Many Eye-Catching Finishes Can Make Your Marketing Simply Irresistible.

Marketing specialists are not short on tips for boosting direct mail response rates. A quick online search turns up such ideas as effective copywriting, targeted or one-to-one marketing, data mining, list management and so on. While these are valuable ideas, marketers tend to give short shrift to the physical aspects of the printed piece itself. One especially underutilized technique is the creative use of postpress or finishing options to add additional decorative enhancements to a printed piece. Think of finishing as the icing on the cake.

There are many finishing options available, depending on the desired decorative effect and the budget.

At the most basic level are varnishes or coatings, which printers apply either during or after printing for protection or to add gloss and sheen and make a printed piece “pop.” Printers apply a spot varnish or coating to certain portions of a printed piece, such as a particular image or bit of text, accenting those areas and providing contrast with other areas. Aqueous coatings are water-based and are thus more environmentally friendly than other varnishes and coatings, but they can be more expensive. UV coatings are cured by ultraviolet light and can add greater levels of sheen and protection than varnishes or
aqueous coatings. Varnishes and coatings are also available in a range of gloss levels.

More elaborate finishing techniques can make your printed piece even more eye-catching. Embossing uses dies to create raised (or “relief”) areas that make images or text literally pop, while debossing creates depressed portions of a printed piece. Foils and specialty inks can be added to embossed regions to add even more special effects. Speaking of which, foil stamping applies metallic foils like gold or silver to the substrate, also going a long way toward highlighting text and images.

Regardless of the finishing technique used, it should be appropriate to-and work in concert with-the content or message of the piece itself so that the style and
substance are not working at cross purposes.

Just as you would rarely make a cake without considering icing and other decorative touches, so too shouldn’t you think of creating a printed product without considering finishing processes. Your printer can help you decide on the best options for your specific job.

What determines success with a personalized print campaign? As the use of 1:1 printing becomes more widespread, the industry is starting to put together a series of best practices.

Although each list is somewhat different, each reflects the same set of core values and principles. These lists have been put forth by digital press vendors and suppliers of 1:1 printing software, by industry associations like the Print on Demand Initiative (PODi) and by industry analysis firms like Digital Printing Reports (The Marketer’s Primer Series).

Recently, we saw this core set of best practices reinforced yet again in the What They Think Webinar “Talking to the Marketing Professional.” There, presenters provided a list of eight best practices that all marketers should keep in mind.

1. Tightly identify your target market. Really know and understand to whom you are marketing and why. This allows you to focus your message and make it more relevant.
2. Have good prospect and customer data. Nothing can botch a personalized campaign like misspelled names or outdated data. Marketing relevance starts with good, clean, up-to-date customer information.
3. Use a “value offer” strategy. All the personalization in the world won’t matter if the recipients don’t see the relevance of the contact. Make sure you have a compelling offer that the recipients see as being of importance to them.
4. Coordinate creative execution across multiple media. All direct mail campaigns need a great message and creative. If you reinforce this message across multiple media, such as following up with a personalized e-mail, results can soar.
5. Use interactivity that engages the prospect in a dialog. Don’t just send information out. Get it back! Engage the recipient in a dialog, such as using surveys in personalized URL campaigns. This creates a bond with your company and gives you more information to further target offers in the future.
6. Test, test, test. Since the price per piece of digital press output is the same regardless of the number of pieces printed, this lets you test your message without price penalty. Test different messages. Test different offers. Use every campaign as an opportunity to learn what strategies are most effective with your customer base.
7. Define success metrics. What will you consider success? Are you trying to achieve a certain dollar volume of sales? Have a certain percentage of customers upgrade? Retain a certain percentage of customers? If you don’t define “success” ahead of time, how will you know you’ve achieved your goal?
8. Communicate and share results. Share your results with us. If we know the results of the program, we can use our expertise to help you refine your program next time. If you don’t share results, you are missing an opportunity for even greater success in the future.

When you sit down to create your next 1:1 print marketing program, remember that success doesn’t happen by accident. At the same time, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, either. By considering these best practices, you can get the most out of your campaign.

Since we are surrounded by printed materials, it’s easy to overlook print as a communications medium. However, in its Why Print? brochure, the Print Council offers a list of reasons you should include print in your next marketing campaign. Here are a few salient points about the power of print.

Unlike electronic content, print has staying power. For example, magazines can be passed around to two or three people, which gives advertisers added exposure for their marketing messages. Print is also portable. People can pick up flyers or magazines from a newsstand or trade show exhibit.

For direct mail, print is particularly effective. Researchers with the Direct Marketing Association and the Wharton Economic Forecasting Associates determined that U.S. advertisers spend $167 per person in direct mail marketing. That expenditure results in sales of $2,095 worth of goods per person. In other words, print showed a 13-to-1 return on investment.

Another study showed that when online buyers are ready to buy, they seek out print materials. Online consumers who received a printed catalog from a retailer were almost twice as likely to buy at the retailer’s Website than those who didn’t. A 2005 field study by the Direct Marketing Association indicated catalogs accounted for 42% of sales, retail 20%, Websites 26% and other channels accounted for 12%.

Newspaper readers also use print to for shopping. A 2006 study by the Newspaper Association of America showed that 78% of readers used newspaper inserts to plan shopping, and 76% said that the inserts helped them save money.

Ink-on-paper is familiar and real. People are comfortable with it. A Graphic Design USA survey showed that 71% of designers’ work hours were devoted to print projects. For example, at events, programs, posters and signage all involve print. Anywhere people gather, print offers a platform for marketers to have their message seen.

Although times change, some things remain the same. Print is unlikely to go away because it still is a viable way to communicate. The Magazine Publishers of America studied 36 brands that shifted their ad expenditures from TV to magazines. The results showed that their media effectiveness scores doubled over time. If you are wondering “Why print?”, the answer is because it works.

Customer loyalty is more than keeping your customers for a long time. As defined in the article, “Creating Customer Loyalty by Listening,” it includes their willingness to purchase more products and services and in turn, tell others about your brand. This takes more than providing a good product or service. It requires two-way communication that enables you to understand your customers’ wants and needs so that you can deepen that relationship and protect it against the marketing  strategies of your competitors.

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SUMMER FUN! Well, it’s hard to believe the last day of school is less than a month away for many kids! Summer can also be a time for businesses to re-think their marketing/advertising strategy for the remainder of the year! Your success or survival can depend on a solid plan for communicating with customers; a plan that includes cross platform relationship builders as well fostering trust in you and your brand. Ask yourself the following questions: Are you frustrated with weak sales or ineffective marketing materials or brand? Are you concerned about losing out to the competition? Are you upset because your marketing isn’t a planned process? Tired of doing it alone, and don’t know where to start or think you can’t afford a marketing company?   These are all serious questions and issues to think about, especially now, before the dog days of summer are upon us. Give me a call to today to schedule some time to talk, or check out some of our success stories at my blog http://www.tcreative.com/news/, or follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/timholcomb, or Facebook - Tim Holcomb. Have Fun in the Sun! T Tim Holcomb 407-628-1772 x 111 tim@tcreative.com 321-277-8763 (mobile)