed higher rates of cosmetic damage to the lead edge of uncoated paper. This damage often exceeded 1/2" in lenght and impeded the ability of letter sorting machines to read the address information.
There are many other changes specific to pieces with perforations, die cuts, enclosures, quarter fold, and flaps.
As "quick" reference guide can be found here:
https://ribbs.usps.gov/fsm/documents/tech_guides/FSMReference.pdf
Problem-Solving Sales in B2B Environments
Category: Planning & Strategy
Thursday, 03 November 2011 13:33
By Mark Pageau
Recently, I was reading an article about how sometimes the best selling is not about relationships. Especially in today’s B2B marketing environment where we talk so much about “consultative sales,” I found this idea to be intriguing.
The article talked about how, regardless of vertical market, sales styles can be categorized into different buckets. Two I found particular interesting were the relationship-builder and the challenger. The relationship-builder sells based — appropriately — on building relationships. But the challenger works to solve specific problems within the client’s business. The article pointed out that, in B2B environments, the challenger is more effective. If fact, more than half —53%—of those polled or interviewed bought from their reps because they brought in new ideas or solved problems for them.
I started thinking about that approach as it relates to Darwill. Do you see us doing these things? I hope so. I can think of two examples of this off the top of my head.
One of our clients is a large hardware chain that uses a lot of bin labels (those cards you see in front of the product bins with pictures and product numbers—say, when you are looking for a certain faucet or plumbing fixture). They had been printing those cards in a gang run sheetfed environment, which can be highly inefficient. Our rep went in and suggested that we create a database of art files, product and card details, and build an automated ordering environment in which they could simply tell us the number of cards they needed and the order would be sent to one of our digital presses.
They loved the idea. We implemented it, and the workflow created tremendous savings. The way the old printer was doing it, the client was forced to order 700 of each these 75 bin cards at a time. Now they simply say, “I want 150 of those, 300 those, and 200 of these.” Any time they need to update a photo or other product information, it goes into the database and everything is automatically re-populated. No more keystroking. (Needless to say, errors are minimized.)
It was a home run. It’s turned into huge savings for the client in proofing time, time to market, cost savings from inventory reduction, error reduction, things like that.
We had another rep involved with a travel company. The customer sent out a 100+ page, perfect-bound catalog to everyone in their database. We talk to them about narrowing who they mail to and creating a custom, 32-page catalog based on buying history. They did and saw about 30% lift in response. Deliverability cost also went down. Postage cost went down. It’s a higher unit cost, but the client is so happy with the results that they are going back and doing more.
What can we do to help you?
Integrated Marketing: Print in the Digital Age
Category: Planning & Strategy
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 10:42
When Web-enabled technologies became widely adopted more than a decade ago, some people mocked print marketing as an old economy dinosaur. Today the list of e-marketing options is seemingly endless, with blogs, tweets, wikis and widgets. So why is print not only surviving but thriving?
Although the marketing mix has changed, the fundamentals of marketing have not. Your customers have the same purchasing motivations, and your purpose is still to meet their needs at a profit. Print remains the tried-and-true, bread-and-butter foundation of marketing. It is a potent tool because printed materials have a long life, are portable and they communicate your story even when you’re not there. That’s why brochures, sales sheets and business cards continue to be must-haves for salespeople.
Digital marketing tools have their own advantages. E-marketing is inexpensive, trendy and a virtually instant means of communicating with your clients. However, many legitimate marketers are reluctant to embrace digital technologies because of the “spam and scam” reputation surrounding e-mail and the Internet. Instant messaging, buzz campaigns and viral marketing are changing the marketing paradigm, but the long-term effectiveness of these techniques is unproven.
The Digital Age has dramatically transformed how we communicate, but it hasn’t diminished the role of print in the overall marketing strategy. Companies that adapt to this ever-changing landscape will continue to flourish, no matter what flavor-of-the-moment technology appears tomorrow.
Successful marketers recognize that print versus digital isn’t an either/or choice. These are complementary tools that you can interweave into a comprehensive strategy appropriate to your target audience, a concept known as integrated marketing. There is no one-size-fits-all integrated marketing plan. You must communicate the right message to your customers in the right medium, which means that you should customize your marketing mix to your demographics. Some messages are most effective when delivered by mail, while others might be more appropriate when delivered by e-mail or voice. The under-30 set grew up on interactive technologies, so high-tech touches might work best if you’re selling snowboards or videogames. Seniors might be wary of information posted on a website or requests to enter personal information online, so mailing detailed printed materials for review at their leisure is an effective approach for this market niche.
Complex marketing campaigns can overwhelm your customers. With so many marketing channels to choose from, you might consider using all of them at once. Recognize how easily your message can get lost in the daily clutter of information from broadcast media, newspapers, telemarketers, the Internet and the mailbox. Thoughtfully plan your approach to each consumer to make every touch relevant and positively received.
Synchronize your print and electronic marketing strategies. You painstakingly craft your print materials to be visually appealing, persuasive and grammatically correct, but it’s tempting to simply hand your digital initiatives over to the technology department. After all, the tech gurus send your mass e-mails and make your web site functional. To ensure that your company is conveying a consistent brand, image and message you must maintain control of all marketing channels, whether print or electronic.
Events and Direct Marketing Integration: Building Fundraising Success
Category: Planning & Strategy
Thursday, 20 October 2011 00:00
by Mark WarnerParticularly with local and regional organizations, coordinating all your fundraising activities is essential for success. Not only in terms of dollars raised, but communicating with external audiences that your organization functions as a seamless whole.
On many levels, this seems to be self-evident. However, given the competing priorities within any organization, it is often difficult to achieve. Essential to this is welcoming your volunteer leadership into the overall fundraising planning process. Make sure that it includes volunteers from al the functional areas. It’s not uncommon for event volunteers to operate in silos disconnected from other parts of the organization. In the case of auxiliaries, the volunteers may be totally disconnected.
Considering just special events for now, these campaigns need to be approached with the same level of thoroughness as your other appeals. Special events create a unique opportunity for prospects to engage with your organization and donors, both new and old, to rally around your organization’s mission. Inherently well-managed special events aide in the stewardship of donor relations. With this in mind, it is important to create different events and multi-faceted marketing campaigns in an effort to target each of your organization’s donor groups. In addition, your off-line and online campaigns should integrate with those events at some level.
Here are a few questions to ask during the planning process:
How can we integrate special events into our direct marketing calendar?
Are there timing conflicts?
How and when will event attendees be solicited after the event?
Does a particular event attract a specific audience (e.g. young professionals) that needs special messaging and segmentation?
How can we use our direct marketing campaigns to reward high-end sponsors and increase the value of those sponsorships?
Are we creating seamless messages across all our marketing campaigns and events?
Mark Warner launched MDW Consulting in 2009 with more than 15 years of development experience that focused on capital campaigns, major giving and society membership programs. The firm serves the breadth of the not-for-profit sector with highly customized projects that empower clients to increase their fundraising revenue. Mark gives back to the community and the sector as a board member and development committee chair of Strawdog Theatre and as a volunteer docent at the Chicago Architecture Foundation where he leads tours of Millennium Park, Pilsen and the Loop.
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