The Six Secrets of No-Surprise Printing

by marketingdoc | Jun 7, 2021 | Creative strategies, Direct marketing, Headlines, Sales

Even When Using Digital Printing… it pays to plan.

Methods

Successful print jobs are all about planning and communication. If you plan carefully and communicate exactly what you want, it is unlikely that you will need an expensive do over by a problem or disappointment later.

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Number One.

The first step is to have a rational idea of the physical piece you want to create. That means determining the size, shape, folds, and other characteristics. For anything more complicated than a flat sheet, it is wise to create a dummy or mock-up to make sure that pages and folds are where you want them to be.

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Number Two.

If you are printing for a mailing, a mock-up helps to ensure that the individual pieces will fit in the envelope properly. It can also help determine the type of printing equipment, such as die cutting or masking that will be a much-needed impact. Simple steps now could lead to savings to make the printing process more efficient. Changing the dimensions, for example, could allow a piece to be printed on a smaller press to save money. Check with the post office or your direct mailer. Non-Traditional size and shape mailers may require a special rate.

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Number Three.

Proofing is also important. It is often tempting to rush when you are working under a deadline, but it is always better (and much cheaper) to correct a mistake before printing begins. Show your last design to several people, include those who have not worked on the project. Their input will be fresh and objective. Look for the usual spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Carefully check the headline and subheads. Most important, be sure that all vital information is correct, including phone number, return address, postal indicia, and bar codes.

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Number Four.

One common mistake is to include photos that look good on a computer screen, but which do not print well on a press. For most, you will need photos or graphics with 300 dpi resolution. Always use stock or vector images from a reputable company. If the budget permits, hire a photographer, designer, or direct marketing mail copyrighter. Make sure they sign off the rights of their property to your firm.

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Number Five.

When submitting your design file for printing, you must include not only the file but all the attached files, including fonts, photos, graphics, and logos. Check early on with your printer what they need to get what you want to achieve. Just because it is digital, printers need to follow a protocol to get the best-looking printed material.

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Number Six.

Finally, it is important to keep in mind that printing involves putting ink onto paper. The ink and paper you use will affect the last look. You cannot rely on how a design appears on a computer screen. Paper can come in various colors, thicknesses, and textures which affect the last appearance of printing. When in doubt, ask for samples before you begin the design and writing process.

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Direct marketing copy is like a puzzle.

Sharing my time with you is not over at the end of a post. There are many ideas I experienced in owning a small business. My ideas about using and writing direct marketing and customer-centric copy are intertwined in the marketing, advertising, and selling content, articles, reports based on my philosophy of people learn by reading, then learn by doing.

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Seven Fundraiser Tips to Reach Supporters…

by marketingdoc | May 17, 2021 | Analytics, Communication channels, Copy content, Customer-centric strategy, direct mail, Direct marketing mail strategy, Email tactical, Landing Page, Sales

and learn how a few tactics will win over your customers.

Let me explain.

Direct Marketing+Mail comprises many distinct elements to help your customers buy your products. When you add them up in your head, you can easily lose track because there are so many.

Never stop at one.

Let us talk about customers. The human mind is very baffling, and depending how their day is going, it can change in a heartbeat. For example, an automobile manufacturer does not just sell cars. They are selling economical transportation to get you to and from work every day. What else are they selling? It depends upon the person.

A mom with children needing a new car wants lots of space. Safety features also come to mind. What about Kevlar seat covers to keep the interior looking half respectable?

Dad will want either good mileage, performance, or both. But buying a sedan does not cope well hauling children to sporting events plus equipment. Once the last child is over eighteen, dad may finally get the sedan of his dreams.

As one can see, there are a lot of hot buttons to push to get someone to buy. Whatever product a company sells, there are many variables to consider. In these cases, a person should start thinking like enthusiasts. Focus on the payoff or reward more than on the product. Take a cue from fundraisers. That’s a good moon arising!

There are a lot of hot buttons to push to get someone to buy.

Take a cue from fundraisers.

Whatever product a company sells, there are many variables to consider. In these cases, a person should start thinking like enthusiasts. Focus on the payoff or reward more than on the product. Take a cue from fundraisers.
How do professional nonprofit fundraisers raise millions of dollars for their non-profits every year? What are their secrets to fundraising? The answer is trust and establishing confidence in the direct communication copy.

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As promised, here are seven enthusiastic ideas to make more money.

High-five! Group of business colleagues giving each other high-f

Put yourself in an enthusiastic mind frame as you review your copy. Ask why. It is important to clarify “the why” you are asking for a donation or a sale.

A fundraiser does not want money but an agreement for their cause. The goal is to get people to support and invest in an organization. Or with a profit company, get the buyer to tell others about their product and experience.

A fundraiser copywriter puts the facts about the organization in small type but emphasizes the benefits, payoff, and rewards. The idea behind this brings the reader onto a center stage in the copy using big, bold letters.

Any for profit company can send their customers to a website landing page with a similar look of the mailer and continue the reward and pay off in the copy. Once your customer reaches the web, accentuating your product with actual photography or a video is like the icing on a cake.

Typically, an enthusiast for a cause wants to see more information in writing and on paper. Your customers probably do as well.

There is no faster way to lose an enthusiast or a customer than to stop at one communication. Follow with another direct-mail piece that has continuity with the first communication. The piece should contain crafted stories, including pictures of other customers in action using your product. Do not forget email or other channels of communication they use.

A good idea is to reference the first mailing to build on the enthusiasm and the donors’ or customers’ emotions. That is another reason message frequency is so important.

A single piece of direct mail can easily develop into many communications and using other channels of communication preferred by the readers.

Fund raisers take some time to learn more about their donors. This is a vital strategy in the non-profit industry and like a customer-centric marketing strategy for a company.

Do not worry about redundancy. Remember, they bombarded people with thousands of messages per day. That is another good reason to keep continuity going from the first moment during the campaign to whenever the campaign ends.

The image you project about your product or service or your charity and the value it brings to your customers or donors can be more important than the product or the service. To a charity donor, we consider it as an investment into the charitable organization.

Here is a takeaway from fundraisers for your profit business:

Learning a buying reason for a group of customers on how they use your product can lead your company to better marketing results. You can write more relevant copy, which can induce people to respond more often. Excellent results will lead to more customers.

I trust that was what you were looking for!

Please share with others–except your competition!

Direct marketing copy is like a puzzle.

Please join our Direct2Customers Marketing Community today!

Learning by reading and doing, marketing, and selling ideas, is what you will find in your Direct2Customer Community. Join us today by clicking on the button.

This is what I do and what I love to do.

Thanks again for reading. Questions?

Mdoc@direct2customers.com or 800-251-3608

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How to Get Customer and Audience Feedback…

by marketingdoc | Apr 30, 2021 | Analytics, CRM, Customer-centric strategy, Database, Personalize data marketing, Sales

and three quick ways to use it today!

You need to create the right attention

For many, feedback is detrimental-a negative, unplanned disturbance. It’s that dreadful, high-pitched squeal from the public-address system that sometime occurs when the speaker at the podium first opens his or her mouth to say, “Good morning.” Good, no more.

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Make some good moves with the music

In business, there’s another form of feedback. This is the response you get from customers and prospects from a campaign, a press release, a post or how customers use your product or service. The answers tell you how well your company is doing or where improvements you can make.

Naturally, the very best feedback you can get is a sale–cash in your bank account. Then ask yourself what precipitated a purchase.
The next best feedback is to have a customer or prospect–really talk to you and tell you what they feel good or bad.
In the world of the most preeminent companies, those that invite feedback–and use it to improve–continue to outperform those who do the same thing over and over.

So, get creative, get bold.

Not only do these companies seek honest evaluations about their performances, but they also present the data to the sales and marketing teams, customer service, and the product development team. The more a person knows then uses the information to make future campaigns successful.

Before you think of mailing a survey, there probably are many questionnaires and surveys floating around that responses can be slim. So, get creative, get bold. Start with the number one tool to get your customer information.

Pick up the phone, or get in your car, motorcycle, truck, or what gets you from point A to point B and lead your team, to talk to customers, one to one, and listen, listen, listen, and then you can react to the feedback!

Canned questions are fine, but use them as thought starters. Let customers talk to you and tell you, in their own words, what they see, hear about your company and their impression.

Look at what other companies are doing.

To become a useful tool, you must transform data into information that can help drive strategic direct marketing and selling programs, financial decisions, and product development. To minimize manual data collection and conserve resources, a company should focus on metrics for readily available data.

In today’s direct and digital marketing, data will capture information needed to drive decisions. The idea of having a good marketing automation tool to capture more data at a reasonable price is a worthwhile investment. The Pareto Principal comes into play when you collect data. Twenty percent of your customers usually provide eighty percent of your revenue. Buy a CRM or database and build one today.

Adding value-oriented work habits.

When you summarize feedback as charts, graphs, or simple to understand language, you’ll always know the score. You know if you’re winning or losing–and to what degree.

Go get’em slugger!

Let me know what you think.

mdoc@direct2customers.com

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Please share with others–except your competition!

Direct marketing copy is like a puzzle.

Please join our Direct2Customers Marketing Community today!

Learning by reading and doing, marketing, and selling ideas, is what you will find in your Direct2Customer Community. Join us today by clicking on the button.

This is what I do and what I love to do.

Thanks again for reading. Questions?

Mdoc@direct2customers.com or 800-251-3608

JOIN US

The Art of Copywriting

by marketingdoc | Mar 23, 2021 | Copy content, customer-centric, Direct 2 Customers landing page, Direct marketing, Sales

The Art of Copywriting

When you write marketing copy, do you get tense?

Let's Write With Present Tense

The Skill of Copy

In the game of baseball, I asked a newcomer, “How fast can you make it from first to third on a single?”

If you write the marketing copy in the present tense, then you are likely to get a better response. By that I mean your direct-marketing copy will fall short of the mark you aimed at by making far off, distant promises.

For example –

Our product will make your cookies taste sweeter.
Our concept will make you sell more.
Our program will make you move up the corporate ladder.

When you use the present tense, you keep the promise and the payoff close to the reader – right here, right now, and get it today!

My colleagues in direct marketing always look for words that work for dollars. The present tense offers the reader immediate satisfaction now and not in the future.

Look at the simple corrections made to the three previous sentences.

Our product makes your cookies sweeter.
Our concept makes you richer.
Our program makes you reach that promotion.

Tomorrow always seems to be here before you know it. The present tense has the most direct marketing potential for record-breaking sales because it is here today, ready to sell and to deliver on every promise.

Remember, direct marketing copy pulls the reader in and makes an offer to get the sale now.

Getting Close to Home

I hope you made sense out of my little play upon the word tense. Because the alternative might be a double play! That is the skill of attraction.

I know some marketers say having many people on the fence waiting to buy would call that a success. That is not the right way of using direct marketing. Why wait when you can have the present tense working for you every day?

Another change of writing helps if you know how to go from first to third.

If you like posting testimonials supporting your product, go from the first person to the third person.

Writing in the first-person narrative means copy from the “I” point of view. For example, “I use product X every day and never miss another appointment.”

Writing in the first person is more personal sounding, but if nobody knows the person making that statement, it is boring.

Let us look at writing as the third person. This form of writing stems from the well-informed point of view.

For example,

“My name is John Smith, President of XYZ Company, and 99.5% who have purchased Product X, make more in sales than all the other products combined.”

The third person is more authoritative by mentioning the person by name, his or her position and further, by building a clearer brand image for company X.

When writing marketing copy, such as a testimonial, test it on other people, some you know, to see if the copy meets your objectives.

It is always helpful to remember. Direct to customers!

Please share with others–except your competition!

Direct marketing copy is like a puzzle.

Please join our Direct2Customers Marketing Community today!

Learning and doing, marketing, and selling ideas, is what you will find in your Direct2Customer Community. Join us today by clicking on the button.

This is what I do and what I love to do.

Thanks again for reading. Questions?

Mdoc@direct2customers.com or 800-251-3608

JOIN US

Are you looking for a higher revenue stream?

by marketingdoc | Mar 13, 2021 | Creative strategies, Customer-centric strategy, Direct marketing, Personalize data marketing, Sales

I have what you are looking for.

Answer a few tough questions

Building a business and marketing plan will teach you more about your customers, competition, direct or indirect, your industry and what other small businesses are doing. You are not in school anymore, so it permits copying.

But, in business planning, you need to answer some tough questions. If you are tackling a plan for the very first time, you need to build a planning and marketing advisor’s team. Select first from your employees. After all, they need to speak up, but please, no punishment from past discretions. Some of your best ideas may come from them.

Search for Answers

Meet with non-competing business associates you admire and even your customers. Other people to know may be in your local chamber of commerce, junior colleges, a community business association or in local business schools.

Visit your local bookstore, a university or junior college library, or venture online to find a ton of books, podcasts, and many gurus to check out for help. Keep in mind, your team members may have some ideas in the area. I recommend not to venture here until you visited the pervious suggested people.

A quick tip- Some people are best at answering questions when a question comes up during a conversation. Here are a few probing questions to help you get the ball rolling:

1. A situation analysis is a significant start to help you change.

This company analysis involves evaluation of your company’s objectives, strategy, and capabilities. It will enable you to determine the strength of your business model, whether there are areas for improvement. For example, understanding your business capabilities, customer types, business environment, product, pricing, and revenue.

As written above, some people are best at answering a question during a conversation. The situation analysis is a great tool for your company leadership and team members. For example.

Precisely define your company and your product or service.
If you offer a product, define what it is, how is the product used, how is it put together, and what are the expected results.
If you offer a service, tell us what you sell in seven words or fewer, and what a customer receives when they buy it, how the service will perform for the person and who purchases it, and specify the single most important benefit.
Then, in order of importance, describe which features will appeal to your marketplace.
In order of importance, define the products/services your company offers. (Be as complete as possible.)

2. Let's Take A Look at Your Organization

In one sentence, describe what your company does. Do you have a USP(Unique Selling Proposition)? If yes, attach it with your answers to these questions.
How long have you been in business?
How is the company organized (subsidiary, division, franchise, etc?).
Are the current product lines or services meeting their goals and objectives? Please list them in importance of their success.
What is your knowledge about products and/or services information from customers is telling you?
Describe what you think your target audience knows—and feels—about your company and the products/services, in terms of quality, features, style, brand names, etc.
Describe what you think or know what your target audience knows and feels about your competition.
What areas of product (or services) and brand strategy need improvement?
Have you developed research profiles of each customer segment?
How is your company presently positioned in your industry? What is your company known for?

In today’s business environment you need to learn as much as possible about customers, transactions, and who is the next customer to serve. It is not as easy as looking at customers and the products they purchase and to make a mental note of the differences.

A company needs a business model to focus on what customers want and even how they think, recording answers in a database. Do not fall into the trap of building a major campaign on logic or a gut-feeling–it is a formula for disaster.

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If you want to get a feel for questions asked and answered, sign up for free today for our Direct2Customers Marketing Community. Plus, I will spend one hour free helping you with the questioning for the Situation Analysis, No. 1. Click on the button below and add” Situation” in the company tab.

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