Show-Stopping Print Ideas to Compliment Your Digital Marketing

 

Does your brain ever feel tired?

Some days, that’s probably due to information overload. Today, researchers estimate we are exposed to over 5,000 brands per day or around 600-625 ads per person. If you add in pop-ups and YouTube ads, who knows how high the number may soar!

But amidst the explosion of digital advertising, industry reports remind us that print holds steady. 70% of Americans prefer to read on paper, and 67% prefer printed materials over digital. Additionally, 55% of consumers say they trust print marketing more than any other advertising messages.

Want to evoke emotions with your next masterpiece? Draw from three creative examples of print ads that recently stole the show.

 

C&A: The Real “Like” Leaderboard

Nothing builds excitement like a little competition!

In a partnership with Microsoft and Tim (one of Brazil's biggest fashion retailers), C&A created an interactive print advertising campaign to engage clients and collect feedback on designs pitted against one another. Customers who registered to receive the special 'Like Ads' on Facebook were given a print magazine with a personalized Tim chip installed. These print pieces are integrated with an interactive thumbs-up icon from Facebook. When viewers approved of a fashion design by pressing the physical thumbs up button, their vote was also tabulated online (without the need to connect any additional devices).

Beyond recording user preferences on influencer Facebook pages, the most popular "liked" looks from these print ads were displayed on a giant leaderboard in the Morumbi Shopping store. What a tremendous way to build engagement and momentum!

 

Motorola: Where Customization is King

Moto X customization was one of the big selling features of this mobile phone.

To wow potential purchasers, Motorola released interactive ads in New York and Chicago that reached around 150,000 readers of the “Wired” magazine. Phone ads featured super-slim batteries, LED lights, and buttons people could press to modify the phone's color on the page. Prefer blue? Maybe red, pink, or green? Viewers could try any color as the phone in the ad transformed before their eyes.

 

Virtual Test Drives

If you find it hard to get customers through your doors, why not bring the product right to them?

Volkswagen is a brand that strives to be a leader in new technology, so it launched an interactive print ad to drive this point home. Using a three-page print ad, readers could unfold a map of a curvy road and then download a corresponding app that would transform their phone into a mini-vehicle. As drivers steered their “car” (mobile phone) along the “road” (print ad), they had a memorable, hands-on experience with vehicle innovations like the Adaptive Lights or Lane Assist modes. Leave it to Volkswagon to create the first-ever “test drive in a print ad.”

Not to be outdone, Lexus followed suit shortly afterward. Readers of Sports Illustrated could take the Lexus print ad, place it over a Lexus webpage on their iPad screen, and watch the ad come to life with sight, sound, and motion that displayed the car in action (with spinning wheels and different backgrounds and music).

 

Tactile, Memorable Print

Print is nothing if not tactile. And now, static media options have become more interactive than ever.

Use this to your advantage by creating ads that are memorable, relatable, and fun!

 

To contact Chuck Gherman, Theresa Kauser or Veronica Carter for more information about how Printing Arts Press powered by PROforma can help organizations with their Marketing and Human Resource needs through promotion and print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


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Build Customer Confidence: 4 Brand Identity Essentials

 

Trust builds confidence.

That is why a strong corporate brand identity can make or break a business. Brand identity is more than key values or approved color palettes; it is the collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumer. Here is one helpful way to describe it:

Brand identity is the image or character of your business as people relate to it. For example, the BMW image of elite luxury has grown naturally from customers’ repeated exposure to BMW’s ads, endorsements, and products.

Brand imagery is the aesthetic appearance of your brand’s core identity and messaging. This results from all the visuals (from billboards, print ads, or product packaging) that represent your brand’s identity.

When a company has a strong brand, it is easily recognized, which grows people’s trust. Trust builds confidence, and confidence begets loyalty. When a business has built superiority in a particular niche, repeat customers are more willing to buy in other areas. When you have loyalty from your base, you have space to increase prices or ask for bigger commitments.

 

Breaking Down the Brand Experience

When building a brand, think of an iceberg in which only the tip is visible.

The substance exists below the waterline. The brand elements that are most seen and celebrated (like brand imagery) are not always the most important. The brand experience – the mosaic of customer interactions people have with your business – is part of a greater journey.

Here are four dimensions of this mosaic:

1. Brand Voice

If your brand was a person, what would they sound like?

Are they loud and animated or reserved and refined? An organization’s name, tagline, and editorial style comprise an overall projection of its voice. As these elements are developed, consider how the words would sound in the mouth of a brand spokesperson or its founder.

Also, try to contrast the voice of your competitors. If your rival brand has a highly polished voice, you might consider adopting a friendly, down-to-earth style.

 

2. Consistency in Core Elements

Building the foundation of your identity starts with identifying core elements.

Strong brands create a style guide that anchors them to brand colors, key fonts, a logo projected across different backgrounds, and a style they hope to express (e.g., “elegant, clean, scalable, approachable yet excellent”).

Once you’ve nailed these keys, you can embellish with design tweaks, humor, or variations on patterns (of ads, print layouts, customer stories, and more). Like music, good design balances order and variation to make a beautiful composition.

 

3. Total Time

People want to feel like they are in control.

The total time invested in transactions is an essential consideration for today’s consumers. Don’t want to wait in a massive drive-through line? Order ahead in the app. Hate the grocery store line? Use the self-checkout. Perhaps you need to focus less on saving them money and more on saving them time.

Small tweaks you make to the customer experience can assure clients that their time is valuable.

 

4. Framing Customer Choices

Brand building is about affecting customer choice.

While prospects initially engage with emotional triggers like color, shape, image, or tone, eventually, they’ll ask deeper questions about their spending or time commitments. This involves both upfront expenses and opportunity costs; if customers buy from you, they implicitly say no to another brand.

Think strategically about speaking to buyer emotions regarding loss aversion, short-term sacrifices (vs. long-term gains), or sunk costs (how people don’t want to lose what has already been invested).

Brand identity goes beyond simple appearance. Decisions you make about voice, consistency, time, and customer choices can create strong feelings that prompt a profitable response!

 

To contact Chuck Gherman, Theresa Kauser or Veronica Carter for more information about how Printing Arts Press powered by PROforma can help organizations with their Marketing and Human Resource needs through promotion and print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.

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4 Direct Mail Tips to Attract Gen Z's "Digital Natives"

Generation Z—those who follow Millennials—includes people born between 1998 and 2015.

Sometimes known as the Digital Natives (or the iGeneration), this is a demographic that rivals that of the entire Millennial generation, comprising 70 million people in the United States alone.

Gen Z currently includes people in their early twenties and many teenagers with substantial discretionary income. If you want their patronage, your marketing needs to appeal directly to their needs.

Who is Gen Z? Here are a few defining characteristics:

• They are more racially and ethnically diverse than any other generation.
• They are on track to be the most well-educated generation.
• Individuals in Gen Z have little or no memory of the world as it existed before smartphones.
• Their attention span is around eight seconds.
• Many people in Gen Z are competitive, entrepreneurial, and financially-focused
• Gen Z views time as a valuable asset, and your business needs to work hard to earn this commodity.

Also, because they are so plugged in, this group of people is exemplified by passion and collective action. Here are some phrases that capture this mindset:

“We care about our world. We care most about the humans in our world.”

“I am extreme in all that I am and all that I do. This, I believe, will break down walls and invite inclusion for all.”

Do you want to speak directly to the hearts of Gen Z? When it comes to marketing (and direct mail in particular), there are several things you can do to break through:

1. Try Interactive Print Ads

This generation wants an experience, so stretch yourself to create fun and useful campaigns.

Interactive print ads are one option. Take this ad. Here, Glacial beer crafted a unique magazine ad – made from salt-embedded paper – that also functions as a bottle chiller. (Readers can tear out the ad, soak it in water, wrap it around a beer, and stick it in the freezer to chill their beverage in half the time this would typically take.)

Want to go even bigger? Try mailers or brochures with embedded video cards. Here, the mini video automatically starts playing when a mailer is opened.

2. Combine Sharp Designs with Easy Ordering

Since Gen Z has a short attention span, your design needs to grab attention and convey the message quickly.

Get straight to the point with punchy headlines, bold colors, and symbolic images. Be as creative as possible or get lost in the crowd.

Gen Z wants to purchase online, so allow them to do this from their mobile device. Embed QR codes or short URL’s in your mailing so they can scan your mail piece to make a swift, convenient purchase.

3. Post-Rave Reviews

With the world at its fingertips, Gen Z has the luxury of being picky.

Override their doubts with reviews of your product or service by real, relatable people like them. Use at least one testimonial in your mailing and 4-5 on your website.

4. Aim for the Bulls-Eye

Want to cut through the clutter with your message?

Because they use a minimum of three social media channels per week, Gen Z has no patience for marketing that is irrelevant to them. Collect precise data so you can target key customers with the right offers at the right time. This upfront investment is essential to your success.

Direct Mail with a Direct Message

Finally, remember to be real.

As the most woke generation ever, Gen Z can smell a fake a mile away. In all your marketing, define your distinct brand voice and share it across every channel. Put people in focus and invite customers to be part of your story. Mail that does this is compelling and “direct” – in more ways than one!

To contact Chuck Gherman, Theresa Kauser or Veronica Carter for more information about how Printing Arts Press powered by PROforma can help organizations with their Marketing and Human Resource needs through promotion and print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


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Use Customer Lifetime Value to Plan Your Direct Mail Marketing

 

What is the value of a customer?

What profit can they bring this week? This year? Over a lifetime? It may seem like a simple concept, but many small businesses have no idea what a regular customer is worth to their business. This creates two problems:

1. Ambivalence about customer retention. Many businesses are uncertain about how much to spend on customer retention. With a metric for measuring customer values, you can navigate appropriate parameters for retaining these people or expanding their business. Research shows that increasing customer retention rates by merely 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%!

2. Uncertainty about effective marketing. What is the number of new customers you’d like to attract, and what is an appropriate budget to do that? Defining customer value will guide your marketing strategies.

When acquiring new customers, estimating Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) provides a way to estimate their future revenue contribution to your company and how to use direct marketing to your advantage.

 

Take the Long View

Need an example? Here’s a sample:

In this scenario, a CLV of $150 estimates what one customer will spend after one year. When you send out a direct marketing campaign and $150 CLV customers respond, it’s important to remember that a client’s $50 initial purchase during this campaign may not seem profitable (due to the extensive mailing costs).

But rather than looking only at the figures for this initial campaign, you must consider the $150 these clients are going to spend over their lifetime.

Here’s the breakdown of those stats:

Mailed/Cost       Orders Received          Initial Loss           CLV Over 3 Yrs

10K @ $5K           100                              ($2,500)                $10,000

25K @ $15K         300                               ($7,500)                $30,000

45K @ $25K         675                               ($8,125)                $76,250

In the first mailing, was the loss of $2,500 worth the time and expense of one campaign?

Not upfront, but viewing this investment as a loss is shortsighted. With an understanding of Customer Lifetime Value, smart entrepreneurs can see that each mailing produced a response of customers who had a CLV that would bring net profits in the long run. In other words, investing $5,000 in a 10,000-person mailing (to eventually earn $10,000) brought a return of 100%.

 

Keep Them Coming Back

One thing smart marketers know is that, by increasing a customer’s CLV, they can earn more profits faster.

Here are just a few ways to do this:

• Keep customers engaged through value-packed content (e.g., educational newsletters, social media chats, personalized ad campaigns, or direct mailings that promote the tangible value of your latest products)
• Offer loyalty rewards programs or “special status” sales events targeted to the niche markets within your base
• Upsell more luxurious versions of your customers’ current products or packages
• Cross-sell similar (or complementary) products or services
• Incentivize annual billing cycle payments to reduce the churn rate of customers lost month to month
• Increase sales by bundling products and selling them at a lower price than what they would cost separately
• Increase pricing over time; or offer to “grandfather” current clients by keeping them at the existing rate as you raise prices for new customers
  

 

Your Customers Are Your Future

A customer represents the future of your success and your livelihood, and it will be difficult to thrive if you aren’t willing to risk or invest to attract new business.

Has the uncertainty of direct mail marketing kept your business from growing? Rely on our expertise! We offer simple ways to reach a mass audience for a price point that works with your budget.

Contact our Customer Care Team today for options!

To contact Chuck Gherman, Theresa Kauser or Veronica Carter for more information about how Printing Arts Press powered by PROforma can help organizations with their Marketing and Human Resource needs through promotion and print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


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How to Double Your Sales with Successful Catalog Marketing

 

Do printed catalogs still work?

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) worked with a U.S. based specialty jewelry company to find out.

This e-commerce retailer (which had no physical store presence) typically generated an annual operating profit of $12 million, with a database of approximately 28,000 customers. This company partnered with HBR to study the impacts of bi-monthly print catalogs through field experiments involving 30% of its customers over a span of six months.

Of those customers, 5% received neither email nor catalogs, 55% received a weekly marketing email, and 40% received the new bi-monthly catalogs in addition to the weekly email marketing. Over 90% of photos and product descriptions were the same between emails and catalogs to control the content's effects.

The results were impressive. Compared to the Control group, the “Email + catalog” group experienced a 49% lift in sales and a 125% lift in inquiries. In comparison, the “Email-only” group only had a 28% increase in sales and a 77% lift in inquiries over the control group; the sales and inquiry lifts from catalogs almost doubled those generated by email marketing!

Furthermore, of those customers that received the catalogs and made inquiries, 90% said they had browsed through the catalogs and kept them for an average of seven days.

 

Using Hard Copy Catalogs in Your Omnichannel Marketing

Catalogs are here to stay, and companies like L.L. Bean, Ikea, J. Crew, and Athleta continue to dominate sales by distributing printed catalogs.

The simple fact of the matter is that buyers don’t want to connect with brands exclusively online. Yes, the stats show that the number of people researching and shopping online versus in-store continues to grow.

But many buyers purchase online because they’ve seen something marketed through a printed medium. According to BRAND United, around 86% of shoppers buy an item online after looking at it in a printed catalog first.

 

5 Ways to Keep Your Campaign on Track

If you are considering catalog marketing, here are some suggestions to get you started.

 

1. Conduct Market Research

Study your current customers and make a note of gender, geographic location, and the strategic personas you’d like to target.

Match the items you want to sell with the target audience you want to reach.

 

2. Create Campaign Goals

These goals should be measurable, clear, and realistic – like driving customers to a retail location, increasing “product of the month” sales online, or growing your subscription base.

 

3. Develop Your Story

Catalogs don’t share information; they sell stories!

Your piece should invite prospects into a story that helps them visualize their “ideal self.” And remember, when people are heavily invested in a bigger financial commitment, they need narratives that justify this expense (like, “you deserve something delectable”). Work hard to set their conscience at ease, and you will be rewarded with loyalty and sales.

 

4. Stay Focused

Continue to send your catalog to existing customers to reinforce the idea that you have the products they want.

In addition, mail your catalog to individuals who fit the description of your target customer.

 

5. Connect Timelines and Expectations

Create a schedule and execute the campaign.

By using a schedule, you can see if you are achieving the benchmarks you’ve articulated. You can measure the outcome by having customers refer to catalog codes, measuring the number of new accounts generated, or conducting surveys.

 

A One-Two Punch

Direct mail meets customers where they live, and catalogs are a long-standing customer favorite.

Want to explore catalog marketing options for your business? Give us a call today or hop online for a free estimate!

To contact Chuck Gherman, Theresa Kauser or Veronica Carter for more information about how Printing Arts Press powered by PROforma can help organizations with their Marketing and Human Resource needs through promotion and print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


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Simply Irresistible: Best Practices for Writing Compelling Lead Magnets

Have you ever made an impulse buy at the grocery store? Or been drawn to an online store that you knew was probably fakey clickbait?

Sometimes, when the right offer hits you at just the right moment, it seems impossible to resist! And they don’t call this “magnetic” appeal for nothing.

In marketing, Magnets are an effective technique for gaining a prospect's contact information and/or drawing them into your sales funnel. Sometimes called lead generation, this process of stimulating and capturing interest (to develop a sales pipeline) allows you to nurture a lead until they are ready to buy. 

Sounds easy enough, right? But how do you build this curiosity or engagement with your target audience? According to Hubspot, about 63 percent of businesses believe their biggest marketing challenges relate to generating traffic and leads, and 60 percent of marketers say lead generation is a key pain point for their company. Leads typically hear from a business after they receive and respond to some type of content, and knowing where to build this bridge can be a challenge.

Looking for some ways to engage your next VIP customer? Here are five time-tested options to consider:

Provide a Free Onsite Course or Webinar

People love information.

And giving it away for free is bound to create a sense of reciprocity with your prospects because humans naturally want to respond when something has been given to them.

Look for a point of need in your prospective customers and offer them valuable information in a podcast, an in-person event, or a consultation, and people will jump right in!

 

Compile Case Studies and Reports

Insider information about a company’s sector is always valuable.

This may be a quarterly white paper (like a comprehensive guide on the latest technology or trends in your industry) or a case studying outlining the benefits of certain methods, products, etc. Trade this information for your prospects’ contact information, or send a flyer with the introduction but release the full content only if people sign up to receive it.

 

Offer a Demonstration or Free Trial

A good way to secure customers is to give them a way to try your service or product without cost; or receive a free quote from your team.

Mailed postcards or website promo codes are an effortless way to get this offer in front of them.

 

Promote Contests and Free Products

A no-fail way to generate leads is to make generosity fun.

You can offer a free product, a BOGO offer or bundle promotion, or even a monthly drawing for a goodie bag of some kind. The more creative the offer, the better!

 

The Road to Opportunity

No matter what magnet you use, your lead generator should:

• Position you as the guide. (Share empathy and authority as one who can help solve their problem.)
• Stake claim to your territory. (Differentiate yourself from competitors and share unique knowledge in key areas.)
• Qualify your audience. (Speak to the specific audience you are trying to reach with a succinct, irresistible headline.)
• Create trust by solving a problem. (Even though your product should be the ultimate solution to their problem, your lead generator should provide an immediate benefit too.)

When you implement a lead generation program, you increase brand awareness, build relationships, generate qualified leads, and ultimately close deals.

And the better your leads are, the more successful your sales will be!

 
To contact Chuck Gherman for more information about how Printing Arts Press powered by PROforma can help organizations with their Marketing and Human Resource needs through promotion and print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


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Tell a Beautiful Story with Five Design Principles

Did you know that 90% of the information processed by your brain is visual?

Design is powerful.

It takes only 13 milliseconds for the human brain to process an image, and 80% of people will remember the visuals they see. In today’s generation, audiences demand short, highly-visual content, and coordinating your design elements is the best way to tell a rich, compelling story.

Knowing this is one thing, but making it happen is another. As a design novice, watching a graphic artist work can be a mystifying experience. How do they know which colors to use? Why do those fonts look so good together? How are these images evoking such an emotional response?

While there are no right or wrong answers in design, basic principles can transform one person’s coloring page into another person’s masterpiece.

Check out principles like these to elevate your designs from good to GREAT.

1. Emphasis

The principle of emphasis demands you ask one question: what is the first piece of information I need people to know?

Like building without a blueprint, starting your publication without a clear idea of your message structure will bring a muddy result.

 

2. Proportion

Proportion helps you group your design in sections, like consolidating elements by size, amount, or numbers.

Whether it’s columns in a magazine, sidebars on a poster, or pull quotes in a newsletter, proportion communicates importance and helps the brain decode information.

 

3. Contrast

What do people mean when they say a design really “pops?”

Contrast refers to obvious differences on a page. Contrast attracts the eye, organizes information, and guides the reader. Contrast can be created with varying font pairings or line weights, extreme color differences, and graphics that display opposites. You can contrast a smooth texture with a rough texture, curves with sharp edges, a horizontal image with a vertical one, or widely spread lines with closely packed ones.

For contrast to be effective, it must be strong. Go big! (Think red sneakers with a black tuxedo.) If you are putting two elements on the page that are not the same, they should not be similar. If the items are not exactly the same, make them very different.

 

4. White Space

White space (or negative, empty space) is the only element that specifically deals with what you don’t add to a design.

Like one diamond set on a stone, white spaces give designs room to breathe and make mediocre images seem more luxurious.

 

5. Movement

Movement refers to the way an eye travels over a design.

Just like a musician reads notes on a staff, a reader should follow a visual journey through your design. For viewers to engage, they must have a path to follow, so try to tell a “visual story” with a beginning, middle, and end.

To move people through your piece, start with a focal point and then move eyes through the page with subheadings, text boxes, line patterns, etc. Use bright colors to grab attention, jagged lines to build excitement, curves to slow people down, or patterns to guide your viewers. 

 

First Impressions are Lasting Impressions

While there is no right or wrong design method, principles like these keep visuals stable and cohesive while allowing for movement, unity, and excitement.

Want your first impression to be your best impression? Through the planning, design, and review process, we’re here for you. Whether you’re creating a template or need start-to-finish graphic design, we’re ready to consult, create, and help you bring your best ideas to life in print!

To contact Chuck Gherman for more information about how Printing Arts Press powered by PROforma can help organizations with their Marketing and Human Resource needs through promotion and print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


#print #directmail #marketing #mail #banners #publications #postcards #brochures    #PromotionalMerchandise     #BrandedApparel