Has Direct Mail Printing Gone Digital!?!
Congratulations! You’ve invested in a digital printing solution. Now it’s time to put it to work for your organization. By capitalizing on the strengths of digital printing technology, you can reach a tremendous number of customers in a meaningful way. Now you can do it in a short amount of time with a small investment, particularly in the area of direct mail printing.
Direct mail printing takes advantage of the two key features of digital printing technology that separate it from traditional printing: variable data printing and low set up costs. Variable data printing allows you to customize your message to a specific individual or group without stopping your print run, and low set up costs mean you can organize a direct mail printing effort that incorporates a variety of styles and structures to appeal to different audiences or market different products and services.
To begin using your new digital printing equipment to build an effective direct mailing campaign, here’s what you need to know:
1. Talk With Your Customer
Very few people enjoy being talked at. The general failure of email marketing is due to the simple fact that customers recognize the impersonal quality of an offer being made via email – they know that they are just a name on a list, and that the offer being extended to them is in no way special or unique.
Variable data printing allows you to personalize your message on a per-customer, per-group, or per-demographic basis, engendering a much higher rate of interest in potential customers. Given the option between opening an envelope that says “Dear Occupant,” and one that addresses the customer by name, people are more likely to open the latter.
Further, the degree to which you can arm yourself with more detailed data on your potential customers will determine the overall success of your direct mail printing campaign. Building discrete advertising motifs for different demographics allows you to incorporate elements that will be more likely to appeal to individual customers.
For example, a picture of a toddler is more likely to elicit a favorable response from a 35 year old mother than it is from a 25 year old single male. Likewise, using vibrant colors and imagery is more likely to appeal to that 25 year old than it will to a 65 year old retiree.
With variable data printing and low costs for short print runs, digital printing technology is ideal for using a multi-directional approach in your direct mailing efforts.
2. Use Color
Whether the color you’re using is in the imagery, the text, or the paper itself, statistics show that beyond a doubt specific colors tend to elicit predictable reactions. While it can be overdone – no one wants to look at a kaleidoscopic jumble for too long – including a tasteful amount of color in your direct mailings will pay dividends.
Since variable data techniques can also be used to swap images and colors in and out without stopping a print run, digital printing once allows you to target your chosen color schemes to specific demographics.
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3. Benefits, Not Features
Remember that the customer is not interested in you or your interests, and they may not even be initially interested in the product or service you’re selling. Additionally, attempts to sell your product or service based on the features or advantages it has over the competition may not be the best approach.
While an individual might not necessarily be in the market for a new blender, showing them an assortment of healthy and delicious beverages might make them decide they need one. As such, your mailing should focus on the benefits, results, or emotional payoff that your product or service offers.
Here again we see the advantages of variable data printing. By approaching different individuals with benefits or results targeted at their demographic, your direct mail printing approach will be far more effective at generating responses.
4. Call to Action
Many direct mailing efforts fail simply because they don’t clearly explain what the customer needs to do next to receive the wonderful benefit you’ve laid in front of them. Referring a potential customer to more detailed source of information or asking them to come in to your store is a risky proposition – once they’ve laid your letter down on the table, attention is quickly redirected toward more pressing business, and your impact is wasted.
Instead, ask your customer directly to perform a specific task that will provide them with the benefit or result you’ve outlined. Including a self-addressed postcard with pre-paid postage and asking them to send it back to you is a great way to start a dialogue with your customer. Alternatively, providing an 800 number that the customer can call immediately is equally effective.
Digital printing allows you to call different types of customers to different types of action, as well as granting you the flexibility to customize contact information for different groups of mailings.
5. Print on Demand
With digital printing technology, you can print only what you need. With traditional print runs, it made more sense to overprint – to produce more material than you need rather than end up short. Now that you’re digital, you no longer have to worry about not having enough material – printing more is as easy as pressing a button. This translates into significant savings for your direct mail printing campaign on both print media and ink
6. Capture Response Data
Perhaps the most important step in your direct mailing campaign is in totaling the effectiveness of your various approaches. Cataloging the terminology, color schemes, and imagery used to target each of your demographics and comparing them to find out which efforts were most effective allows you to concentrate future efforts on your most responsive audiences. Since variable data printing is generally reliant on database outputs, you can track responses on a per-customer basis much more easily than with traditional printing.
Forging Customer Relationships
The power of digital printing and variable data techniques is that they allow you to engage in actual conversations with your customers. By tracking your direct mail printing conversations, and utilizing variable data printing, you can follow up with customers and thank them for previous purchases, ask them how their product or service is performing, and offer upgrades or promotional enhancements in future mailings.
This kind of personal conversation is missing from most forms of “talk at you” advertising, and statistics across the board show that customers will respond favorably to any product or service provider that takes the time to address them personally in direct mail printing.