Category Archives: Direct Mail

Better Letter Direct Mail Sandy Springs GA Teaches Creating The Perfecting The Johnson Box

Better Letter Direct Mail Sandy Springs GA Teaches Creating The Perfecting The Johnson Box

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Direct Mail Tips Perfecting The Johnson BoxUse 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.

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Direct Mail Sandy Springs GA

The Mistakes That You Can’t Afford To Make With Your Direct Mail Design

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When people on your mailing list receive your mailer, they need to stop what they’re doing to see what it’s about. You need to make it worth their while to be interrupted in this way. Everything about your mailer needs to look legitimate, honest and pleasing.

Unfortunately, a great deal of direct mail completely gets it wrong on all three counts. If you’re planning a campaign, appreciation of these mistakes can be a quick way to set your mailers apart from the majority of what your audience receives.

Using transparent hook lines

Direct mail marketing that tries to snag your attention with loud words like Urgent, Time sensitive information inside, You’ve been hand-selected for this offer and Free shopping worth $5,000 tends to be seen by consumers as completely worn out today. People realize that offers that go out to hundreds of people cannot be all that special. These types of hook lines clearly mark a direct mail as junk.

Since most people know that sensationalist hook lines never amount to much, honest, humble, brief, consistent and transparent messages are the only way to make a point now. You need to offer usable information that will help consumers see that you have something special to offer. It is especially important to drop every word from your vocabulary that is likely to put a consumer on alert for cheap tricks. Terms such as Free, Save, Special, $$$ and the use of excessive punctuation do not work.

Using uninformative envelopes

A large bulk of direct mail ends up in the trash simply because the envelopes that they are sent in do not offer information about their contents. They are plain envelopes printed with nothing other than the name of the sender and his company’s name. Businesses that aren’t already very popular with their target audience are unlikely to get far with these envelopes.

It’s important to research your audience and find out exactly what you can say on your envelopes to appeal to them. There is no other way for them to know that opening an envelope from you is likely to be worthwhile.

Placing your marketing promises front and center

Cheap infomercials have a common angle to getting your attention: they put their Save 50% today messages and Money-back guarantee, no questions asked messages front and center. Sometimes, you even see these messages before you hear about the product. It’s as if their money-back guarantee is the core benefit to dealing with them.

While savings and guarantees are important trust builders, stressing on these ideas only makes people think that your product is so bad that you’re afraid to even talk about it before you offer savings and guarantees.

A winning direct mail focuses tightly on the needs of the consumer and the way the product meets them better than anything else.

Making the call to action hard to find

Many direct mail letters work so hard to tell consumers about how attractive their special pricing is that they neglect to make it clear what the consumer needs to do to actually buy. While they set out the benefits and savings in attractive print, the buying area is in small, black ink, and in a part of the mailer that doesn’t draw attention.

In a sensible direct mailer, the call to action is where the customer would naturally expect it to be. It is double-checked for intuitive placement, right next to the value proposition.

Finally, you should never make the mistake of looking like a spammer: you should never overlook the necessity of an opt-out. Professional mailers always give consumers the right to ask to not be bothered with mail. A prominent opt-out option makes you look legitimate like nothing else can.

Peachtree City Direct Mail Company

How to Develop an Effective Direct Mail Strategy

direct mail company suwanee gaDirect mail can offer a valuable, cost-effective way to market your business. However, before you embark on a direct mail campaign, it is important to take time to define your goals and targets. If you understand what you want to achieve before you begin your direct mail campaign, you will be able to measure whether or not it has been successful. By taking time to develop a direct mail strategy, you can be confident that you will remain in control of your marketing.

New or Existing Customers?

The first decision that you will need to make is whether you want to attract new customers or encourage existing customers to return and purchase additional products or services. The approach that you will take in your direct mail material will vary depending on which option you want to prioritize. You may want to introduce a heavily discounted offer for new customers to encourage them to make contact with you or come into your store for the first time. Alternatively, you could contact existing customers by direct mail to remind them of the high level of quality and service that you have provided in the past and highlight new offers.

Targeted Marketing

Direct mail campaign are most successful when they are targeted. If you are a local business, you may want to place a geographical restriction on your campaign to ensure that you are not wasting time, effort, and money trying to attract customers who are outwith the area that you serve. If your products or services are geared towards families, you may want to target households with children. By targeting your direct mail campaign, you can increase your response rates.

Evaluating Your Direct Mail Campaign

After your campaign is over, you should set aside time to evaluate it and decide whether it has been a success based on the goals that you set before you started. In this way, you can decide whether to repeat the same campaign. If it has not been as successful as you had hoped, you can identify the changes you need to make to implement a successful campaign in the future. You can measure your response rate by including a unique code on the marketing material that customers need to quote when they make contact with you. By tracking how many customers use this code, you can determine how much business has been generated by the campaign. If you have employees who will deal with customers on your behalf, ensure that you brief them to ask for the code while the campaign is live to ensure that your response rate measurements are accurate.

Has Online Marketing Killed Off Direct Mail?

With the rise in popularity of online marketing channels, such as email and internet advertising, it may be time to ask whether there is still a place for direct mail in your marketing toolkit. Do consumers view direct mail as old fashioned and crave new online options or is direct mail still alive and kicking?

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Direct Mail Remains a Key Part of the Marketing Mix:

The simple answer is that direct mail still delivers results. The effectiveness of direct mail explains why it remains a key part of the marketing strategy for most small businesses. In a study conducted for Pitney Bowes in 2011, 76% of small businesses agreed that ideal marketing mix included both physical and digital communications. In 2012, U.S. businesses spent $93.6 billion on traditional offline forms of marketing, including direct mail, compared to $62 billion on digital marketing. These figures were generated in a study conducted by Professor John Deighton or Harvard University and Professor Peter Johnson of Columbia University.

Customers Respond to Direct Mail:

Businesses continue to invest in direct mail because it generates a response from their customers. The U.S. Postal Service has been conducting a multi-year study since 1987. The Household Diary Study examines the use of the mail service by American households. According to the USPS study, households take action in response to one in ten pieces of direct mail. In a European study, undertaken by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in 2013, 79% of the consumers questioned indicated that they would respond to direct mail immediately, compared to only 45% who would respond to email marketing straight away. In a study conducted by Robert G. Magee of Virginia Tech, published in March 2013, consumers had greater recall of information read in printed format rather than online. While 82% of respondents recalled receiving a printed version of the material distributed, only 49% had any recollection of receiving the email inviting them to view it online.

Conclusions:

The studies quoted above, conducted over the last few years, reveal that direct mail is still alive and well. It remains an important channel for the majority of businesses and their customers. In a world where consumers are bombarded by marketing, direct mail continues to stand out. It arrives at customers’ homes and elicits an immediate response that email and online channels cannot match. Provided it forms part of a well thought out marketing strategy, direct mail can be a valuable investment for small businesses.

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Direct Mail Is Still The Way With Atlanta Direct Mail Services Better Letter

mailingDirect Mail Marketing is an essential and invaluable tool when seeking to build and sustain profitable relationships with current and prospective customers. Whether you need to purchase a mailing list or utilize your own database, there are several creative ways Better Letter Mailing Services of Atlanta GA can add value to your mass mailings. While simultaneously boosting your sales and growing your business, reaching more customers with your message tailored to an audience targeted within a particular market niche will translate both qualitatively and quantitatively into increased revenue and brand loyalty. Direct mail is the easiest and most cost effective way to achieve such consistent and measurable success.

Direct Mail Still The “Method Of Choice”

Reactivating old accounts does not happen without persistent contact via direct mailing services to your list of customers. A successful direct mail campaign remains the method of choice for discerning entrepreneurs and businesses to stay in touch with current contacts and make new contacts. Combined with personalized follow up, direct mail is a critical step in the sales process for businesses of any size. The mailing of informational material can start generating new business contacts almost immediately. Also, announcing changes in your company’s organization, products, or services will initiate curiosity which could encourage prospects and existing customers to take action now rather than later. Educating customers and prospective customers with informational newsletters and brochures takes time, research, and professional expertise. Better Letter Mailing Services can help you achieve success in your marketing plan, and often help you even exceed projected sales and marketing goals.

Atlanta Direct Mail Services

The ability to target a specific audience is perhaps the most attractive aspect of direct mail. Developing your brand, initiating or enhancing target market presence, and increasing sales profitability in the most cost effective manner are all within the realm of a successful direct mail company like Better Letter Mailing Services. In order to help you qualify for maximum postage discounts and quick delivery service, Better Letter presorts and pre-barcodes your mail while adhering very strictly to postal guidelines and regulations. Atlanta Direct Mail Services Better Letter’s mail piece design expertise is unmatched anywhere else in the Atlanta, GA area.

It’s About Exploiting Your Relationships

Successful companies realize and exploit the fact that direct mail is one of the most cost effective method of sales promotion, community relations, and leveraging existing customer relationships. Organizations looking to strategically accelerate business growth, keep the attention of specific target markets, and consistently realize measurable results by using the services of Better Letter Mailing Services in Atlanta, GA. Outsourcing you mail work directly to our production facility located in Metro Atlanta takes the stress and the struggle our or creating a successful marketing plan. We can manage direct mail jobs from the largest to the smallest. Our investment in state of the art equipment makes certain that we can deliver on time and at a lower cost each and every time.

With Political Mail You Should Vote For Direct Mail Company Alpharetta Georgia Better Letter

direct mail alpharetta better letterIt is more important than ever before to focus your campaign efforts on your target audience. As I’m sure you’re well aware, the only people can vote for you are the registered voters in your district. It is imperative that you get your name and your message in front of these key voters in the final weeks before the election.

Focus /fəʊkəs/: to concentrate attention or energy

The overpowering advantages that direct mail has over other marketing mediums is that you can directly and specifically target your audience. The only people that can come out to the polls and vote for you are the registered voters in your district. With direct mail you can specifically target the registered voters in your party, and in your district, that voted in the last election. These are the voters that are most likely to come out and vote again. Also, direct mail allows you to send a specific message to a targeted group within your district, i.e. female voters, or newly registered voters, or any other demographic group of your choice. Direct mail makes it possible for you to spend your campaign budget targeting your specific message to that specific group. Why spend your precious advertising dollars sending your message out to people who don’t live in your district and who aren’t even registered to vote? Direct mail just makes the most sense.

Direct Mail Company Alpharetta Georgia

Better Letter is a full service print-to-mail production facility located right here in Atlanta GA. We serve the entire southeastern United States. We have over twenty years of experience in helping political candidates use direct mail to make their campaigns more efficient and more cost effective. Not only can we design and print your mail pieces for you, but we can also presort and pre-barcode your mass mailings for maximum postage discounts.

We Don’t Like To Brag. So We Won’t. Direct Mail Company Norcross GA Better Letter (We’re #1)

Better Letter Mailing Services Norcoss GADirect mail marketing is straightforward, effective, important, trackable marketing that enables companies and organizations to take their message straight to the customer. Businesses and organizations from the self employed handyman to fortune 500 firms use direct mail to reach their advertising objectives.

CALL NOW FOR DIRECT MAIL HELP: 678-565-9388

Direct mail advertising and marketing support services are a tried and tested means to improve company.

At Direct Mail Company Norcross GA Better Letter Mailing Services we can take your marketing concepts from start to shipping without the requirement for you to do any of the work. You could keep caring for your business and leave direct mail marketing to the experts at Better Letter.

By utilizing dynamic & colorful designs and a strong call to action direct-mail advertising has been verified to increase company and has a significant perk of quantifiable, trackable responses from clients. A well established and targeted subscriber list could confirm to be a favorable return on your marketing investment by revealing simply the amount of customers reply to your particular telephone call to activity.

Custom To Your Message

Direct mail advertising and marketing campaigns can be customized to consumers based upon requirements such as location, income, age, career and as you will certainly view in our list types web page, certain targeted newsletter can be established for practically any type of geographical or demographic requirements you can dream up.

It’s all about targeting! We supply a full range of campaign administration services in order to optimize the power of data.

Grow Your Business Through Direct Mail

In today’s financial environment, firms need all the help they could acquire. Fortunately, innovation is on our side!

Better Letter supplies Data Processing and Listing Administration services to maximize the power of your information. In addition, we’ll tailor our QR Codes and Direct Mail Marketing services to satisfy your exact necessities.

Clean Targets & Objectives

Here at Better Letter Direct Mail Advertising, we’ll help you target your audience with mix of solutions, then adhere to in-depth tracking every step of the method. With our expert, effective advertising and marketing options, you will certainly get the results you have actually come to expect. Use the web links over to read more concerning our Advertising and marketing Solutions.

Here at Better Letter Direct Mail Marketing, we’ll aid you target your audience with combination of services, then adhere to up with comprehensive tracking every step of the method. With our expert, efficient advertising and marketing remedies, you will acquire the results you’ve come to expect.

Direct Mail Marketing The Surest Way To Fail

Mailing Services Smyrna GA Better LetterWhen conducting direct mail marketing there is one sure way to fail, just fail to “ask”. In all the details of the marketing campaign from cost, design, printing and mailing it is easy to overlook one very important factor.

Mailing Services Smyrna GA

Have you ever received an advertisement or read an article that was very convincing? It caught your attention with a dynamic design. It conveyed good information about a product or service. However, you simply discarded the advertisement and went on to the next thing that got your attention. What happened? You were not asked to do anything, so you did nothing.

Strong Call To Action

It is important to give a strong call to action in any advertisement. Sometimes the call can be simple phrases like “Call Now” or “Buy Now”. Some others start out by giving subtle hints in the copy of the mail piece. Like, “check out our website” or “get a copy of our catalog”. By the end of the sales pitch however, the call to action must be strong in order to help people decide to purchase your product or service.

Give Me Some Direction

One of the reasons a call to action is so effective, is that consumers rely heavily upon what others tell them and respond to those suggestions. Position yourself to be one of those influences. Of course consciously, they would never rely on the sales piece to help them make that decision, however sub consciously that little bit of direction will spur them to take the next step.

To help understand the process lets break the steps to a converted sale down a little further.

  1. The consumer’s attention is caught by the mail piece. Perhaps it is the colors or pictures on the advertisement, or maybe it is a subject in which the consumer is interested.
  2. The consumer reads over the advertisement and is convinced how the product or service will be beneficial.
  3. A clear, simple call to action is given. The consumer sees the call and realizes that in order to enjoy the benefits the action must be taken.
  4. The consumer completes the action resulting in a sale or lead for your company.

It doesn’t matter if the color scheme and design of your mail piece is perfect and you outline the benefits of your product masterfully, if you do not give a call to action the process will be incomplete and you will not make the sale.  So if you want to make the most of your direct mail marketing, make sure you ask your potential customers for it specifically, over and over again.

Atlanta Direct Mail Advertising a Simple Guide

Direct mail advertising is by far the most cost efficient method of getting your business in front of people to generate interest in your product or service. As opposed to other forms of advertising such as the yellow pages, you can actually generate new customers who have never even heard of your product or service before.

1. What Is Your Product

I know what your thinking, I already know what my product is. Well that’s great, but are you able to articulate your service or product in one sentence. Perhaps your business has several different offerings and micro-marketing would be more effective. For example, “I help people save money with energy efficient windows” is much more specific and effective than “I do home improvements”.  It is a good idea to micro-market your services in a mailer, so pick one service you offer and stick to it. Once you get the customer, you can always up sale them on your other services.

2. Who Buys Your Product

This is something we harp on constantly, but if you are targeting the wrong audience, you are not going to get a good response. Pay attention to the personalities of individuals you do business with. What is their background and culture? Create a profile of your customer so you know who you need to target with your Atlanta direct mail advertising.

3. Why Do Customers Buy Your Product Or Service

What is the greatest benefit offered to the person who buys your product. People want to know the benefit of your product or service, not just the features. If you can show them that their life will improve in some way, they will be more apt to buy. If all you do is list your features and do not show the benefits of the features, you will not have a successful Atlanta direct mail campaign.

4. How Are You Going To Reach Them

Would a five page personalized letter sent be more effective than a simple postcard.  Based upon the “Who” and the “Why”, what will peak your potential customer’s interest while building trust. Of course other factors come into play such as budget, but it is definitely worth your time to figure out how you are going to impact them.

5. Where Do Your Customer’s Live

Do they live in million dollar suburbs or do the live in midtown? You need to find out, because birds of a feather flock together. If you have customers concentrated in an area, you know that people in that area are interested in your product. So find out where that is. You can also simply break it down by income. Mailing services can help you with this or you can visit your tax assessors’ county website.

6. When Is The Best Time To Send Out Your Atlanta Direct Mail Advertising

It is best to start getting your name in front of your customers a couple of months before you hit the big season. For example, if you install swimming pools, send out two mailers in January, February and March. That will put you in front of your potential customer six times before the main season hits. In April, send out a mailer every week and you will see a big bang because the potential customers will remember your name and already be comfortable with your business.

Atlanta Direct Mail Advertising is an effective way to get your name out there and drum up some business, even when other companies are struggling. As long as you do your homework, you should get some great results. Happy Hunting!

Deailing With Economic Downturn For Small Businesses

CNN just keeps pounding away. Again and again, the big “R” word, Recession. Experts pose the question “Are we entering a depression?”, and other experts answer the question with full certainty.  All the time, their viewers grow more and more anxious.  In the end, people’s fears and anxiety and the constant news cycle almost make the downward trend inevitable, a self fulfilling prophesy.

I am not picking on CNN, all the news channels do it. And while they are stirring people’s fears, they are also capitalizing on the situation with huge advertising dollars.

An Honest Assessment

Make an honest assessment of your business. Take everything into account. Your budget, what projects or sales you actually have on your books and which ones you can honestly count on. What was last years sales for the first quarter? This is all information that you need to use to help you determine your projected sales.

Create a spreadsheet and compare the numbers. Project what your first quarter revenue is going to be. Is it going to be higher or lower than last years? If it is going to be lower, you need to find a way to make up the difference by either cutting your budget or upping your marketing.

Support vs. Sales

When tightening your belt, its best to cut from the support area. That is why you will see retail corporations cut corporate jobs before they cut store jobs. Why? Because the store jobs generate the revenue. Without the revenue the business ceases to exist.

I hate firing somebody as much as the next guy (although some of us seem to enjoy it, i.e. Donald Trump). But sometimes you have to shed some weight so that the whole business does not close and everyone, including you, lose their income.

Is a new computer a reasonable expense? Is it a necessity? Will having it increase your sales? If so, buy it, otherwise wait for a strong profit before making the purchase.

If your business is struggling, you have to have only essential personnel, stock and equipment. You can run the business on a skeletal structure. It may mean longer hours for you, but do not worry, it is not going to be long term.

Your Marketing Budget

Many business owners are tempted to cut marketing budgets in lean times instead of cutting back on other expenses. Its easier not to buy that ad or send out that mailing than let an employee go. However, in a lean economic time, it is imperative that your marketing budget grow, not shrink.

If you do not have customers, you will not survive. The only way to get customers is to make sales. The only way to make sales is to have leads or in store walk ins for retail locations. If the market has shrunk, you need more of the market share in order to survive, and dare I say it, prosper.

A Time Of Opportunity

The depression is famous for many things. Mainly, depression, fear, soup lines, and unemployment. But there is another little known fact about the depression that should be touted. More millionaires were made in that time period than any other time period in our nation’s history. That includes the tech boom and dot com era.

During the depression, there were men and women who were not faint hearted who laid it all on the line and went for it, they pursued their dreams when many people were just sitting around feeling sorry for themselves waiting for the government to “bail” them out.

They realized that as big business and small business alike faltered, opportunity was born. They went for it in the midst of the tragedy and it paid off huge dividends for them, their families and all the people they employed.

If you are facing a downward turn in your business, remember that your competitors are too. Businesses will close. People will be laid off, but at the end of the day someone is going to come out of the fray on top, and it minds well be you.