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.

LEARN ABOUT OUR DIRECT MAIL SERVICES

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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.

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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

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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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Do You Know Your Market?

Know Your Market

Know Your Customers & Where To Find Them

Know Your Market

Everyone in business has an idea of who their customers are and where they come from.

But, do all businesses know their customers?

Frequently, the perception that all businesses know who their customers are and where they come from is formulated more by intuitive knowledge, rather than by actual facts. Knowing your customers and where to find them is obviously important, however, there are scientific ways to obtain that information that is significantly better than guessing or assuming.

How can Spectrum help me?

Spectrum can help you know more about your customers, and we can also help you determine who else is likely to be your customer within your market. We have several tools that we use, and they start with a look at your customer database.

What we can do

Analyze your customer list

It starts with a map. We take the addresses from your customer list and plot the location of your customers. This gives us a useful visual representation of distance and concentration.

Determine where your customers are

Next, we take the addresses and run what we call a penetration report. This shows us exactly which postal routes your customers live on, and how many customers you have on each route.

Focus your marketing efforts in those areas

Postal logistics from the above data help us draw conclusions using geographic and demographic information to determine where best to focus your marketing efforts.

Find ideal prospects in your market’s geographic area

Finally, for an investment of a few hundred dollars, we can determine specific income, age, and other demographic factors about each of your customers. If this is needed, it can help precisely target more prospects in your market who are not customers. By personalizing your marketing toward these prospects through variable data (VDP), you can communicate better on a one-to-one basis.
Marketing Demographics Map

What about my customer list data?

Using these tools, you can take the guesswork and emotionalism out of your marketing. Have no worries about Spectrum maintaining the confidentiality of your data! It’s what we do, and everything is kept private between us and your business. We will provide a signed non-disclosure agreement if you wish.
The results of these analyses help us to determine what direct mail programs will work best, and how best to target the mail to yield higher results at a lower cost. It also serves as a general tool to help you develop a growth strategy for your business. The first three steps above are available to you at no charge, and most businesses do not need to go to step four unless the results of the analysis suggests that the investment of a few hundred dollars will be useful.

Is that all it takes?

Knowing your customers in your target market is an ongoing process that can help you determine what they are looking for and how to give it to them. Through retention and interactive marketing programs, you can reach your customers frequently to achieve the best response and ROI.
The important thing to remember is that Spectrum’s targeted mailing list services, combined with our direct mail programs can help you locate your current customers, target new prospects and increase your ROI and grow your business.
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