8 Of The Best Direct Mail Examples To Inspire Your Next Advertising Campaign

Mailbox Mailer Inspiration

8 Of The Best Direct Mail Examples To Inspire Your Next Advertising Campaign

Mailbox Mailer Inspiration

Fed up with the changing algorithm of search engines like Google making it more difficult to advertise online? Not reaching your target audience on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram? Finding it hard to keep up with the ever changing digital marketing landscape? Wish there was an effective way to reach your target audience and convert prospects into customers like crazy?

Well, there is. And, it’s actually been around for a long time – direct mail marketing. Need some inspiration for your next direct mail advertising campaign? Check out the different benefits of these great direct mail examples for creating winning mail campaigns.

Response Rate by Selected Media

Direct Mail Marketing Response

Direct Mail has the highest response rates – higher than email, paid search, online display and social media combined. Direct mail marketing has been around for a long time and it’s still an effective method of reaching your customers and prospects – now more than ever!
Now you can even track the success of your direct mail campaign with omni-channel marketing solutions.

What Makes Direct Mail So Effective?

The effectiveness of direct mail is directly related to three key aspects of any campaign: the offer, a targeted list and the creative design. We typically apply a 40/40/20 strategy to these key aspects whereby 40% of the effectiveness of a campaign is dependent on the offer, 40% for the list and 20% for the creative. Using this 40/40/20 strategy, we are able to achieve superior results by sending relevant, well designed offers to the right prospects on your list.
When an attractive offer and an eye-catching design are combined, an effective direct marketing piece is created.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the best types of direct mail examples to inspire your next direct mail campaign:

Oversized Postcards And Mail Pieces

It’s been said that bigger is better – and in this instance, it’s true! Oversized direct mail pieces, like the Monster Mailer, often get more attention merely because of their size. The bigger pieces stand out in the mailbox amongst the sea of post cards and letter mail that is delivered. Additionally, with more real estate on the direct mail piece, there’s more room for creative design, bigger offers and multiple places for coupons.
Sonic Mailer
At 8.5″ x 14″, the Monster Mailer really stands out in your mailbox. And, as you can see, it affords lots of room to feature products, offers and other information. For your next direct mail campaign, consider going with an over-sized Monster Mailer for better results!

KEY BENEFITS

  • Makes a great impression!
  • Oversized – 8.5″ x 14″
  • Lots of room for offers, products and other information
  • Affordable and effective
Atomic Wings Postcard

KEY BENEFITS

  • Bright attention getting colors
  • Bold impossible-to-ignore text
  • Short but clear message

Bright Colors, Bold Text

Atomic Wings Postcard
It’s been proven that consumers respond better to bright colors on direct marketing of all kinds and certainly direct mail is no exception. Correct use of color can make the difference between connecting your text and design or having a disjointed message that feels unrelated to the piece. Not sure what colors to use for your piece? Check out this post on the importance of color to your brand. Using specific colors that work with your branding guidelines can reinforce your overall brand aesthetic.
Your text should be as bold as your color. Use an active voice instead of a passive one. Use attention grabbing words and language. Lastly, make sure your message is short but clear.
When combined with the correct color scheme, bold text can really help accentuate your offer, making it stand out amongst similar mailers and post cards.

KEY BENEFITS

  • Bright attention getting colors
  • Bold impossible-to-ignore text
  • Short but clear message

Personalization

SMC Letter medicus
We all know the feeling of getting something in the mail that is customized with our name – we feel as though the advertiser is speaking directly to us, with an offer customized specifically for us. Personalization with direct mail is another great way to effectively reach the recipients on your targeted list and get them to take action based on the connection that is created by your personalized mailer.
If your business tracks buying behavior, such as an online retailer or quick serve food restaurant, you can include coupons for items that they’ve purchased in the past knowing that they’ll likely buy them in the future.

PERSONALIZE BY:

  • Name
  • Past purchasing habits
  • Demographics (age, family size, salary, etc.)
SMC Letter medicus

Unique Piece/Design

Home Sweet Home

Unique Piece/Design

Regardless of what the creative looks like on your direct mail piece or how good your offer may be, the more unique the piece, the more likely it’s going to stand out. Die-cut pieces with unique folds can really make your mail piece stand out amongst the multitude of post cards and mailers in your mailbox.

KEY BENEFITS

  • Stands out in the mailbox
  • Is more memorable
  • Less likely to be ignored

Multiple Coupons With Variety Of Offers

Lots of Coupons Dunkin' Mailer
The most successful and effective direct mail advertising pieces often don’t have just one single offer on them. Many mailers have several offers or coupons that feature a variety of offers, from percentages off a particular product to a specific dollar amount off an entire purchase. By providing multiple coupons, you increase the likelihood of one of your customers or prospects making a purchase.
Additionally, having multiple coupons or offers on a direct mail piece helps ensure its “shelf life” – the more coupons you have, the longer the piece can potentially stick around and get used.

KEY BENEFITS

  • Multiple opportunities for consumer purchases
  • Increases the “shelf life” of the piece
  • Less likely to be ignored

Not convinced you need to use strong offers or coupons?  Look at these 6 Reasons your direct marketing campaign should include coupons. Read article >

Lots of Coupons Dunkin' Mailer

Gift Card Mailers

SMC Triple Play Mailer

Gift Card Mailers

Regardless of what the creative looks like on your direct mail piece or how good your offer may be, the more unique the piece, the more likely it’s going to stand out. Die-cut pieces with unique folds can really make your mail piece stand out amongst the multitude of post cards and mailers in your mailbox.

KEY BENEFITS

  • Recipient gets “free money” to spend at your store
  • Consumers usually spend more than value of a gift card
  • High likelihood of consumer redemption

Large Menu Mailers

SMC Restaurant Mailer
Take-out menus and promotional restaurant menu mailers are some of the most effective direct mail marketing pieces available. Our award-winning design department can create a unique menu mailer with promotional offers, contact information, and everything your restaurant needs to be successful in their local area.

KEY BENEFITS

  • Additional room to push specials
  • Add enticing imagery
  • Ability to add coupons
SMC Restaurant Mailer

Extended Gate Fold Mailer

Killer Mailer

Extended Gate Fold Mailer

When your message demands a unique delivery, our gate fold formats will capture the interest of any prospect with sizes beyond 2 feet! Perfect for real estate, art galleries, photographers, auto dealers – anyone that needs space and impact!

KEY BENEFITS

  • High likelihood of consumer redemption
  • Included gift cards can be kept in a wallet/purse as a constant reminder
  • Extra “showcase” space for furniture pieces
Spectrum MailPlus Direct Mail to Digital Logo
Seamlessly Track And Enhance Your Direct Mail Results With Integrated Digital Technologies

Increase The Response Of Your Next Direct Mail Campaign By 23-46%

Instead of just sending out a traditional solo direct mailing, Spectrum Mail Plus seamlessly combines your direct mailer with seven digital technologies to maximize your campaign’s impact. Increase your ROI by reaching your target audience on multiple channels simultaneously.

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We hope you found these direct mail examples to be inspiring to your next campaign. Adding any of these features to your direct mail piece will help ensure its success.

Need help with developing a direct mail campaign?

Contact us to develop a winning direct mail program today! Contact Us >

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What is Direct Mail?

What is Direct Mail

What is Direct Mail?

What is Direct Mail

Direct Mail is a piece of tangible advertising that is sent to a customer or prospects physical mailing address.

Direct mail is a specific type of direct response marketing that is designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospects to take a specific action. Direct Mail is also the typical starting point to an omni-channel direct marketing campaign.

There are a lot of components to a direct mail marketing campaign including mailing list selection, choosing an enticing offer, researching your specific audience, creative graphic design, mailing services, data collection and analytics. Let’s go through what a typical direct mail program looks like and we’ll touch on the most important aspects of them.

What Makes Direct Mail Effective?

Now that we’ve defined what direct mail is, another important question we need to ask is, what makes direct mail effective? Direct mail by itself has a higher yield than other marketing strategies for a number of reasons.
Two of those reasons include the psychological reaction we have to holding a physical mail piece as opposed to seeing a digital advertisement and over saturation when it comes to email marketing.
The first two things we need to do is figure out who the audience is we’re mailing to and start designing a captivating mail piece.
Hand Fan Mailers

Who is Your Target Audience?

Finding your audience can be a challenge just by itself. Spend some time thinking about your overall strategy and the demographics of your campaign because it is directly related to building your physical mailing list and creating your direct mail piece.
audience list build
  • Who is your audience?
  • Where are they geographically?
  • How do you reach them?
  • How far is your customer willing to travel for your products or services?
  • Metaphorically, what does your customer look like?
Spectrum can help you with your mailing list and give you several options on how to mail. The best way we found to increase your ROI is by using a targeted list.
Your audience is a group of people whose interests are aligned with what you’re selling. If you sell dog toys and other pet accessories your audience’s interests will include pets. If you sell furniture it’s likely that your audience will be among those who just moved into a new house. The finer you can target your customer the better off you’ll be in the long run when it comes to shipping and direct mail piece costs.
There are a number of ways to reach your customers. From highly targeted and personalized direct mail pieces sent directly to your customers’ doors to standing in the middle of a busy city square and screaming your offer at people who pass by. While both are great options, there’s a chance the former will yield much better results for your marketing spend and overall reputation as a company. Direct mail is currently the leading marketing vehicle with a 9% response rate compared to a 1% response rate to email and other digital forms of advertising. That being said, digital marketing has a large part to play in a fully-fledged marketing campaign.
Deciding on where you’re going to mail to geographically can be tricky. You might pick up and extra 5,000 mailing addresses by expanding your reach, but, if you expand into an area that’s an hour and a half away from your location, it’s likely those people will travel to a competitor closer to them if you’re purely brick-and-mortar. The more precise you are when building your ideal customer profile the better you can tailor your marketing message to them as well. The easiest demographic to target for is zip code or geographic location. Decide on how far away you’d like to target based on the amount of time it takes to travel to your location from each direction. If you know that a potential customer will travel 30 minutes to visit your location then start there and continue to add values to your demographics to narrow it down. You can add things like age, income, interests, homeowner or renter, etc. You should quickly find out how many of your new customers are available to mail to and adjust your campaign accordingly.
Spectrum has years of experience in list building and demographics and utilizes the latest data available. Let us work alongside you to build your perfect mailing list.
According to the 40/40/20 rule, 40% of a successful direct mail campaign is determined by the quality of your mailing list. By planning your mailing using a targeted list with carefully selected demographics you can effectively increase your ROI. When you only send your marketing message to the people that will benefit the most, you cut out unnecessary spending on direct mail pieces that are going to the wrong homes or businesses. Consider this. You own a small business selling pool supplies and novelty items for homeowners with pools. The last thing you want to do is send extra direct mail pieces to people in apartments with no pools.
The more specific you are when identifying your ideal customer the more successful your message will be. Spectrum also does something that sets us apart from other marketing agencies.

Designing a Winning Direct Mail Piece

We design your direct mail piece at the same time we are determining your ideal customer and building your physical mailing list. Keep reading to find out why we do this.
It may seem like a small number compared to the other 80% of your direct mail campaign, but, your design (20%) is just as important. There’s no one answer to how your piece should look, but, there are very clear fundamentals to design that if ignored can hurt your campaign. Working with a company that has an award-winning team of designers experienced in your industry helps to make this process easy. There are certain elements any type of advertisement should have, especially direct mail.
Buy One Get One design and offer icon
  • A clear and obvious call to action
  • An enticing special offer, deal, and/or coupons
  • A message that clearly defines the reason for the mailing
  • Captivating and clear imagery
  • Your branding, logo and contact information

What makes you stand out?

Your call-to-action should be clear and obvious. Whether it’s to visit your location, call your business, or bring in a coupon, your call-to-action should be the most visible element on your piece. This should be a part of the main message for the reason for the mailing. Your imagery should be hi-res at 300 dpi at the correct size to avoid pixelation and it should coincide with your business or your marketing message.
Your offers and coupons are 40% of how successful your direct mail campaign is. Make sure that the detail and attention you spend on the design of your coupons is just as much as the rest of the mail piece. Make sure that the offer is clear and concise so that the customer knows exactly what they’re getting (value) at a glance. never make your customers search for the value.
Your logo and contact information while part of your brand is slightly less important. Typically customers, when they’re not already familiar with your business, won’t care about it until you give them a reason to (offers and marketing message). Once they care about what you’re selling, let them know who you are and where they can obtain your product.

Efficiency is critical

Your direct mail piece is designed while the list building is taking place. The reason we do this is to make the process more efficient and get your piece out faster. Part of your marketing campaign’s strategy is deciding on when your customers should receive the direct mail piece. If the reason for your mailing is event-based and is time-sensitive then this is especially important. Sending it too soon or too late is decremental. Too soon and they will forget about your event. Too late and they may not have time to attend.

Where's the Value?

The value is in your offer, which, is the other 40% of the 40/40/20 rule.
  • What can you give to your customers?
After researching your audience you should have an idea, based on the demographics, of what would be the most beneficial to your customers in terms of an offer. Because your offer is so important to building a strong direct mail campaign it’s important to spend as much time on this as you did your list. Your offer should also help you build your in-house list. Every customer you have that purchases from you is now a loyal customer and making sure they keep coming back is easier and cheaper than attracting new customers. Sending them a personal offer once in a while will help keep them coming back and it’s something that you can’t afford not to do in this marketing climate.

Tailor your offer

Your offer will depend on what type of business you operate and who your clientele is. If you’re a service-based business then you’ll want to run some sort of limited-time promotion that requires your customers to visit your location. Adding an end-date to your promotion less than 2 weeks creates urgency which is a good thing. There’s a fine line between too much time and no urgency to too little time for your customers to plan to use the service offer. If you run a product-based business you can include coupons on your direct mail like buy-one-get-one or 50% off or whatever makes the most sense for you. Just make sure it aligns with who your customer is.
Whether a coupon is digital or physical it gives your customer a constant reminder of your business. Even if your customer never uses your coupon it doesn’t mean they won’t purchase from you. We’ve all been in a situation where the entire point to going to a business was to use a coupon and then we forget the coupon. We still make the purchase we intended to make when we set out with the goal. The coupon served as a future goal of purchasing a service at a later date, but, it doesn’t matter if they use the coupon or not. As long as they make the purchase the intent behind serving the coupon to the customer has been met.
The last thing to consider is how you present this information to your customer. Are you selling small products to individuals with a low-income? You might want to try a paper mail piece with perforated coupons. Are you a furniture store or do you sell large ticket items to individuals or families with disposable income? Try using a direct mail piece that comes with perforated coupons and uses thicker card stock. Also, make sure the design speaks to your customer on an emotional level. We rarely tend to think with our heads, even though we like to think we do.

Pre-Sorting and Mailing

USPS Presort Mail
The process of sending the mail out through USPS is relatively simple. First, your mail piece is printed in our production facility where any last step personalization occurs including, inserting names and personal information into the copy of the piece, adding scratch-offs and other unique items, and adding the folds, creases, perforated lines, and die cuts. We pre-sort your mail ahead of time before it gets to USPS. We do this for a couple of reasons. The first is to greatly reduce human error from the postal office’s side and the second is to save you money. The less time USPS spends on sorting and preparation for delivery the less is costs in postage and handling. Those savings are directly passed on to you. Essentially we work in conjunction with USPS to maximize delivery opportunities and minimize postal costs.
By this time in the process your mail has been sent and now you just need to wait for customers to walk through your door. There is one more thing though before you’re finally finished with your campaign.

Pre-Sorting and Mailing

data collection
The very last thing which is arguably the most important thing is collecting data from the campaign. This can come in all shapes and sizes. This could be in the form of a barcode specific to your mail piece that’s attached to the coupons so that when they’re scanned by your stores POS the information is tracked. This could also be employees asking customers if they’re checking out today because of a mailing. If you are running a Spectrum Mail Plus Omni-Channel Campaign, you’ll have access to all your results in an online dashboard. Whichever way you can manage collecting the data, it’s essential to determine the overall effectiveness and ROI of your campaign. Without this data it’s difficult to make changes to your future mailings or run any kind of A/B testing.

Designing a Winning Direct Mail Piece

While direct mail is still the best form of marketing when it comes toresponse rates, it’s only part of a complete marketing campaign. Did you know that there’s a 26% increase in complete conversions when users who have been retargeted with online advertising return to the website? Or that the average social media user spends up to 4 hours per day on Facebook and Instagram? Target your mailing list online to boost your campaigns and increase your ROI. We can show you how.

Direct mail in essence is easy to understand, however, executing a campaign isn’t. Spectrum Marketing Companies has been delivering direct mail campaigns that get RESULTS for decades. Working with us makes everything easier when it comes to your marketing.

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3 Ways To Grow Your Business

3 Ways to grow your business

3 Ways To Grow Your Business!

3 Ways to grow your business

1. New Customers

Overcome the customer life cycle by developing a constant stream of new clients and customers. Direct mail is an excellent way to get noticed, especially if you use an oversized mail piece. Prospects are 15% more likely to respond to large format direct mail piece than a postcard or letter sized piece. A strong offer on a direct mail piece is absolutely critical to having new prospects consider your business – or even pay attention to your solicitation!

2. Increase Return Visits

Increase frequency of purchases by existing customers. Return visits are heavily impacted by promotional events. Be sure you’re reaching out to your customers at least once per quarter to ensure that your business is top-of-mind when your customers are back in the market for your product or service.
Retention direct mail is a great way to increase return visits through the use of coupons and offers that your customers are interested in. By giving them a reason to come back, you can both increase the chances that they will make a purchase and get them to make a return visit.

3. Up-Sell

Increase the average purchase by existing customers. Coupons can have a huge influence on this, especially when you have graduated offers that reward customers for spending more or purchasing multiple items as a package.
You can also suggest “companion” items at key stages of the purchasing process that complement or enhance an item that is currently being purchased. By suggesting items that either customers have purchased with another item or by suggesting items that enhance a given product, you can effectively “up-sell” to your customers by integrated strategically placed offers at specific stages of the buying cycle.
In addition to growth, it is important to have a reasonable method of determining the success of your campaign. Often, business owners only look at one of the following ways of measuring ROI, but please take a moment to consider all three:
Immediate ROI – What they spent on a promotion relative to what the promotion directly generated in sales during the promotion. This gets the most focus.
Lifetime Value of a Customer – For acquisition campaigns in which existing customers are excluded, it is more critical to view the ROI in the context of the extended lifetime value of a customer rather than just the immediate return.
Enterprise Value Enhancement – Acquiring new customers, and the related revenues, increases the business’s actual value.
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Still the One Stronger than Ever

Still The One Direct Mail better than ever

Still the one and Stronger Than Ever

Still The One Direct Mail better than ever

When you think of the future of marketing, what comes to mind?

A savvy business person knows that it is wise to diversify their marketing efforts, rather than to focus exclusively on one channel. In this day and age, it’s easy to consider more traditional methods of marketing your business to be old news, but what you might not have considered is that nearly two-thirds of people have made a purchase as a result of a direct mail piece!*

Each day, the battle to be heard and seen online becomes more competitive and more expensive. Each day, your clients are inundated with more and more junk email that they will never read, and they may never even know that they are missing out on what you have to offer! Fortunately, at Spectrum Marketing Companies we have numerous ways in which Direct Mail can be employed to lift your business above the fray so that when your piece arrives in the mail, it is only the beginning.
Direct Mail Formats

Drive Consumers to Your Website Using an Enticing Offer or Promotion

Simply asking people to go to your website is ineffective unless there is a compelling reason for doing so. Offer them a free trial or sample. Advertise a complimentary seminar. Herald a grand opening with savings coupons. There should be a clear call to action. Consider promoting a sense of urgency with a limited window of opportunity. It’s marketing 101: people respond more readily when they have a limited window to act before an opportunity will pass them by. Think of your direct mail as an appetizer, and give your clients a taste of what you can do for them!
Killer 2 Direct Mail

Add Texture

A plastic gift card is an excellent way to add curiosity-inspiring “bulk” to your mail piece. Oh, and it happens to be a phenomenal vehicle for your offer. Non-retailers, such as hospitals or educational institutions can easily replicate the effect with a magnet or other interesting feature that recipients will want to retain.

Use Variable, Personalized Copy

This creates the feeling that your marketing efforts are pointedly focused on specific consumers. Address them by name! We can customize each piece to specifically address each customer on your mailing list, swap out fundraising donation values depending on your customer’s financial status, and even change coupon offers from one customer to the next to target each consumer.
Tan promotion - direct mail

Add Excitement

Build excitement with a match-and-win prize number or a scratch off. Adding the anticipation of unveiling additional prizes or deeper discounts for your promotion is an irresistible way to have your potential customers spend more time reviewing your offers. A match-and-win giveaway that offers an attainable prize (think $2,500 shopping spree – not a yacht), adds stopping power, elicits interest and makes the trip to your location well worth the drive. Not to mention, when someone wins, you’ll build good will, get credit for the sale of the prize, and have a story to tell that your Facebook followers will actually read. Spectrum can coordinate prize insurance for only 7% of the retail value of the prize!

Add Interest

Die cuts add originality and functionality. Clever design, unique shapes and perforations help you capture attention, stand out from your competition and increase the ease of response.
Physical advertisements, like direct mail, are proven to have more influence than other forms of advertising, cause recipients to spend more time with your message (and remember it) and elicit a stronger emotional response. Direct Mail, coupled with your other marketing efforts can create a cohesive, yet diverse array of tools to drive your business.
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Poor Performance?

fix poor performance

Is Your Advertising Suffering from Poor Performance?

Poor Ad Performance

Where is it failing?

Marketers have seen a wide range of traditional advertising become less and less effective in recent years. Some of the reasons for the poor ad performance are obvious, while others require a little more exploration.

Newspapers – Circulation and readership are down so there’s just not enough people seeing your advertisement.

Billboards – The days of relying on consumers to read your billboards as they drive by are gone. Typically, passengers were counted as likely consumers of the message. Most drivers and passengers are talking or focused on their phones or tablets with limited focus on anything outside of their direct line of site, including billboards.

TV / Radio – Digital recording and on-demand TV has enabled consumers to skip advertising. To make matters worse, entire market segments are consuming shows and content through services like Netflix, Hulu, Satellite Radio, and Spotify, that eliminate the potential for effective local advertising altogether.

What about email and digital advertising?

Email – What started out as a potentially dominant marketing tool has been diluted due to a heavy volume of spam and junk emails. Email has been further diminished by the transition to mobile devices with as many as 75% of the market reading most of their email on smartphones or tablets. The high-impact nature of reading on a desktop monitor is now gone and the subject line needs to be compelling or it will likely be skipped over in the millisecond evaluation made by mobile users.

Social Media – While social media will continue to evolve, it is seen by many as potentially hitting a break point where consumers are feeling overwhelmed by the social pressure to participate in sometimes dozens of platforms. From leaders like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to newcomers like Snapchat and Yik Yak, consumers are spending so much time keeping up with the latest trends and generating content that marketers need to question where the real commerce is taking place.

Digital / Online– Search engine marketing and optimization are critical components to any marketing strategy and in most cases provide a reasonably strong ROI. However, this marketing component is heavily reliant on the consumer making a buying decision and actively searching for solutions to make a price comparison. The “in market” consumers are only a small part of the potential market, typically 3% at any given time. As marketers, we need to rely on strategies that pull more prospects into the market BEFORE they choose to enter on their own. Promotional efforts will often limit the extent of competition evaluated at the same time and will greatly increase the number of prospects. It’s great if online efforts generate 50 leads per month at a low cost per lead, however, if a business needs 300-400 prospects to meet its objectives, expanding beyond online efforts aimed primarily at those currently in the market is important.

Does anything perform well?

Using coupons makes it easy to target your campaigns to specific groups of customers. Want to promote a baby product to new mothers? Design a coupon with pastel colors and pictures of items associated with child care – rattlers, pacifiers, or baby bottles, for example. Selling professional services? Capture interest by designing a coupon with your target audience in mind. Someone in need of a bookkeeper would probably respond better to a conservative design than one with a lot of different colors and font styles.

HOUE Rates

What kind of direct mail performs the best?

In our experience, we’ve found that oversized direct mail pieces, such as the monster mailer, are 15% more likely to be noticed by a prospect who hasn’t done business with you yet. At 8.5″ x 14″, this piece still fits into both urban and rural mailboxes and turns your message from a 3 second reader into a 30 second reader. These mailers see a higher response rate because of their increased real estate for a bigger and bolder design for your offers.

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Why Choose Direct Mail?

Why choose direct mail

Why Choose Direct Mail

Why Choose Direct Mail

Will It Work? Is Direct Mail Marketing Still A Viable Medium? Is It Cost Effective?

It is common to question the effectiveness of direct mail pieces in today’s digital world. Surprisingly to some, the answer to these questions is a resounding, “yes!” and for many reasons. Learn more about the top reasons why direct mail advertising is still a great marketing solution.

Direct Mail Has Higher Than Average Response Rates

Any direct marketing endeavor that you invest in needs to have a positive and quantifiable return on your investments. The “will it work?” question is most important. In survey after survey, study after study, from those commissioned by the US Postal Service to those commissioned by the Direct Marketing Association, the efficiency and cost effectiveness of direct mail is validated and affirmed with high response rates. In fact, the acquisition cost of a new customer via direct mail is actually lower than that from email, and other forms of electronic media.

Here’s The Top Reasons Why It’s Still A Great Marketing Solution.

Direct mail works for businesses large and small.

Direct mail can be very successful for both small business and larger companies and franchise organizations.  By nature, direct mail uses highly targeted customer and prospect lists that reach more people in a particular geographic and demographic area.  Learn more about targeted lists here >.

Quantifiable Return On Investment

Return-on-investment: Direct mail, when accompanied with a viable and trackable offer, allows you to know how much revenue you generated from it and how many new customers you earned. You can then compare that to the lifetime value of a customer, or the annual value of a customer, and come up with a very sophisticated analysis. Unlike display ads and most digital ads, direct mail success or failure is easy to track. The math is easy to do. In many cases, customer acquisition mail yields a 10X or greater ROI, and when sent to your customer base can yield 20X or better. This means that an investment of $4000 should yield you $40,000 or more in business that you otherwise would not have earned.

Customer and Prospect Targeting is Truly 1 to 1

The US postal service reaches every home in America six days a week. One offshoot of the electronic age is that the companies who provide mailing lists know so much about every home in America, that direct mail (combined with IP Targeting) is the most targeted 1:1 marketing channel available today. A message can be sent to only those people whom you want to receive your message. Whether it is an entire street or neighborhood, or only households with children under twelve or homes with certain incomes, you can obtain a mailing list so that you can send mail with the right message to that audience.

Direct Mail Has a Shelf Life

Mail is tangible and has a shelf life or retention factor. Unlike a digital or electronic message that requires recall on the part of target audience and disappears from the ether instantly, a direct mail piece is tangible. It can be read and re-read. Coupons can be clipped off once or multiple times. It can be hung on the refrigerator or placed near the phone.

People respond to direct mail solicitations days, weeks or even months after a piece was mailed. Your well-designed mail piece can carry several offers that show value on multiple products or services that you offer. You can discount your best sellers or your worst sellers, or both, depending upon your marketing objectives.

Mail is intrusive and can’t be totally ignored.

Mail is intrusive. Every day, someone from every home in America has an opportunity to get the mail and interact with it. Unsolicited mail pieces are expected, and even sought by the majority of mail recipients. For reaching and sending a message to your own customers, direct mail is expected and frequently received. While email fatigue is a real trend and people delete advertising messages at the push of a button, tangible direct mail pieces are read and often evoke an immediate desire to respond or save the piece for future use.

And Millennials Like Receiving Direct Mail

Young people like to get mail as much as anyone. Check out this article to learn more.

Customize a Winning Direct Mail Campaign for Your Business

How will you know if mail will work for you? Ask us to help you develop a plan, and we can help make your mail exceed your expectations!  Our direct marketing specialists are experienced in your industry and market.  Leverage a proven campaign strategy to successfully grow your business.

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Capitalize on Every Customer

Capitalize on Every Customer

Capitalize on Every Customer Opportunity

Capitalize on Every Customer Opportunity

The doors are open, the lights are on, and your staff are inside waiting for customers

In order to get customers to come through your doors, you invest tens of thousands of dollars in signage, building appearance, and marketing over the life of your business. In they come, eager to shop, browse, or order their favorite item from your menu.

Some come in just to browse and don’t make a purchase, others do buy something or enjoy a meal at your restaurant. But do they all leave with enough information to come back for another visit if they didn’t make a purchase?

Knowing that it costs so much to actually get a customer to enter your facility, it is surprising how little so many businesses do to keep people coming back. And even if you think you are capitalizing on every customer, check out these ideas to make sure that you are doing all that you can. It’s often the simple things which will yield more business for you.

Where should you start?

Don’t make it necessary for your customers to seek out sales associates

First and most obvious: will the person get the feel for what you do, what you offer, and the way you offer it? Signage tells the story because many people will not ask for assistance. And if you sell a variety of items, will signage direct them to the proper area of the location? Will a table tent show diners a list of special drinks, desserts or upcoming events?

Special pricing and special offers should always have signage that informs customers of what is available.

Act like a customer

What can you do differently or better?

You’re smart, or you wouldn’t have been able to get your business off the ground. Now look around and act like a customer. What can I do better or differently?

What should you do better or differently to convey the information you want? Will a customer miss your special sale items because they are not properly highlighted? Signage does not need to be obtrusive to be effective, but it does need to be visible and contain information that creates interest and urgency.

How do I get them to come back?

Offer an incentive for them to return

Next and equally important: will the person leave with something to bring them back? This could be a coupon offer for their next visit. It could be a brochure with sales information and/or pricing for your products or services. It could be a take-out menu or a catering menu. It should be something, so consider your business and what you could do to capitalize on every customer and bring people back to buy again, or to give them a reason to buy if they didn’t buy today.

Can my customers bring me new customers?

Referral programs are a great way to incentivize your customers to do some of the work for you

Finally, do you have a referral program? It can be simple and easy to set up, but you should offer your customers something if they bring you a new customer. In its most basic form, the referral card can be a business card sized piece that offers a discount – no matter who uses it. However, there are many viable options for referral programs that are easy to implement.

Bringing a customer through the door is expensive. Maximizing the marketing value of their visit is not.

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Advertising’s Most Powerful Words

Advertising's Most Powerful Words

Advertising's most powerful words

Advertising's Most Powerful Words

The Difference Between Good and Great Results is Subtle

In marketing, results testing shows that subtle differences in a headline or presentation of information can increase results. Marketing professionals understand the value of communication, both written and verbal, and your objective as a business person is to be confident that your marketing message is maximized and as powerful as possible.

Utilize Advertising’s Most Powerful Words to Capture Interest in Seconds

Everyone knows how important it is to not only say the right thing, but also to say it the right way

In marketing, results testing shows that subtle differences in a headline or presentation of information can increase results. Marketing professionals understand the value of communication, both written and verbal, and your objective as a business person is to be confident that your marketing message is maximized and as powerful as possible.

With direct mail pieces or ads in Spectrum Monthly, you have literally seconds to capture a potential customer’s attention and bring them more deeply into your message.

Let’s Talk About Your Headline

Words can be compelling if you use the right ones and use them the right way

Headline words: You, You’re, and Free are almost mandatory. As in examples like: “You’re gonna love this!” or “FREE this weekend only!” Two other biggies are SAVE and SALE, but those are often overused and have less impact unless there is an obvious coupon or discount shown near the headline.

Other compelling words include: RESULTS, PROVEN, and SAFE. Or you may need to convey efficiency with words like FAST and/or EASY. There is another old standby which still captures the attention visually: NEW! Add urgency with the words NOW and ONLY and LIMITED. Show you mean to back up your claims with a word like GUARANTEE. When you consider this in total, there are other words that may stand out to you to include, such as benefit, healthy, tested, long-term, etc.

What Does Your Message Look Like?

Make sure that your message also includes your headline words

Now take a look at your advertising messaging. Does it include these words in the headline and the sub-headings of your message? For many companies, the headline of their message is a logo, which is always wrong and ineffective. No one wants to buy “Joe’s Tree Service.” They want to buy: “Beautify your yard this month and save.” Then they see an offer, and then they will find the logo to see who to call.

When you invest money in an advertising campaign, it should include the most powerful message possible from the reader’s first impression!

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Spice Up Your Marketing

spice up your marketing

Spice Up Your Marketing

spice up your marketing

It's All About Connections That You Can Make WIth Your Audience

You’ve got a great marketing idea, and a plan to execute it. You’re all ready to go for the all important Spring Inventory Clearance sale. The ads are set, the in-store signage and price tags are ready to be set out, and you have a direct mail piece ready to go to all of the customers in your database.
Here’s where you can consider adding the spice to make the marketing plan really sizzle. It’s all about connections that you can make with your audience. These extra steps enhance involvement with your sale and your message.

Utilize New Technologies

Building an omni-channel marketing campaign helps improve effectiveness

While a number of campaigns can be successful with just direct mail a majority will benefit from adding other services like email marketing and web banner ads to their marketing plan. A newer service that Spectrum Marketing offers is IP Targeted Web Banner ads. These ads are sent to the same people who received your direct mailpiece and are based off of physical addresses’ IP address. With a regular web banner campaign add-on the ads are targeted based off email opens. The email address list used is based in the same geographic location which means that users must be opted-in to receive emails via a database and then served the ads. With IP Targeted Web Banner ads the physical mailing list is matched typically to 50-70% and then served directly to the users over a period of time. Using verified, offline data to reduce and/or eliminate non-human bot traffic, your company will get recognized and receive more quality leads. IP Targeting also meets HIPAA compliancy.
Spectrum is also now offering a new omni-channel marketing campaign program called Spectrum Mail Plus. This program features 7 technologies that are integrated together to target, attract, engage, and convert your best prospects. Resulting in 23-46% increased response rates.

Email marketing and web banner ads boost your campaign

Email marketing is still a great way to build your sales. While not as powerful as direct mail in ROI, email marketing as an add-on to your campaign can be helpful to remind your customers about your campaign and immediately direct them to your online store, site, or landing page. Directing to an online coupon or offer can result in even more activity and a better bottom line. Remember, customers need to see your marketing pitch at least 7 times before they make a purchasing decision. Email marketing and online banner ads are two fantastic ways to keep reminding your customers about your sale or promotion and are especially great for newer stores and grand openings.

Spectrum Can Help

pet life mailer in hand
iphone with social media advertisements
Email marketing

Let Them Know They're In The Right Place

Underutilized space like windows are the perfect opportunity to reinforce the marketing message

What’s on your windows? When you are having any type of sales event, the windows should be used to blast out the message. Use clings that are removable and inexpensive to attract the attention of everyone passing your windows. They become more relevant because the message is one of urgency and is directed at people who not only come in to your business, but come in to save during the special sale time period. The design should be explosive, and Spectrum’s 20 plus designers know how to make your simple sale message become an exciting magnet to bring people in.
window graphic

Spectrum Can Help

Incentivize With Direct Mail

Having interactive elements on your direct mail keeps it in your customers’ hands longer

Think about your mail piece. What about a scratch-off offer? The scratch-off is almost irresistible to people who receive mail. They want to see what is under the circle. Your Spectrum account executive can show you ways to make the scratch-off work that are incredibly cost effective. You will notice the enhanced response.
How about in-store coupons? These are small, business card sized hand outs that are very inexpensive to produce but result in a huge ROI. With rounded corners on glossy stock, these hand outs can feature special sale items, or can be a coupon good for that day only on whatever merchandise you choose. Simple, but they are a highly effective way to get your prospects more involved with your sale message.
china blossom direct mail with scratch off
Scratch Off Clarks direct mail piece
Harley Davidson scratch off promotion mailer

You Can't Stop

When it comes to marketing, don’t just get by. Add all the spice necessary to make your marketing plans go over the top!

Every year there are new emerging technologies and new practices that can help you rise above your competition. Only by adjusting your plan to include new directions and reach more customers can your business continue to thrive. Contact Spectrum Marketing today to learn how we can help you with your marketing results.
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How Does Your Business Look and Sound?

Opticians

How Does Your Business Look and Sound?

Opticians

Back To Marketing Basics

Everyone knows the value of first impressions, yet as business owners, we often take our first impressions for granted. So let’s make sure we follow marketing basics. We often lose our objectivity when it comes to grading our own operations. There is a big reality to accept and to face: In today’s world, bad first impressions, whether inside your location or from a phone call or website, usually lead not only to lost business but also to lost customers. Spectrum, as a marketing company, strives on your behalf to bring people into your business. It’s up to you to convert them to clients, maximize what they buy from you, and to create a lasting impression that yields referrals, repeat business and establishes a solid and loyal customer base.
We suggest that you conduct an evaluation of all aspects of what your customers and potential customers see and hear during their experience with your company. It seems basic, and many people give themselves an “A” grade in all categories when the reality is usually different.

Small Changes Can Yield Big Results

Start With Your Website

The first step in mastering the marketing basics is to take a long hard look at your website – the tool that represents your business 24/7.
How does it look visually? Does it answer customer questions? Does it direct people to the store or to make a buying decision? Are your current special offers listed? Even if you can’t immediately change things, at least determine what you want to change so that your team can begin the process and complete your objectives during the year.
Retail transaction

You Know How Your People Should Be Answering The Phone, But Do They?

The next step in mastering the marketing basics is to ensure that your employees are representing your brand well. For example, do you have a brief greeting script that all those who answer the phone must follow? Is it friendly? Do you offer thanks to people for calling? Beside all phones should be notes which show directions and hours as well as current sale information. Here is a fact: whatever you do now, no matter how good it is, you can do better. As you coach your staff to be better phone people, the improvements you make will spill over to all of the customer contact that they have.

What About Your Location?

Is the first thing people see a sloppy bucket of ice melt and cigarette butt can? Is the entryway rug so dirty that it was last cleaned during the Carter administration? Look up. How bad is the ceiling? Move inside and look around. Do you have sales information visible for people who walk in? This means any combination of window clings, wall clings, counter cards, table tents, banner stands, ceiling danglers and other point-of-purchase displays. If you have them, are they current and well designed, or did you have someone make a sign at home that says, “SALE” in red letters on a poster board?
These things may seem basic, however, they can make a big difference in whether or not a customer enters your business. Clean up your foyer, make sure your lobby or reception area is organized and neat and ensure that your marketing collateral is visible and available to customers.

Are Your Special Offers Impactful And Highly Visible?

Consider what you see when you go into a big box store. If your place of business does not have anything to draw attention to a special offer or new product, or something that you wish to feature, then you are missing an opportunity. Make sure that you are utilizing point-of-purchase displays and other kinds of signage to make an impact on customers entering your business and guide them toward trying a new product or taking advantage of a special offer.
signage pop-up

Master The Marketing Basics For Success

Ultimately, you want to give your customers impression that your business is thriving –  serious customers like to buy from a serious business. Cleanliness and order is a must, but just as important is the information that you display for customers to see and use to make buying decisions.
There is no substitute for being the best you can be on all levels. Mastering the marketing basics doesn’t require a large investment. Small changes can make a big difference.  It usually doesn’t cost anything to make a better first impression, however, for a small investment, you can increase your visibility in the market, create a better customer experience and keep customers coming back frequently.
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