Business Tips

There are a lot of levers that need to be kept in mind when it comes to successful direct mail marketing campaigns. But few are more instrumental than making sure that you've effectively segmented your database.

Making sure you correctly segment your database of customers is something that, in principle, sounds simple. But in actuality, it requires some strategic thinking and work to ensure you send the right direct mail communications to the right customers.

With a variety of ways and methods that can be employed to properly segment your direct mail database, it's important to consider them all. Then, make a decision based on the merits of each method and how they will best suit your market segments.

How personalized are your direct mail postcards? The more closely your postcards match the needs and interests of their recipients, the higher your campaign's total response rate will be.

Many businesses use a one-size-fits-all marketing approach that focuses far more on quantity than quality. Their direct mail postcards are largely impersonal, with little distinguishing one recipient's postcard from the next.

There are two common objections to including variable data such as a recipient's name on direct mail postcards. The first is that it's expensive. The second is that it's extremely work intensive and time consuming.

Luckily, there's a way to personalize your postcards without having to spend more – either in time or cash – to launch your campaign. The solution is variable data print, which allows you to quickly and easily add custom information to your postcards.

Although direct mail is a great marketing tactic for retailers, it's far from the only way to attract retail traffic. From radio advertising to signage, a there are a wide variety of marketing techniques that are highly effective for retail businesses.

One of the best ways to capture walk-in traffic for your retail store is through the use of signs and posters. A well-placed poster can catch the attention of passersby and encourage them to step into your store.

From personalized URLs to political fundraising, the direct mail trends of 2015 are diverse and different. This year's top direct mail trends use modern technology to help marketers and consumers, as well as tying into major 2015 and 2016 events.

Following trends in the direct mail industry is one of the best ways to stay on top of new trends and technologies to use in your campaigns. Read on to learn more about the top five direct mail trends we've seen emerge in 2015.

Technology is omnipresent in the world of direct marketing and it is, without question, a chief catalyst for helping improve a company's revenue, reputation and brand awareness. Successful companies know the importance of using a robust marketing mix to generate the best results.

Integrating technology with conventional methods of marketing is shown to improve customer engagement, especially in direct mail campaigns. New technological enhancements not only improve the customer experience, but provide marketers with the ability to closely track results and measure ROI among direct mail campaigns as well as their effect on the marketing mix as a whole.

Did you know that you can track traffic generated via your direct mail campaign using Google Analytics? While direct mail might not seem like a natural match for an online tracking tool such as Google Analytics, it’s surprisingly easy to track the online traffic that your website receives as a result of your offline marketing efforts. There are several ways to track your direct mail postcards using Google Analytics, ranging from simple to slightly more complicated. Read on to discover how you can use this powerful online tracking tool to monitor your next direct mail campaign.

When you send a direct mail postcard campaign, how can you make sure you don’t mail to names and addresses that are out of date?

There are several ways to ensure your message reaches the right addresses. One of the most effective ways is to make sure you use a mailing list that’s recent and 100% up to date, as opposed to an older mailing list that may contain out-of-date entries.

Another way is to use “Or Current Resident” in the address field of your direct mail campaign. You can do this by checking the “Print Or Current Occupant” option when you use our direct mail postcard printing and delivery service.

For years, marketers have viewed direct mail and online marketing as very separate ecosystems. While direct mail and online marketing may seem worlds apart, they’re actually very similar, as well as extremely interconnected. The marketing actions your business engages in offline have a huge effect on how its customers interact with it online. This means that your direct mail pieces could have an immense impact on how your business’s customers use its website.

As email marketing and digital advertising took off in the early-to-mid 2000s, one belief was repeated almost endlessly by digital marketing evangelists: that the old fashioned forms of direct marketing – print and direct mail – were “over.” New data from New York-based consulting company the Winterberry Group shows that this prediction couldn’t have been more wrong. In 2015, direct mail spending is projected to grow to an astounding $45.7 billion in total. Even more impressive, direct mail is viewed by a growing number of marketers as a more effective, higher impact marketing channel than the digital marketing options that have previously dominated most marketing discussion.

For our entrepreneur friends, we put together the inspiring rags-to-riches stories behind five U.S. brands that started from nothing and became wildly successful. Despite humble beginnings, most of these brands have made it on the Fortune 500 list with big payoffs for the entrepreneurs who risked everything to see them succeed. This infographic highlights the ups and downs of the founders who ventured to create Whole Foods, Dell, Starbucks, Forever 21, and Walmart. The men and women behind these brands eventually found fortune but only after risking it all, failing at previous ventures, or starting from the bottom.

We know creating and sustaining a small business isn't easy, so we hope this inspires you to keep your chin up and keep following your dreams.