If you own a business or are in charge of your company’s marketing efforts, you have probably thought about using door hangers in your efforts. Door hangers are perhaps the most underappreciated tools in the marketing toolbox. They can be wonderfully effective, if done right, and they are usually very affordable. So why are they not more popular? Probably because people simply do not know how great they can be. So let’s remedy that situation by going over some of the good things about these little marketing wonders.
People Read Them!
You know all those direct mail items you find in your mailbox? What happens to them? I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of them end up in the trash. And most of them were probably never even glanced at, right? Well, not so with door hangers. After all, how can you not read something that you have to physically lift off of your doorknob? Even if it’s just in route from the door to the trash, they are still being looked at.
Saturate an Area
Door hangers are especially effective for local businesses trying to gain a foothold in the community. They are far cheaper than direct mail, and (as we already mentioned) are much more effective. Once you have your door hangers printed, organize a team to go door to door placing them on doors in your neighborhood. You will probably see a significant increase in local foot traffic.
They Increase Visibility
The key to growing your business is to become known to your target customers. Experts say that a person has to hear a name at least seven times before it sinks in. If you are wary of doing a direct mail campaign because of the cost, consider a door hanger campaign as an alternative. As we already discussed, door hangers get read more than direct mail. Plus, going door to door placing door hangers is a great way to meet your potential customers face to face.
Cost Cutting Benefits
Door hangers are considerably cheaper than running a direct mail campaign, as long as you go to the right place to have them printed. There are a lot of very good printers who will do your door hanger printing for a reasonable price and with a very short turnaround. Shop around and talk to as many printers as you can. You will find a good one that will do everything you want and more.
Personalization
If you are targeting a specific area, you can design your door hangers to appeal to people in that community. Use phrases or images that are particular to that region, and your door hangers will be even more effective. People like to feel like part of a community, and they like to do business with other members of that community. So let your customers know that you are in the area and are contributing to the community, and they will be happy to come to you!
Newsletters can be such a hassle, but worth every minute of frustration. They are a necessary way to reach out to customers and keep that connection alive. If you are ready to shed some of that frustration with newsletter design, here are some steps you can follow to make it a little easier.
Step 1: Printing Decisions
Before you begin the design process, know what newsletter printing company you will use. Make sure that they have plenty of experience with newsletter printing and offer the options you need for your specific design. For instance, some printing companies only offer a tri or half fold, which are both doable for newsletters, but many newsletters use a French or even Z fold. Or your newsletter may even need to be bound into a booklet format. In this step, you will also need to decide on what size your newsletter will be when folded, the quantity, paper type, and any other choices required by your newsletter printing company.
Step 2: Article Decisions
Decide what type of articles you want to include and how many of each. For instance, your newsletter sections may include editorials, industry news, letters to the editor, and features. Gather or write the articles you need keeping in mind your audience. The success of your newsletter depends highly on presenting reading material that will interest your readers.
Step 3: Image Decisions
To break up the monotonous look text can give to a newsletter, include images with every article. Yes, this can be time-consuming but it will greatly enhance the appeal of your articles. There are many websites that offer free or at least royalty-free stock photographs, such as Stock.xchng and EveryStockPhoto. Just make sure to download photographs at a resolution of 300 dpi or higher to avoid blurry or pixilated images.
Step 4: Headline Decisions
Your newsletter needs a title, every section needs a headline, every article needs a title, and long articles should contain subtitles. Clear headlines allow readers to easily skim through the articles and pause on those which interest them. Not everyone has time to read a newsletter from cover to cover, so appropriate and descriptive headlines ensures that more people will at least glance through your newsletter. In this step, you will also want to take the time to design your nameplate if this is your first issue. Nameplates typically contain the newsletter title, company name, issue name if needed, and publication information. Keep the design of your newsletter nameplate the same for each issue.
Step 5: Layout Decisions
You’ve done the hardest work so far. Now comes the fun part – putting together the pieces. Place the most relevant and interesting sections in the beginning of the newsletter and the least popular in the back. You may also decide to include a table of contents on the cover page, usually placed horizontally on the side of the page.
Step 6: Editing Decisions
Every good newsletter has been proofread for grammar errors and edited for a consistent voice. You can almost never proofread too many times. In fact, it’s a good idea to have several different co-workers proofread as different eyes will catch different errors. Only assign one person to be the editor, though, since it’s the editor’s job to keep the tone the same throughout the newsletter.
Congratulations! Your newsletter is ready to send to print. Hopefully by following a step-by-step system such as the one above, it will make the process much more relaxing for you, and maybe even allow you to look forward to preparing each issue.
Filed under: advertising, folded postcards, marketing, postcards, printing | Tags: postcard marketing, postcards
Printing and mailing postcards is one of the least expensive but most effective ways of advertising. There are a number of important methods to make sure you get the most out of your postcard printing campaign. Three areas where many companies make mistakes are in budgeting, sampling, and persistence.
Additionally, many companies do not work with professional printing firms who can handle direct mail postcard campaigns on their behalf. When a printing firm can produce the postcards and also mail them, you’ll find that this relationship can create a number of efficiencies for you. Some printing firms can supply a mailing list for you, but other web sites such as Info USA (www.infousa.com) can provide you with quality mailing lists that can reach targeted customers.
Budgeting
One of the easiest ways to wreak havoc on profitable advertising campaigns is by failing to set a budget or failing to stick to the budget. Once you have your budget, you can decide whether or not to spend more money on features of your postcards, or to cut back on printing features so that you can actually produce more postcards. In either case, you are making a decision based on a pre-determined budget.
Sampling
Once you have found the ideal balance between printing quality and quantity, send your postcards out to a small sample of customers. Watch carefully and record any responses that you get. This will help you make sure that your design is effective. If nobody responds, or the response is much lower than expected, you can adjust before spending your entire budget on a faulty design.
Persistence
Postcard printing campaigns should be sent at a regular basis. This is especially true when sales are low. Persistence is the key. While it may be easy to try to cut costs, one of the best things you can do is to continue to advertise. Using inexpensive direct mailing tools, like postcards, can help your company maintain an advertising presence with your customers.
It can be easy to push marketing to the back of your mind, and your business budget, during hard economic times. But not marketing is the worst thing you can do during a recession or any kind of slow period during your business cycle. Consumers may not be able to buy as much during hard times, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention to marketing messages. Most consumers are making plans for when they get that next job or when gas prices come back down.
By continuing to market during down times, you not only keep your brand at the forefront of people’s minds, but you also show your resilience. If your company can afford to keep marketing during bad times, it must mean you’re doing something right! Even if it’s only a direct mail postcard, anything that can remind customers of your presence will keep you at the top of their lists for when they’re able to spend more again.
Emphasize the cost savings of your product or service
Instead of focusing on quality over quantity at this time, focus on the numbers – show customers how you can save them money. If your product isn’t cheap or can’t offer short-term cost benefits, try to emphasize long-term benefits.
Use postcards to announce a sale
Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on TV and radio commercial spots, spend a hundred dollars to send postcards to a targeted market in your area. You can print and mail postcards for as little as 25 cents each. You can also use postcards to introduce your business to a new area or to introduce a new product to current customers.
Stay in contact with current customers
It costs much less to keep current customers than to recruit new customers. In tough times, reward loyal customers with coupons and discounts to let them know they are important. You can make up for slow sales by increasing the amount of sales to current customers.
Employ word-of-mouth marketing
Ask customers to tell their friends and families about you and your products. You can even start a referral program to reward current customers by offering them coupons or a small free item for sending new customers your way.
Write articles for local publications for free
Local newspapers and magazines are feeling the pinch too, and they probably can’t afford to hire as many writers as they once employed. Offer to write a business-related article for local publications for free. Most publications will publish a one-line bio of the writer, so you can include your Web site address and the name of your business in the bio. Even if your article doesn’t have anything to do with your business, you still get free advertising with the bio line, as well as credibility for being published.
These strategies are not hard to do, but they might take some more time than your traditional marketing techniques. Don’t get discouraged; you’ll likely find a new marketing technique that you’ll want to use even when times are good. If not, at least you’ll have kept your business in the public’s eye when your competitors probably aren’t.
Here are some informative highlights from an interview with Lisa Hoffman, Product Manager of PrintPlace. The company started as a traditional commercial printer, but invested heavily in advanced technology to revolutionize the industry’s business model. Hoffman gives this and many other reasons PrintPlace is the fastest growing online printer in the industry today.
Prices and customer service sets PrintPlace apart from other online printers
Our customers say we have the best customer service and best prices. We have no specific market [which means we cater to individuals and companies equally]. We are the only online printer with a certified G7 Expert (color expert) on staff. We offer more flexibility in our options than most printers. With our new Same Day Turnaround service, we offer more products on a same day turnaround (including booklets) than any other online printer, especially OFFSET – not digital.
100% offset printing at digital printing speeds
We are 100% offset (no digital printing) yet we offer lower minimum quantities and faster turnarounds than many printers. PDF proofs are free and UNLIMITED. Customers can upload, reject and re-submit as many times as they want for no additional charge. We generate high resolution PDF proofs faster than any other printer – 3 minutes or less.
Recommended design software
We recommend PDF/X1-a format for best results, since this format combines the best color and font management and produces the least possibility for error. Many of our customers use Adobe InDesign or Illustrator and export to PDF with excellent results. Publisher is fine as long as the included images are saved at 300 DPI resolution. Our website contains articles that detail how to export from many popular design programs.
Our automated upload accepts PDF, TIFF, EPS or JPEG. Native files can be sent via FTP to our file repair department who will export and upload to the customer’s job for a nominal fee.
Our art department can convert a customer’s file to PDF for a nominal fee. If a customer uploads a print-ready TIFF or JPEG file, our automated proofing system will convert to PDF for proof review.
Press capabilities
Our presses are all Komori sheetfed, 40” capacity, with inline aqueous coating. We also offer UV Coating as an option. Our newest Komori presses reduce paper waste with de-inking and pre-inking technology for faster and more accurate make-readies (more jobs per shift & its green to save sheets). The presses integrate with MIS which further streamlines our operations, which are some of the most advanced and automated in the nation.
Bindery capabilities
All of our bindery is in-house. We cut/trim, fold, glue, die-cut, score, perf, saddle stitch bind, hole drill, shrink wrap, tab, and process direct mail.
Mailing services
Yes. We can even provide mailing lists. Customers can save time and money by printing and mailing in a single ordering process.
Turnaround is 100% determined by the customer
Customers tell us what turnaround time they need when placing an order. We have options from Same Day turn to 7 Day turn, depending on the customer’s need and budget. Our turnaround times are NOT just estimates – they are guaranteed!
Everything is printed in CMYK
If you submit an RGB document, it will be automatically converted to CMYK during preflight. PrintPlace’s state-of-the-art color managed workflow automatically detects the ICC profile attached to your RGB file (if you have included one) and manages the color through the conversion process. If you upload an RGB file, please be sure to download the converted print-ready PDF from our system to view the color after the conversion. Changing from RGB to CMYK will always produce some color shifting and a reduction in the color gamut because it is impossible to reproduce the entire RGB color palette with an offset press. We recommend creating and submitting your document in CMYK to assure the color looks as close to your original file as possible.
Quality control to ensure the best prints
Press Operators are held accountable to get the form to color before putting sheets on the counter. We collect data from every press run and inspect the data to correct unwanted trends. We use the G7 methodology to ensure consistency.
Print guarantee
Satisfaction Guarantee covers rerunning or refunding the job. If you are not satisfied with your purchase, contact us within 10 days of receipt of order, and if the order is found to contain an error that is not within our allowable tolerances, we will reprint all or part of it on an expedited turn.
The customer controls the printing
The customer is in complete control of the entire ordering process. They no longer have to wait for a salesperson to pick up a disk or wait for days to receive a proof after uploading to FTP. They approve the proof and send to press at the click of a button. From there, they can check the status of their job in real time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Email notifications are generated automatically at each important stage of the order, keeping customers constantly informed and in touch with their project. As soon as the job ships, they receive tracking information via email.
Why customers should choose PrintPlace over their local printers
We offer the best of both worlds: the personal attention of a local printer, albeit not “face to face,” but at a much better value and without sacrificing quality.
The recent recession has caused people to take a closer look at all of their expenditures, as they no longer have the luxury of buying solely on relationship or “comfort.” Local printers usually employ commissioned salespeople, which results in a significant increase to their cost of doing business. Additionally, their manual method of producing jobs just doesn’t afford them the opportunity to compete with the automation and “lean manufacturing” of online printers. This is evident by the fact that despite the faltering economy, PrintPlace is growing and expanding, rather than shrinking. We just opened a second facility to service our West Coast customers in 4th quarter 2008, and our East Coast facility is soon to follow in New York. We believe this illustrates the confidence of customers to consider online printing as not only a viable, but a preferred, option for their printing needs.
