Direct mail marketing remains a powerful tool in the marketer’s arsenal, boasting high engagement rates and a tangible connection with consumers. However, the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns largely depends on the quality of your mailing list. A stale or...

Any time you are building a direct mail, email, or multichannel campaign, it’s important to take into consideration what one marketing consultant calls “The 5 Rights” of marketing. We think this list is a great way to condense a lot of marketing wisdom, so let’s take...

In a world where competition is fierce and consumer attention is fleeting, drip marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their audiences meaningfully and sustainably. At its core, drip marketing involves sending strategically designed...

You’ve crafted a powerful B2B direct mail campaign with an email follow-up. The design is terrific. The call to action is strong. Success! A high percentage of respondents contact you for more information. You pass along the leads to your sales team, and they start...

Print advertising remains a powerful tool for reaching and engaging with audiences. To create effective print advertisements that resonate with your audience, it's helpful to follow a strategic approach. Here are seven tips for getting great results: Define clear,...

We've all heard the statistics—your current customers are far more profitable than new customers. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of brand purchases come from repeat customers. Even a slight increase in customer retention increases overall company profitability exponentially....

Consumers are demanding eco-friendly products and services, and studies increasingly show that they are willing to pay more for them, too. With this surge in demand for sustainability, it’s tempting for companies to over-state the sustainability of their products....

Do you treat your customer acquisition and customer retention mailings the same? If so, you should reconsider. The two groups are quite different and should be marketed differently. Let’s take a closer look. Customer Acquisition Mailings Customer acquisition mailings...

Have you added social media to your multichannel mix? Intelligent businesses are combining direct mail and email, but social media? That’s for doomscrolling over your morning coffee, not for marketing...or is it? It is! Innovative brands go where their customers are,...

When it comes to signage, it is all pretty much the same, right? Not at all. Signs do more than just provide information. From retail storefronts to corporate events, campuses, and beyond, signage is pivotal in branding, messaging, enhancing visibility, and more....

Are fewer people responding to your direct mail pieces? Maybe it’s because they’ve seen the same or similar design multiple times. It could be time to try something new. Here are five simple ideas to improve your marketing and get more people interested in your offers...

The United States Postal Service’s Informed Delivery service is a gift to every marketer. It is a free service that gives mail recipients a sneak peek (via email, app, or web) at what’s coming in the mail that day. Businesses can add links to these digital previews,...

Many businesses mistakenly think their marketing efforts should take a backseat as summer arrives. It's when people go on vacations, schools break for summer, and overall activity seems to slow down. Rather than pulling back, however, savvy marketers see the summer as...

More than any other factor, a donor's relationship with the organization determines their likelihood of donating. Print and emailed surveys can go a long way toward achieving this goal. What are the keys to sending effective donor surveys? Clarify your goals and...

Every year, the Advertising Specialties Institute’s “Ad Impressions Study” provides a fascinating look into the power and effectiveness of branded promotional products. The study is always a must-read, from how many impressions a product receives to which ones are...

For decades, trade shows have been a staple of businesses’ marketing strategies. While these in-person events declined during the pandemic, they are now on the rebound, allowing businesses to take advantage of fresh, new opportunities. With 82% of trade show attendees...

Communicating with customers using formats they love makes them more likely to pay attention. When it comes to marketing materials, that means sending more print. Over the years, there have been dozens of studies on the impact of print on human comprehension and...

According to a recent survey, 73% of marketers see difficult or uncertain economic times as an opportunity to grow their businesses.[1] Why? During times of uncertainty, competitors pull back on their marketing. This creates a vacuum that you can exploit. When...

Looking forward to 2023, what tone will you use in your direct mail pieces? The emails that you craft? After analyzing 240 million data points on U.S. Internet users, GWI, an audience-targeting company, has some suggestions. It found that the uncertainty and...

If you're a designer, chances are you're familiar with the Pantone Color Libraries. These libraries have been included as part of Adobe applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign for years. But now, Pantone and Adobe have agreed to part ways, and Adobe is...

In marketing, a well-designed logo or website can differentiate between a successful campaign and one that falls flat. But what makes for good design? Often, it's simplicity. The most straightforward designs can be the most effective. Here's a look at how simplicity...

Did you know that the words in the marketing copy of your emails and direct mail pieces can be seen as positive or negative? According to MECLABS, which researches how people make buying decisions, if your positive words outweigh the negative ones, you can boost your...

It’s the end of an era. Adobe will stop supporting PostScript Type 1 fonts in January 2023. When the clock turns over, your Type 1 fonts will no longer appear in the font menus, and existing Type 1 fonts in your documents will appear as “missing fonts.” While this...

What is your best strategy for managing your marketing budget in times of economic uncertainty? Is it to put your mailings on hold until things get better, or is it to get creative and take advantage of existing opportunities? Our experience is that, even when the...

According to research from Parse.ly, 68.7% of content marketers’ decisions come from other teams’ requests. The sales department wants to support the latest product rollout. Management intends to defend its year-end goals. Everyone has a finger in the pie. To be...

Want to know what’s moving and shaking in the direct mail market? You can’t go wrong by looking to Who’s Mailing What!, a database of nearly 200,000 direct mail pieces scanned and analyzed by text, images, vertical market, and more. Recently, WMW! analyzed its...

One of the fastest ways to grab buyers’ attention is to give them something special. Whether insider deals or bundle packages, special offers help cement customer loyalty and keep them coming back. Using the example of a local coffee shop, let’s look at five ways you...

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced something many of us already knew—how much we love direct mail. As the world locked down and people spent more time at home, we felt how much we looked forward to what came in the mailbox in a fresh, more personal way. We already loved...

As we move from the pandemic to the endemic phase of COVID-19, the U.S. economy has been surprisingly resilient. Sales have rebounded, and businesses and consumers are spending. But the supply chain hasn't recovered as quickly as demand, and shoppers often find...

By personalizing your direct mail pieces, you can increase response rates and cart sizes, too. But if you're new to personalization, the design process can seem intimidating. Here is a short "to do" list of common oversights to watch for. Use the correct data, not...

Are you planning a multichannel marketing campaign? Automatically assuming you will be pairing direct mail with email? How about pairing direct mail with social media instead? Haven’t thought about it? Maybe you should. What makes direct mail and social media so...

Are you looking to build or expand your mailing list? If so, you have more options than just buying a targeted list or purchasing data to add to the list you already have. Here are five ways to build a great direct mail list that you might not have thought of. Look at...

Even in a world of interactive digital media, something irresistibly draws people into the tangible world of paper and ink. But why? What makes people fall in love with print? Here are some of the answers we have come up with. If asked the same question, what...

According to Shopkick, consumers plan to start their holiday shopping earlier this year. For businesses, that means starting their marketing earlier, too. Are you ready? To learn more about when, where, and how consumers are planning to do their holiday shopping,...

If you want to know whether your customers are loyal, there are five places you can look. These behaviors — called “loyalty behaviors—are like breadcrumbs that customers leave that tell you whether they are loyal to you . . . or not. These are five behaviors you want...

Did you know that more than half (57%) of people who own branded promotional items keep them for five years or more? That’s an incredible statistic when you think about it. This longevity is one of the reasons that businesses are increasingly seeing the value in...

Getting ready to launch your next mailing campaign? Stop! Even if you’ve got the correct list, the right variables for personalization, and a “knock your socks off” design, don’t forget to double-check your content. Too often, businesses send the same messaging over...

No matter what channel you are using — direct mail or signage, email or print advertising — a great headline grabs the reader and won’t let go. It makes them stop what they are doing and say, “Wait! I need to pay attention to this!” Here are five “marketing insider”...

For some sales, a single postcard or letter mailer will do the trick. But for more complex products, the sales cycle can be longer. In this case, marketers will often send different types of content at different times based on what their prospects require in order to...

Direct mail and email are for selling things, right? But what about building trust? While many marketers may not think about it, trust should be one of your top marketing goals. To understand why let’s look at the example of Morningstar. Morningstar is a financial...

Every year, the Advertising Specialties Institute comes out with its Ad Impressions Study. As always, the results are informative and often eyebrow-raising. From how many impressions a branded product receives to which products are kept the longest, the study is...

You’ve heard people talk about the value of content marketing. It’s one of the most important ways that people find you. If you are delivering content via digital channels, prospects can immediately click through to learn more. If your content is being provided in...

In today’s world, where social distancing and extra health precautions have become part of everyday life, consumers are embracing touchless options for interacting with their favorite brands. It’s no surprise, then, that QR Codes are on the rise. QR Codes are those...

One of the most powerful consumer trends of 2020 has been the move to the suburbs. Yes, the ‘burbs. The suburbanization of America is changing the way we live, work, and play. This trend was in place before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the nationwide health crisis has...

Recently, McKinsey, a respected business research firm, had this to say about direct mail and email communications: Customers decide very quickly—in a matter of seconds—whether they like your marketing message. Provide something relevant, and you’ve got a satisfied...

Want to turn your traditional mailing into a multichannel, multi-touch campaign at no extra cost? All you have to do is send it. That’s right. To create an effective multichannel campaign, you don’t have to do anything extra beyond sending out your mail. The United...

You know QR Codes? Those boxes of black-and-white squares you see on posters, on the backs of business cards, and in the drive-through windows at McDonald’s? They are free to create, simple to use, and suddenly, they are everywhere. QR Codes (short for “quick...

In today’s “new normal” created by the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be challenging to know how to strike the right balance when it comes to marketing. Many brands are keeping a low profile, waiting for a surge in consumer confidence before restarting their direct mail...

It’s likely that you’ve heard it said that now is a good time to be marketing. In fact, you’ve probably heard that for years. It’s always a good time to be marketing! But there really is something different going on. Whether it’s direct mail, email, or mobile, here...

What’s another name for personalized printing? Relationship marketing! This is an approach that uses personalized printing to focus on nurturing long-term customer relationships rather than pursuing just the short-term sale. How does this work? Say you are a...

There is no getting around the increasing importance of data in marketing. In fact, according to Forbes Insights, 64% of global marketers “strongly agree” that data-driven marketing is crucial to success within a hyper-competitive economy. Similarly, Gartner found...

Marketing to businesses can be tricky. Unlike marketing to individuals or households, where there might be only one or two decision-makers, in businesses, decisions are often made by committee. In fact, “Chief Marketer” notes that, on average, B2B accounts have 13...

Did you know that direct mail recipients purchase 28% more items and spend 28% more than non-direct mail recipients?1 This is excellent news for marketers. But with increasing pressure on marketing budgets, you still want to make every direct mail dollar count. Here...

How the marketing world has changed! Whether you are being asked to produce projects in print, email, mobile, or for your website, schedules are compressed. There are more channels to integrate. Everything is more urgent. How do you keep everything running on time and...