How does Direct Mail help my business?

Over the next five weeks I will be enlightening you all to the benefits of direct mail.

Part one is working out how direct mail will help your business.

The reason why direct mail is so effective is because the first thing that people do when they get home from work, or arrive in work, is check the mail.

Direct mail helps you to achieve the following objectives;

• Increase sales to existing customers
• Build customer loyalty
• Re-establish contact with lapsed customers
• Generate new business

Direct mail does not suit everyone but here are some types of companies and what they can achieve by using it;

Ø Small businesses – a cost effective way of building relationships with old and new customers

Ø Start-ups – with a relatively small outlay for direct mail this is a great way to get your business off the ground with potentially high returns

Ø Retailers – use direct mail to build customer relationships and develop reputation of the brand

Ø Sales – to generate leads to follow up or to launch new products

Ø Events – get the relevant timely message out such as insurance renewals

Ø Fundraisers – one of the most effective use of direct mail to generate huge amounts of money

Next week we will talk about planning mail shots. 
PrintMatters; enquiries@printmatters.info. 01356 625 033.

Direct Mail tips

If you’re not contacting your customers, you can bet that someone will be. Imagine if that someone was your competitor?

The majority of businesses lose customers through lack of communication not bad service or poor products.

Contact your current customers via targeted direct mail. They already know how to spend money with you so it’s a lot easier to get them spending again.

Why not obtain a mailing list based on your current customer’s profile. Did you know you can receive up to 1000 business contacts from a local Business association absolutely free?

Repeat

In order for your message to be noticed you have to repeat it at least 3 times.

Personalise

Remember PrintMatters are a digital print company so we can personalise every individual piece of mail.

Be friendly

When writing the mailer write it to an individual and it will sound much more appealing.

Dont drown them

You want to create an interest in your product, service or company, you don’t want to bore them to death. Focus on the key benefits and what they will do to improve their life.

At PrintMatters we can design, print, post and cleanse your list through our mail return system.

PrintMatters, we do more. enquiries@printmatters.info 01356 625 033

Local company local prices

At PrintMatters we are constantly keeping an eye on our competitors.

Our regular customers know our prices and our service and return to us. However you will often bump into someone at an event or just in passing who will always enquire as to your price.

We often hear from this person who does not have all the information in front of them “that’s quite expensive” and “you are competing with the internet so you will never be as cheap as online”

The one that is often cast up to us is printing.com. Mass printing, mass customers, mass marketing. One thing is for sure the marketing works. Everyone has the perception that they are dirt cheap and we could never compete with them.

Here are some top line prices for you;

Stationery pack consisting of 500 letterheads, business cards and compliment slips;

printing.com with 20% off is £167 or £209 normally

PrintMatters standard price is £129

Roll up banner;

Printing.com is £128

PrintMatters is £99

So why are printing.com so expensive, we can only guess that you are paying for all the adverts. 

They confuse you with the pricing strategy as well, by pricing banners separate from banner stands you think you are getting a deal. At PrintMatters if you want a banner you get the stand anyway, its common sense.

PrintMatters; local pricing from a local company, and you can even speak to us on the phone.

Online shop coming soon!

Flyers distribution

Last week I discussed the effectiveness of one of the simplest promotional tools around. Flyers.

We constantly promote ourselves as a “print solutions provider”, what the hell does that mean I hear you ask? Well put simply we do more. More than just print.

Having hundreds or thousands of flyers is one thing, but they are no use to anyone sitting in a box in your cupboard. As a business owner you don’t have the time to sort out who gets the flyers where and when. We can do all that for you.

Not only will we consult with you, design and print your flyers we will also deliver them to your potential customers taking the time and effort to ensure that your message is not only created and printed, its delivered, driving new customers to your business.

What does it cost? Well if we deal with our immediate local area; to print and deliver flyers to 94-96% of the households in Brechin it will cost you from only £299.For Montrose it will cost from only £439. That’s to print and deliver 7,000 flyers and apart from writing the cheque you will not have to lift a finger.

Last week we mentioned some of the little gems that make your promotional materials stand out from the crowd;

Heavier stock to reduce throwaways and increase retention

Coupons to measure effectiveness and generate footfall

Pairing up your promotional activities through advertising, door drops, in store promotions and even seasonal “on van” promotions or adverts to maximise exposure. Remember it takes 5 sights of an advert before it registers with a customer.

We don’t just print, we design, we consult, we market, we distribute, we deliver.

Come and speak to PrintMatters….we do more.

01356 625033

Design partner

PrintMatters are more than just a print company. By strengthening our skillset we have been able to offer our customers a lot more than just a printing service. We have already highlighted our Marketing service but one of our longest standing services is Design.

Any printer worth its salt must have a design function. Very few actually offer the service to customers. We don’t have to design things for print only, our designers are skilled in web design, e-newsletter design and implementation as well as any advertising you would like designed for local papers, yellow pages or online box advertising.

Last time we talked about how to market to your customers through existing communications methods such as invoices, statements and emails. Why not ask our design department to review your documentation and suggest additions such as strategically placed adverts that will catch the eye but not detract from the serious nature of the communication?

By starting with the basics each company can make every outbound communication a valued and professional one. How many emails do you send to your customers or prospective customers, how many invoices and statements do you send, how many deliveries do you post out and do they convey the correct message?

Each communication you send out only needs a slight amendment to convey your message of the month. Designing these documents does not cost the earth either. We charge and hourly rate of £30 for designing customer work and that is broken down into 15minute segments. No minimum charge. If it is 15 minutes of design time then you will only be charged £7.50.

A professional look to your communications is not expensive but it makes all the difference to the perception of your company, and if we get to print something out of it, all the better!

Marketing partner

PrintMatters are more than just a print company. Over the past 18 months we have been strengthening our workforce which has enabled us to widen our skillset. This has allowed us to increase our own business but crucially allowed us the opportunity to work closely with our customers to enable them to grow their own business. After all the stronger our customers business is the stronger our business is.

By investing in Marketing personnel PrintMatters can now not only print and design your future communications but we can also work with you to gain more from your exisitng customers and generate new customers. Every business has a customer base and means of contacting them but very few actually use the database to alert customers to special offers, new services or products and even just wishing them a happy new year. The only time the majority of companies will actually contact customers is when they are moving premises which is a forced communication.

You are now probably thinking that contacting all your customers is going to cost an absolute fortune. Traditional mail outs can be costly due to the postage, but how often do you contact your customers through day to day business?

By starting with the basics each company can make every outbound communication a valued one. How many emails do you send to your customers or prospective customers, how many invoices and statements do you send, how many deliveries do you post out?

Simple questions of which only you will know the answer but why should an invoice which is costing you a stamp to send out anyway not also be used to communicate your latest special deal. Email footers can be easily changed to carry a promotional message and deliveries can have a leaflet or letter of thanks in them. Each communication you send out only needs a slight amendment to convey your message of the month.

Did you know it takes one person 5 individual views of an advert before they will actually acknowledge or take notice?

Marketing need not cost the earth it is about considered communications with your existing customer base. It is far more cost effective to grow business with an existing customer than it is to attract a new one.

fraser@printmatters.info. 01356 625 033