We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: print isn’t dead. In fact, as sales and marketing departments across dozens of industries become oversaturated with digital outreach efforts, print has continued to hold its place in the marketing realm as a reliable and effective tactic. Of course, it’s one thing to say that print can help your team drive conversions and another to show it. But unlike digital marketing tactics that automatically record results that can be presented in a tidy report, measuring the results of a direct mail marketing campaign takes a slightly more manual approach. Let’s review some of the best ways to track and measure the success of your print efforts. Tracking Direct Mail Campaigns is Crucial Tracking direct mail campaigns is a crucial step in determining the success of your direct mail campaigns. It’s essential to identify your marketing objective first when tracking your direct mail campaigns. Once you determine your objectives then focus on eye-catching mailers with clear calls-to-action. Tracking your response rates of your direct mail campaigns requires ongoing assessment and adjustments. How To Measure Direct Mail Success Let’s review some of the best ways to track direct mail and how to measure direct mail success of your print efforts. Follow these direct mail measurement methods on your next direct mail campaign. Direct Mail Measurement Method #1: Include a Trackable URL & Phone Number  In digital-only marketing, a UTM parameter can tell you where your website’s visitors came from before they found your landing page. For print marketing campaigns, you can include a custom trackable URL created specifically for the campaign. To really take things to the next level, an integrated solution such as Advertisers Connects will allow you to match the physical address of website visitors and ensure that no lead is left behind. This is achieved via continued online exposure (Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads) to the interested prospects who leave your website without taking action, making them 70% more likely to return to your website and convert. By creating and using custom tracking codes for print mail, you get the best of both marketing worlds: on the print side, you reap the benefits of an original and well-designed piece that speaks to your audience, and on the digital side, you take advantage of modern tracking technology that delivers insights into what is or isn’t working in your campaign. Direct Mail Measurement Method #2: Offer an Exclusive Coupon or Promotion Who doesn’t love to get exclusive discounts? This direct mail measurement & tracking method is one of the easiest: Rather than needing to hook into the digital side to view results, you can tell how well the promotion worked by seeing how many customers redeemed the coupon code (whether online, by phone, or in-person). To get even more granular with your data, you can even create variable codes so that each recipient receives their own unique promo code. From there, you could make decisions on whether or not you targeted the right demographics, the timing of the mailer was correct, the discount was enticing, and so on. Direct Mail Measurement Method #3: Add a QR Code When smartphones first hit the market, QR codes were all the rage—they were an exciting and innovative way to communicate a lot of information through a quick scan with your phone’s camera. As the years have passed, their widespread use has faded, leaving a potential opportunity for print mediums to take advantage of them again. They haven’t seen a major resurgence yet in the U.S. (unlike in some overseas markets), but with the current global health crisis highlighting the need for contactless communications, they may be primed for a comeback. Since QR codes can have multiple purposes, be sure to clarify what the code will do once scanned (e.g., access the deal, read more, etc.). From there, you should be able to track how many people scanned the code as well as what next steps they took (depending on the goal of the code). Direct Mail Measurement Method #4: Social Media Followers  Another easy one, all you have to do is include the names/URLs of your social media accounts on your mailers. Once they’ve been sent and the campaign begins, you can use your analytics tools to view which new social followers came from your website, Google, etc. and then deduce how many new followers were motivated by your mailers. If your social following sees a solid uptick after your print campaign, you’ll know that those recipients were intrigued enough to start receiving regular updates about your company! Direct Mail Measurement Method #5: Business Reply Cards One of the more old-school techniques on this list, a business reply card is a simple postcard that the prospect can return in the mail without adding any postage. These cards can be used to gather demographic data by asking recipients non-confidential questions about their interests and buying preferences, and you can incentivize them to engage by offering a reward or discount if they send it back. Final Step: Measure the Direct Mail Results The final step is to measure the direct mail results, specifically the response rate, cost per action and customer acquisition cost.  Direct Mail Response Rate Perhaps the easiest (and most popular) way to measure the success of a direct mail marketing campaign is by response rate—in other words, how many people took action based on your mail? Depending on your goal, the direct mail response rate will likely vary from campaign to campaign. But keep in mind that direct mail has an average response rate of 4.4% for a baseline (as opposed to a measly 0.12% for emails). Cost Per Action This metric is purposefully vague for a good reason—it gives you the opportunity to measure several different actions, including new customer count, response rate, and so on. The easiest way to calculate this cost per action is to take the total cost of your direct mail campaign and divide by the actions taken.

In the middle of the 20th-century advertising boom, advertisements were the result of painstaking research and creative strategies between agencies and their clients. While they cast a wide net to the masses, these ads were still created with a target demographic and consumer behaviors in mind. This was a key strategy that cemented many of the iconic brands that we know and love today, even if they were born before our time. Today, our screens have become so inundated with digital ads that they’ve begun to meld together as one lump of generic products and services. You may think of Super Bowl commercials or specific video advertisements that have become viral over the years, but can you recall that ad you saw on social media just earlier today? Of course you can’t. With so many ads being thrown at you at all times, the novelty of traditional advertising has almost entirely washed away. But there’s a way to revive that novelty: with direct mail marketing and print marketing solutions. Direct mail marketing is perfect for targeting the right customers. Fewer Ads, Bigger Impact with Successful Direct Mail Campaigns Recent reports show that the average American consumer sees thousands of online advertisements every day. It’s often impossible for you to recall a particular ad that you saw online, which makes a digital marketer’s job of breaking through the noise increasingly difficult. It’s become clear over the years that the more ads you see, the less memorable all of them become. We can only remember so many things in one day, and a digital ad is usually the last to make that list. This is a key reason why marketers have seen a resurgence in successful direct mail campaigns in recent years. Because we don’t receive as much mail as we used to, most of us still take the time to sort through all of it every day. And when we come across that piece of direct mail that’s personalized to us,  our preferences, or our location, it’s a breath of fresh air compared to the onslaught of digital advertising. (Not to mention that it usually sits on your foyer table or kitchen counter for a few days for you to see again and again.)  We’re Hardwired for Direct Mail Print There’s actually a lot of recent research indicating that people are better able to comprehend and remember material that they read on print than on a digital screen. A Canadian neuromarketing firm conducted a study along these lines and found two major results: direct mail requires 21% less effort to process than digital media, and direct mail recipients were able to recall the advertisements 75% of the time, as compared to 44% among the digital-only recipients. This may not come as a surprise to note-takers who still whip out their trusty pen and paper for the important stuff. Many of us take notes on our laptops or phones these days, but there are still people who swear by the traditional pen and paper methods, citing the fact that physically writing something helps you remember it more effectively. All of this relates to the idea that our brains are wired to receive  direct mail print material better than digital ads, making direct mail marketing a worthwhile investment. The Direct Marketing Association published its research on direct mail, stating that the average ROI of a direct mail campaign was between 15% and 17%. Those kinds of numbers speak for themselves. Direct Mail Is Inherently More Trustworthy When you see an advertisement in Time magazine, there’s no question regarding the ad’s authenticity or the company’s legitimacy. On the internet, however, this trust is not as easily established. Many times, we’re met with advertisements that are riddled with clickbait and potentially malicious redirects. This can pose challenges for many legitimate digital marketers who are simply doing their best to be honest and trustworthy. Low-quality content and advertisements run amuck on the internet, brewing distrust among digital shoppers. Direct mail, on the other hand, is inherently trustworthy by simply being a piece of print material that can’t redirect you or hijack your browser. Part of marketing is thinking on your feet and turning on a dime when consumer behavior changes. This has compelled marketers to bring back the timeless direct mail marketing solutions that some mistakenly perceive as antiquated in our digital age. The truth? Print ads have much higher engagement than many similar digital ads. While reporting and understanding the ROI of your direct mail can seem more difficult compared to the simplicity of digital reporting, there are actually ways around that. Direct Mail Campaigns Still Produce Results The digital advertising world gives marketers an easy, user-friendly way to build reports and know exactly how well their advertisements are working. They get views, clicks, and conversions all calculated through their platform to gauge where ads need improvement or which ones are performing well (and therefore need their budgets raised). Direct mail can seem scary to a digital marketer who is concerned about tracking and knowing how well their campaign is doing and whether all of their time and money is being spent productively. Luckily, there’s still a way to do just that. Direct mail campaigns perform best when they offer something to the prospect, whether it’s a coupon code or a free item. It’s a simple way to draw them in. Using specific codes is the best way to keep track of how well your campaign is doing. When purchases are made or emails are sent containing that code, you can be certain that the direct mail piece was received well and was used to engage with your brand. Back-end reporting is one of the things we do for direct mail campaigns at Advertisers Printing; we’d be happy to explain how this works in more detail. Getting Started Direct mail campaigns don’t need to be intimidating—that’s what we’re here for! Our direct mail experts can guide you from start to finish on the most

A new year brings new opportunities, so now’s the best time to set some strong, attainable goals for your business. Among them is likely a sales quota—an almighty number to beat—which can get the gears turning in your creative team. How can you reel in more prospects? As your marketing team strategizes for the coming quarter, it’s easy to overlook the power of print marketing. After all, the convenience and popularity of email campaigns and social media have diminished the need for print marketing efforts. Everyone is online: Why not follow the crowd? It’s a no-brainer that you need to develop an online presence and social media strategy. But businesses that aim to go the extra mile recognize the importance of blending their digital marketing strategy with print marketing. There’s no good reason to view print and digital separately—print marketing can work alongside your digital strategies, optimizing cost efficiency and increasing your overall reach. The right materials can promote your online campaigns by incorporating hashtags, social media icons, and website URLs. Essentially, you’re encouraging greater exposure and keeping your brand at the forefront of your prospects’ mind, online or off. The benefits of print marketing speak for themselves. But the question is, which materials will be most beneficial for your company’s specific marketing efforts? There’s no shortage of options; from direct mail to signs and banners, you’ll get the most bang for your buck by selecting a print product that complements your current marketing strategies. Selecting the right print marketing materials requires that you consider your budget, company size, industry type, and more. Below, we’ve listed four of our top print marketing materials, along with the businesses and industries we believe will benefit most from using them. Brochures Brochures are an evergreen marketing material because they’re capable of bundling plenty of pertinent information into a concise and handy resource. They’re easy to manufacture, distribute, and read. Perhaps the best part is their shelf life: A well-written brochure can serve your company for years to come without requiring any updates. Brochures suit a wide range of business types and industries. They don’t require any hand-holding: You can distribute them at trade shows, send them in the mail, or leave them out for collection at a brochure rack or your front lobby. Designing an effective brochure is your first step. If you’re unsure of where to start, take a look at our tips on creating an effective brochure for your business. Business Cards Another age-old practice, business cards are a perfect personal touch for your sales and marketing strategies, and they’re not going away anytime soon. Despite the vigor of the internet, it’s tough to beat the accessibility and cost-effectiveness of a business card. This is another print material that works for many different industries, but businesses that prioritize face-to-face operations will benefit the most. If your company commonly sends representatives to conferences, lectures, or in-person meetings, it’s a good idea to equip them with attractive and up-to-date business cards. You can individualize your cards to feature the unique contact information of each rep; alternatively, a more cost-effective option is to design a company-wide business card, featuring general contact information. Either way, they’re well worth the investment. Catalogs When you picture a catalog, you might be inclined to think that they can only serve retail companies. In reality, catalogs can be customized to feature various forms of content, from promotions to company news and even case studies. You can leverage this format to send quarterly or annual information without getting buried in an email inbox. Catalogs don’t have to be bulky. Consumers don’t have time for content that’s hundreds of pages thick. Less is more, and quality over quantity will get the job done (and save you time and money on production). Typically, a catalog is most successful when it’s targeted toward warm leads or active clients; this marketing material isn’t recommended for cold campaigns. Once you’ve established a solid client base, give this format a go. Posters & Signage There’s nothing more eye-catching than a well-placed and effectively designed sign. Posters can be an excellent form of marketing and advertising for up-and-coming companies or businesses with storefronts. They’re a catch-all way to increase your pool of prospects without breaking the bank. Posters require a creative edge: It’s all about the design. Every factor comes into play, from size and scale to print material. If you’re new to poster advertising and don’t know where to begin, check out our list of benefits and suggestions. More Materials for Your Print Marketing Strategy There’s no limit to what you can do with print marketing. We’ve only skimmed the surface when it comes to available materials; how you capitalize on them is entirely up to you.Contact Advertisers Printing in the St. Louis area for more strategies, tips, and print products that can help leverage your marketing efforts.

Keeping up with marketing trends each year is no easy feat. Strategies and technologies can rapidly change from one January to another, forcing your marketing team to think on its feet and switch up tactics to appeal to the right audiences. Print marketing is no stranger to this. When considering strategies and tactics for upcoming trends, it’s important to focus on the specific medium with which you’re working. Digital and print media may experience some of the same trends, but they can also differ quite a bit. If you’re feeling overwhelmed as the new year approaches, we’ve got your back. Here a few of the upcoming 2020 print marketing trends and some tips to get started with implementing them into next year’s marketing strategy. Highlighting Customer Stories It’s been a while since the idea of highlighting value as a marketing tactic came to be, and it’s only becoming more popular. Businesses are using self-promoting ideas less frequently, as these strategies are antiquated and ineffective. Customers want to know what you are going to do for them, not how great you are. Adding customer success stories to your print marketing materials is a recent trend that’s gaining traction, and for good reason: It provides your prospects with a real-life example of your work and can usually bring a smile to their face. The happier someone is looking at your materials and services, the more likely they are to associate that joy with your brand. Use this new trend as an opportunity to launch a campaign specific to customer success. Consider your target industries and use customer success stories that are relevant to that audience. Use postcard or pamphlet campaigns to show people the true value you provide your customers—the products and services they need, plus a little extra joy. Use Subscription Data for Personalized Content Ever used a form on your website or at a convention to collect personal information? It’s time to think a little bigger. We know that not everyone is eager to provide you with their personal information, but a few extra questions may not hurt and will usually get answered. For example, you can ask for their birthday (to send special birthday print marketing materials), their industry (for targeted messaging), and specific products or services they’re interested in. Just a few extra details beyond their name and email gives you some firepower to send the right print marketing that has a higher chance of converting. Direct mail marketing is more effective the more it’s personalized. People are drawn to personalization, especially in print marketing materials. You do want to be careful not to bombard prospects or customers with too much print material because they may very well get tired and lose interest. But with the right timing and volume, personalized print content in the mail can be much more effective than personalized digital advertising. We are sent so many emails in a day, it’s easy to overlook one or simply delete all the ones that look like promotions. But receiving a piece of personalized print marketing will have a much higher chance of being looked at simply because it’s a refreshing change from inbox spam. Get Creative with Paper and Texture Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by limiting yourself to a small selection of generic print marketing materials, especially when it comes to the paper you use. You’ll be amazed at how many different options there are! With embossing, glossy, matte, different card stock sizes, velvet texture, and more, you can stand out from your competitors with unique paper and texture styles. This is a great opportunity to let your brand shine. Would your business prefer a stiff card stock with a boldly embossed, personalized name or a softer velvet touch with a calm color scheme? This helps your prospects and customers to associate certain styles with your brand, which creates consistency across all of the print marketing materials you send over time. There are plenty of technologies that can help you make the most of direct mail marketing. Talk with a print vendor to see what new types of paper and textures they’re creating and what will be available to you in 2020 to build a more unique and brand-focused print strategy. Personalize and Target Publications Have you caught onto the theme yet? Yes, it’s personalization! Whether it’s how you produce the image of your brand or direct customers and prospects, narrowing down your marketing strategy to a target audience is a proven strategy for converting prospects. Personalized publications don’t have to include the name of the recipient. Rather, you should be personalizing the content and information they receive. You don’t want to produce just one publication with dozens of topics that cover a wide range of people. If someone flips through and doesn’t find what they want right away, they’ll probably toss it aside, even if there may be something useful to them further in the publication. It’s more effective to produce smaller publications with smaller runs and find the right target audience to send them to. The recipient will appreciate your thoughtfulness when you limit the content to just what they want, and your business will see the benefit in new and returning customers. Getting Started Ready to implement some of these trends into your upcoming strategy, or just looking for some advice on where to start? At Advertisers Printing, we’re not just happy with being a commercial printer—we can help you every step of the way. From idea conception to printing, we make sure you achieve your business goals. Contact us today to speak with one of our print marketing material experts on beginning your next direct mail or print marketing project.

Just like that, the holiday season approaches again. With it, seasonal marketing campaigns will flood inboxes and clutter the snail-mail of your favorite customers. This is an important time of year to develop an innovative strategy to boost awareness and bring in business. How can you capture the coveted attention of your target audience during the most wonderful time of the year? To make the most out of your marketing efforts, you’ll want to prepare ahead of time and develop a strategy specifically for holiday campaigning. Your competitors aren’t going to hold back, so neither should you! Keep your print marketing campaign top of mind by following these four tips. 1. Plan Ahead There’s no time to waste. Map out your holiday marketing campaign in advance so you have plenty of time to create, design, produce, and distribute your material. It’s never too soon to start brainstorming and researching other successful holiday campaigns. You can also get a step ahead by reaching out to your printer and preallocating time and materials for your project. (They’ll appreciate the heads up!) Timing is key: You have a very specific window during which your audience will be shopping for the right holiday products. Sending out your materials at the right time is just as important as having an effective design. Engage your audience too early, and your efforts may very well be forgotten or disregarded entirely.  Send them out too close to Christmas time, and your competitors will already have one foot in the door. Let your marketing campaign trickle throughout the season, starting around or after Halloween and picking up steam into December. 2. Offer Variety Aren’t you sick and tired of receiving the same holiday gifts from your family and friends? You know the ones: A person can only own so many pairs of fuzzy socks or holiday mugs. In the context of marketing, your materials are like holiday gifts—don’t just hand out the same trinkets as your competitors for the sake of convenience. Your campaign should reflect creativity and thoughtfulness if you want to stand apart from the crowd. From personalized holiday cards and address labels to holiday booklets and calendars, there are plenty of direct mail products to choose from that are as practical as they are promotional. Within your business, try creating seasonal posters, banners, and window displays to attract prospects right from your storefront and neighborhood. No matter what you choose to create, take care to craft an effective message. This time of year, you’ll find more success with warm, friendly messaging than you will pitching a cold, hard sale. ‘Tis indeed the season to be jolly! 3. Target Your Audience You’ve heard it plenty of times before, but a friendly reminder never hurts: Know your audience. This advice is critical for any marketing campaign, but it’s especially important during the holidays due to the overabundance of mass-marketing efforts from businesses of all kinds. While it sounds tempting to go all out and hit as many prospects as possible, casting a wide net is not the answer. Take a moment to reflect on your target audience and current customers. Are they likely to purchase from you during the holiday season? Will they require a bit of convincing? Is there a promotion or announcement you have in store that may benefit a particular segment of your audience? Understanding where your warm leads reside can help you direct a more successful campaign. 4. Make it Magical The holiday season is the best time of year to add something flashy to your print projects. Take full advantage of your options: You can use metallics, foils, special inks, and dyes to enhance the wow factor of your marketing material. The weight of paper alone can change a prospect’s perception of your marketing efforts. With so many shoppers making purchases during the holiday season, this isn’t the time to cut corners and hope for the best. Think big and consult your printer for innovative ways to elevate your project and rake in sales. If you’re planning a direct mail campaign, here’s some advice on how to make it as successful as possible. Spread Holiday Cheer Print marketing during the holiday season is a no-brainer, but success lies in your approach. Take care to observe the above advice if you’re looking to make a real impact this year. You’re going to need a print provider that can bring your vision to life. That’s Advertisers Printing: We’ll help hit your target with customized, high-quality products that are guaranteed to impress. Contact Advertisers Printing, a St. Louis printing company today to start on your holiday print marketing campaign.

More often than not, consumers are looking down. Between social media advertising, email marketing, and an influx of eCommerce applications, brand awareness starts in the palm of your prospect’s hand. But what happens when they look up? Despite our predominantly digital era, poster advertising the “old-fashioned way” has yet to go out of style. In fact, combining your digital marketing efforts with an effective promotional print strategy is the most effective way to hit your targets no matter where they’re looking. Maybe you already know this. You’ve got a great mailing campaign underway or just had some new brochures printed up. Great! But despite your print efforts, you might still be forgetting something. We’ll give you a hint: Think bigger. Poster advertisements attract customers old and new in an extremely effective way. Whether you’re a small business owner or a well-established conglomerate, the benefits of posters speak for themselves. Here are just a few: Poster Placement & Visibility Matters The sky’s the limit—literally. From outdoor venues and shopping malls to subway stations and community centers, posters can be displayed almost anywhere. Strategic poster placement can better your odds of hitting your target market, too. Let’s say you’re an up-and-coming clothing store. By displaying your store advertisement posters within shopping districts or at bus stops in your store’s neck of the woods, you’re sure to attract new eyes that have plenty of incentive to visit your business. Custom Poster Printing The benefits of digital advertising are undeniable; however, top-notch strategies can cost a pretty penny. For example, Google Ads has tremendous outreach capabilities but charges for every interaction with your ad. If you seek a more cost-effective way to advertise to a sea of prospects, posters are an excellent approach. You pay for the custom poster printing (and occasionally the advertising space), and that’s it. How you capitalize on your advertisement is up to you! Target Posters How many times have you closed out of a pop-up ad before you even learned what it was selling? Consumers have grown madly fatigued by an overabundance of online ads. Here’s what target posters can do that digital ads cannot: stay put! Your poster ads occupies a physical space that cannot be closed out of, swiped away, or quickly dismissed. This gives your prospects the opportunity to give your ad a second glance—and the attention it deserves! If the benefits of poster advertising appeal to your marketing strategy, you’re sure to have questions about the printing process. That’s our specialty. We’ll satisfy some of your curiosities below: Poster Size What size should my poster be? This poster size depends on your advertisement strategy and target market. Take some time to brainstorm effective display areas for your posters. For example, advertising to urban prospects might call for bigger, bolder displays than for a rural target market. Posters in windows will scale differently than ones on billboards. Need help with the brainstorming process? We’d be happy to pitch some ideas. Poster Print Material What should I print my poster on? Posters will weather, especially if they’re frequently handled or displayed outdoors. You want to prioritize durability, both with your poster print material and your ink. Lamination can also prolong your poster’s lifespan. Our recommendations will vary depending on where you intend to place your poster. For example, outdoor displays will require more robust materials and finishes, such as water resistance. As with sizing, Advertisers Printing is happy to recommend the perfect material for your vision. Poster File Format What is the best poster file format for printing? You might have a great poster design archived, but if it isn’t optimized for large-scale printing, you won’t be satisfied with your printed results. Saving your design as a print-ready PDF with bleed and crop marks will ensure a fabulous finished product. Starting from scratch? Try downloading a free artwork template for Adobe InDesign or Illustrator. There’s probably one more question on your mind: What’s this going to cost? We understand that price is an ultimate deciding factor. Luckily, Advertisers Printing offers high-quality, budget-friendly solutions for all of your print needs. If you’re eager to get started on a poster advertising campaign, we’re ready to help you. Contact Advertisers Printing, a St. Louis Printing company today.