Category Archives: Direct Mail

Call Better Letter: 678-565-9388

Better Letter Mailing Services, Inc. of Stockbridge GA is a full service print-to-mail production facility that serves the Atlanta GA area as well as the entire Southeast. This successful direct mail marketing company has been serving the Atlanta area for over 20 years. They pride themselves on making, what they affectionately call, a “better letter”. Their niche in the Atlanta GA direct mail advertising market is that they provide a quality direct mail product, at an extremely competitive price, with better customer service. Actually, the founder and president of Better Letter, Chuck Ekstedt, will not only insist that their level of service is “better”, but it is more likely to insist that it is the “best” in the industry.

Chuck founded this company in the basement of his home over 20 years ago, doing most of the work by hand. Now Better Letter occupies over 10,000 square feet of commercial real estate, employs graphic design professionals, data processing professionals, experienced production personnel, and every aspect of production is completely automated. Better Letter offers every direct mail service you would expect to receive from any professional direct mail marketing company. All of their mail production and print production is done in-house, right here in Atlanta. Not only that, but Chucks office is located directly next to the production area, with windows overlooking the entire operation. Even though Chuck is the President and Founding Officer, he keeps all elements of production very close. His philosophy on production is “Do it right the first time… NO MISTAKES.”. The quality control process is rigorous at Better Letter. Chuck will tell you himself, “Direct mail is extremely time sensitive… re-printing or re-running is not an option. It must be done right the first time, and mailed on-time… every time.”

This insistence on quality is why Chuck named the company Better Letter. “Excellent quality, in both production and customer service, is more of a journey than a destination. Everything can always be done better… always”.

Contact Better Letter for all of your direct mail needs! 678-565-9388

Direct Mail Company Stockbridge GA

Call Better Letter: 678-565-9388

It can’t matter how great the offers included in your direct mail are if people don’t open it at all. If you want your direct mail to always get opened, you need to do a few things differently. The tips here should help you get on the right track designing the mailers in your direct mail.

You need to offer excellent perceived value

People tend to find certain kinds of appearance irresistible in a piece of marketing mail. Bulk, size and weight usually make people believe that the contents are a must-see. Mailers that include items of some practical value — a simple flag, a pen, a fridge magnet or a bumper sticker with a clever message — are always opened. These items simply need to be visible through a window. Many people can’t see the point of letting something of use go to waste.

You need to make it look personal

No one will ever mistake a thick mailer for a personal letter from a friend. Nevertheless, the mind has a way of making you feel things that you know to not be true. Direct mail sent in an envelope that approximates the look of personal mail does get opened more. People feel better about such mail. Using a handwriting-style typeface and postage stamps instead of postage franking can help.

Make use of every inch of space available

An envelope offers a great deal of space that’s usually left to go to waste. Good, well-chosen messages that are likely to appeal to your target audience should always go on the unused space on your envelopes. It can also be an idea to put large glassine/cellophane windows in portions of the envelope to allow people a look inside. This way, recipients won’t have to actually open your envelopes to see some of the best of what you have to offer.

Focus hard on relevance

If you catch the right kind of customer at the right of time, you won’t need to worry at all about whether your mail will be opened. Doing your research to build a great mailing list full of relevant names, then, is the most important thing that you can do to make sure that your mail is opened.

Invest in clever copy

Rather than try to hit your audience over the head with loud offers and promises, you should consider investing in high-quality copy — both on the envelope and inside. Deep, clever lines that your audience never heard before are likely to impress them and to get them to pay attention to your mail.

Finally, consider mail that doesn’t need opening

Well-designed direct-mail postcards can work much better than expensive, thick envelopes simply because they don’t need to be opened. Colorful, beautifully designed postcards with well-thought-out marketing messages are often quickly read.

Contact Better Letter for all of your direct mail needs! 678-565-9388

Direct Mail Company Macon GA

Call Better Letter: 678-565-9388

Direct mail marketing is constantly attacked as over the hill. When you come across such criticism, it can be easy to wonder if these assertions are true. When you have a choice between direct mail and email marketing, these rumours may persuade you to go with the email alternative. That would be a mistake, though. Not only is direct mail alive and well, it often achieves better results for businesses than email marketing.

Direct mail looks better and lives longer

While marketing emails can employ full-color graphics, they either live on tiny phone screens or need to be viewed on computers that aren’t always available. Even when printed, beautifully designed marketing emails can end up flat and unattractive on simple, printer paper. Direct mail, on the other hand, is always available to customers who receive it. Being printed on quality paper, it is also capable of a far more attractive effect than most marketing email.

People remember what they see on paper far better

Research has repeatedly shown (see: healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/) that people remember things better when they get their information off physical, printed material. The brain simply doesn’t take screens seriously. Direct mail, then, is far more likely to be remembered than marketing emails.

Direct mail can boost your online presence

Direct mail and marketing email don’t necessarily live in separate worlds. Direct mail often successfully pushes people to try online shopping at the company’s website. Many small businesses successfully use direct marketing as a way to build their email marketing databases. When they deliver direct mail to everyone in their ZIP code, they get to ask for email addresses too. They end up with tightly focused email lists.

Direct mail cannot be caught by spam filters

Gmail became the world’s largest email provider in 2012, with nearly half a billion active users. Gmail’s powerful email filtering technology is one of the biggest reasons people love the service. Not only is it extremely effective at identifying spam, it is able to separate marketing emails and file them under a separate inbox tab called Promotions. Other email services are increasingly competent at deploying filtering technology, too. Whether or not marketing emails are effective, then, is moot — a large number of marketing email recipients never get to see their mail.

More people see direct mail than marketing emails

When a household receives direct mail, the recipient doesn’t jealously protect it. It is left lying around for anyone to see. Over a period of days, the recipient, family members and friends who visit get to see the mailer over and over.

You get to wow your audience with size

Electronic communications are necessarily the size of the screen that readers view them on. Every email, then, is the exact same size. With direct mail, though, you get to stand out on size. You can send giant-sized mailers, mailers that have special shapes, ones that open like pop-up cards or anything else. You can’t fail to stand out and impress.

With certain age groups, direct mail is more effective

A study done by Bolt Insurance finds that only 25% of new customers arriving at businesses make their purchase decisions based on a marketing email. One in three, though, engage with a business based on direct mail. Compared to email-based marketing, direct mail is much more effective at getting customers to respond.

Contact Better Letter for all of your direct mail needs! 678-565-9388

Bulk Mail Norcross GA

Call Better Letter: 678-565-9388

To marketers who put most of their budgets into electronic methods of reaching out to their customer base, direct mail marketing can seem old fashioned, expensive and laborious. It is none of these things, though. Not only does it achieve results that email marketing cannot, it offers better bang for the advertiser’s buck. Here are 6 important ways in which direct mail marketing turns out to be far superior to email marketing.

Direct mail helps you stand out

In the late 90s, people still received as much junk mail as ever. Since email marketing was still in its infancy, people didn’t mind a couple of marketing emails every now and then. Today, though, people are so swamped with marketing email that they dread looking at their inboxes. Surveys now find, on the other hand, that many consumers welcome physical mail. They don’t get to see much of it anymore. Since they receive little of it, they remember whatever they do get — and the businesses that send them.

Direct mail tends to feel more personal

According to a survey by the USPS, two out of three Americans see direct mail as more personal than marketing email. Email, to these people, feels disposable and mechanical. Anyone can send off thousands of them for next to no money. When people receive a well-done piece of direct mail, they feel that the company actually thinks about them. It’s easy for businesses to go even farther. Rather than send out email birthday greetings or Christmas greetings, they could send out paper cards. They are likely to feel much more personal.

Direct mail gets read sooner

To those born before the eighties, getting mail and opening it each day is a part of who they are. They’ve grown up with mail as an important part of the daily routine. Surveys by the USPS report that such people tend to be distressed when they don’t receive any mail. When they do receive it, they rush to open it. No one rushes to open marketing email messages.

Many people still like to refer to physical material to make decisions

To people who grew up depending on booklets, brochures and forms to make decisions, going with a business that lets them have such physical materials can be very tempting. A 35- or 40-year-old consumer who grew up making decisions based on physical materials is likely to pick a company that gives him such materials over one that doesn’t. Whether it is a car buying decision or a decision to pick a college, physical materials are likely to win with decision-makers. Marketers, then, should aim for direct mail when their customer base likes it better — even when they have email addresses.

Postal addresses are easier to come by

Street addresses tend to be much more freely available than email addresses. Marketers have access to various public records to find out where people live. Choosing direct mail, then, may sometimes be the only choice. When it comes to certain businesses like home repair, real estate sales and HVAC maintenance that need to cover entire neighborhoods with advertising, trying to find email addresses of each resident can be impossible. Direct mail may be the only option.

Direct mail does more than to simply send out brochures and letters

In many cases, businesses need to send out samples of their products or marketing materials — swatches, perfumes, bumper stickers, bookmarks, pens and so on. While e-mail may be cheaper and quicker than direct mail, it is also less capable when it comes to such convenience.

Contact Better Letter for all of your direct mail needs! 678-565-9388

Direct Mail Company Conyers GA

Call Better Letter: 678-565-9388

In many B2B scenarios, direct mail tends to be far more effective as a marketing method than email. Pharmaceutical businesses reaching out to healthcare professionals, for instance, need to include reference material that’s easy to access. Office supply businesses and printing businesses do better with direct mail, too. They get to show potential customers exactly how good they are in the stationery and printing business by communicating in print. Catalogs work very well in the B2B space, as well. Compared to emails, they are much more easily shared in meetings. Here are tips that can help you plan a B2B direct mailing campaign.

Be completely relevant

While poorly directed marketing materials are a bad idea for consumer businesses, they are completely unacceptable in the B2B space. If you sell maintenance services, you need to specialize in the very equipment the business uses. If you sell business insurance, you need to only include information about the specific kind of insurance services the business is likely to need, and no other.

Email marketers go so far in their attempt at relevance that they schedule their delivery times when they believe recipients at businesses everywhere will be at their most open to their communications. Direct mail cannot afford to be left behind. Delivering mailers on exactly the right days of the week and the right times is vital.

Remember that direct mail is only one part of your strategy

The more ways you have of connecting with your business customers, the more effective your message will be. From magazine spots to cost-per-click advertising and from email marketing to telemarketing, it’s important to place your message before your target audience in multiple ways to make sure that you reach them. Direct mail is an important additional way to take up.

Remember that your target audience is over 30

Since most business owners are over the age of 30, they tend to be most comfortable with conventional, printed marketing materials, having grown up with them. When you want to reach them, direct mail is likely to be far more effective than electronic methods. It’s important, then, to think your direct mailing material through. Since your target audience will depend on your mailers more than any other source to make a decision about your business, you will need to make them as informative and attractive as possible.

Determine your budget for the return you need

In the B2B area, direct mail tends to be somewhat underused. Businesses that do use it often simply employ it in the lead generation stage, abandoning it in favor of electronic methods later on. Businesses that learn to use direct mail throughout the marketing process, then, easily stand out. Direct mail can be so effective in B2B scenarios that businesses often manage stellar results even when all they have is a tiny budget.

Contact Better Letter for all of your direct mail needs! 678-565-9388

Direct Mail Alpharetta

Call Better Letter: 678-565-9388

Use of a bold Johnson Box, complete with distinctly relevant and personalized information, immediately engages the reader.

Frank Johnson, creator of the Johnson Box, died on March 8, 2001 at the ripe old age of 88. He had been a strategic direct mail copywriter and was one of the first to take marketing to new heights within the direct mail industry by anticipating and boosting the response of the letters he was writing. He accomplished this by placing key information at the top of letters with the intention of quickly taking control of a reader’s attention.

Imaginably, Frank Johnson may have happened upon this inspired concept from reading newspaper headlines which had been capturing the attention of readers with intensely exciting headlines compelling them to turn the page and read on. Regardless of the impetus for Johnson’s inspiration, the concept worked and the Johnson Box has since been a mainstay for marketers from local fund-raisers to Madison Avenue and everywhere in between.

This is one strategic design tip you can begin using right away with direct mail. Determine the main benefit of your offer for the target audience and position it in the Johnson Box. Also include contact information such as your phone number or your URL so readers can act on this information immediately. Do not be afraid to think outside of the box and allow creativity to thrive. Substitute asymmetrical shapes, circles, or simply enlarged plain text with no box at all to serve the purpose of the Johnson Box. The main point is to highlight and personalize what you are offering.

However you choose to utilize the Johnson Box concept, make a Johnson Box appropriate for the particular letter and unique package objectives. One size does not necessarily fit all. Research, document, test, and perfect your messaging with the help of a professional direct mail company. Test different Johnson Box ideas with the same letter and artwork as well as with different designs. Although marketing is arguably more of an art than a science, even if the response rate increases only marginally, it could mean much more in the lifetime value of a customer and in your ROI. As with all of the other tools available to savvy marketers and business owners, a Johnson Box is one of the easiest ways to cause direct marketing response rates to upsurge.

Who are people and what on earth motivates them to act now? The combination of training, experience, temperament, background, involvement, and matters of, relating to, or involving a combination of social and economic factors will impact people’s behavior whether they work alone or as part of a family or team. Once marketers have won the battle for attention, they must then identify a problem in need of a solution. Then, having taken advantage of an opportunity to position their product, service, or organization as the most preferable solution, marketers must prove their worth with credible performance and follow up with an invitation to act. Direct mail is the most effective method of packaging all five of these crucial motivating steps sequentially into one cohesive piece of tangible messaging and the Johnson Box concept has proven to be an extremely effective tool in getting marketers to first base.

Contact Better Letter for all of your direct mail needs! 678-565-9388

bulk mail smyrna

Call Better Letter: 678-565-9388

In the modern business world, most marketers already understand the importance of direct mail marketing, and person-to-person communication. Unfortunately, they still neglect some time tested techniques to ensure positive results. A professional direct mail company in Tucker Georgia focuses on every aspect to make sure you receive a better return on your investment.

Most Important Element

A professional direct mail company understands that the letter is the most important element in the package. The results have been derived from numerous tests regarding letter-based mailings and different kinds of packages. Packages with letters are always more likely to give better results.

The Most Successful Format or Mail Package

The classic mail package with the outer envelope, enclosure, reply card and letter has known to be quite effective. According to experts, the letter introduces the subject, explains the benefits and asks for a desired action. The encloSure completely supports the letter, and further explains the service or product in detail. The reply card makes it easier for the person to respond.

Regardless of the package you choose, it needs to be strategically sound. For best results, it’s better to test various combinations until you find the most suitable one. You should experiment with packages with and without letters,

Two Page or Single Page Letter

According to industry experts, a two page letter always tends to outperform a single page letter. The primary reason is that a longer letter provides the reader with more information. However, you need to focus on the content of your letter. It’s important to tell your whole story to the recipient. You need to keep the content concise and straightforward. It should not seem dull or boring.

Are Envelopes or Teaser Copies Helpful?

It’s worth mentioning that envelopes and teaser copies are quite effective to get the mail opened. It’s important to understand that you just have a few seconds to grab the recipient’s attention. In case the envelope is blank, there’s no compelling reason to open the package. An exception to this rule is your established customers. When you already have a strong relationship with the recipient, you can expect the package to be opened without any hurdles.

Plain Envelope or Window Envelope?

A direct mail company in Tucker Georgia will also help you decide between a plain envelope or window envelope. There’s a common misconception that a window envelope can make your package look similar to a check or an invoice. However, your choice will just depend on your preferences. It’s worth mentioning that windows envelopes are more expensive than plain envelopes. The cost isn’t always justified.

Direct Mail Company Tucker GA

Call Today!