Master Print Communications
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News & Announcements
Why is PRINT the most POWERFUL Sales Tool?
For multiple reasons, printing is one of the most effective components of your sales plan. First off, printing documents like sales letters on letterhead, company, product and service background on brochures, special offers and information on printed postcards and generating resources like presentation folders for sales calls are some of the most efficient ways to provide background information on your business.
Clearly, an effective sales process includes a formula, or program, that is consistent and efficient, but most importantly the process should work for y our target base and also for your business. Asking questions like, what are we capable of, what are the best channels for communication, how can we follow up and stay connected to our prospects, are there services that will add value and how can we target the right people will be essential in your analysis-but today, let’s look at print.
A typical sales process begins with a profile, a lead. This lead receives a phone call, an email and maybe a postcard. Are you consistent with this? Do you include timing and drop cycles for this process? Are some prospects interacting with you more than others? Weed out a formula that includes a sales stage and which marketing method applies to that sales stage. Let’s look at the integration of print.
You may have a data list. Let’s say 50 out of 100 prospects got on the phone with the sales team. Out of those 50, 5 were extremely pleased with the conversation and want to do business with you but aren’t yet sure, they’re not ready, want to know more options, don’t know enough about you, are waiting for a bigger budget-whatever, take that unique and personalized case just as it is. If they’re not convinced they want to do business with you, go that extra mile and send 5 nice, informative, branded presentation folders out to establish credibility, specialization and trust. Get something in their hands. If 25 out of those 50 prospects gave you 2 minutes of their time, they may have been confused, busy or unclear about your approach, they may not have vibed with the sales person-multiple scenarios might make you think they are not interested, when the reality is they need to be hit again, but through another, personalized medium-like a sales letter.
Posted on Aug 19, 2011. How Do You Satisfy Your Company's Demand for Growing Sales Collateral?
Many times, producing sales collateral requires more staff for design, oversight and management. Web-to-Print has been one of the most successful solutions offered by San Diego printers, for the streamlined production of variable marketing materials for specific markets. Let’s take a look at how AME Financial was able to satisfy the needs of their rapidly expanding sales organization.
AME Financial, a large mortgage lender headquartered in San Diego, CA, wanted to produce more literature on demand. Within a few months of investing in a Web-to-Print solution, the system was able to generate enough revenue to pay for their initial investment! The company’s sales of literature grew 250% after the implementation of the program and no additional human resource costs were required.
Web-to-Print was chosen as a collateral management approach that would double AME’s sales force, the number of locations and sales without having to double its in house marketing department. The company wanted to ensure that it could produce documents to a distributed sales force and still accommodate the various laws of different states; the solution also had to be capable of adding the loan officers individual contact information without altering the legal content. The company also had to ensure that its brand identity remained constant that that the content could be changed, thus requiring a more complex blend of static as well as variable printing.
In essence, loan officers and realtors enter a secure web portal and then select from a variety of products such as postcards, newsletters, brochures and other print materials. The users then upload their own addresses and photos and then check out with their order. In additional to basic marketing products, the console also allowed users to choose custom products like open house flyers, direct mail marketing campaigns, informational brochures, business cards, Starbucks gift cards, welcoming gift baskets, holiday cards and much more! AME Financial admins were able to add and update marketing material, while users could upload their customer contacts to generate personalized mail promotions.
Web-to-Print solutions have a multitude of applications, talk to your local Web-to-Print service provider to build a custom print console for your sales team or for your various locations.
Can I Translate Brochures into Sales?
Anytime a customer wants more information before doing business with you, they typically want to go over some sort of print piece to acquire information on your company, products and services. Aside from checking out a presentation folder, one of the most informative to-go options is a brochure. The big debate is whether the brochure can actually translate into a sale.
While speaking with a customer directly you are able to develop trust much easier than with a brochure and you are also able to help customers make more informed decisions. While the informational nature of brochures may make it harder to market with targeted information, they, none-the-less, play a critical role in the user experience because they allow the consumer to imagine what an interaction with your business will be like. Will they receive special attention? Can your company offer the necessary resources to reach the desired objectives? Is there a reputation, etc...
There are definitely a couple of adjustments you can make to the brochure to ensure that you are helping the reader to identify a potential interaction with your company. How you present your company’s message breaks down into design, images and information-but will minor adjustments in these elements help you make sales?
If someone just wants to look at product prices versus detailed descriptions, filling an entire brochure with prices is difficult to. The best thing to do is to include an action call such as “Call for an instant quote or free catalog today!” If you are marketing a service based business and do not have products to illustrate, you can choose to show before and after results of your services. Some other great ways to make your brochure more powerful is to include a fact sheet. Consider printing a one page sheet on why a certain problem occurs and how you are able to remedy it. Another option is an informational sheet. By adding one or two panels that includes facts about your company such as success stories and testimonials, history or even case studies will make your information relevant and useful. You definitely want to stay organized. By including a checklist of all of your services that are categorized into sections such as when the service is needed, you will help your customers determine which services they really need right now.
In a recent CMO.com article about data, the emphasis on application reverberates how very critical improving the customer experience is. The article states, “The only way to continually improve the consumer experience is to capture and synthesize information and then act on it. What is the consumer’s interaction with your company? Where does the experience fall short? What are they looking for? Do they have the same quality of interaction whether they are in a store or online? Are their needs being catered to as individuals with unique requirements, interests, and needs?” Careful consideration of the answers to these questions should be reflected in the content of the brochure if you are looking to translate brochures into sales.
What are PURL’s being used for today?
Most marketers will not implement any kind of marketing campaign without analytics software platforms. Businesses and organizations across the board-from financial services, retail, colleges, and conferences to restaurants, have used PURL campaigns to drive action like:
• Membership Increases: A museum sent a PURL mail piece asking respondents to give information on their favorite kind of art piece in return for a sweepstakes entry to win free museum membership for a year. By the end of the campaign the museum had a top-notch pre-qualified list of prospects for future direct mailings-plus email addresses to lower the cost of future communications.
• Prequalification of Prospects: Marketers are able to deliver much stronger follow ups to achieve higher conversion rates after sending a PURL campaign to an in house prospect list. The campaign offered prospects a free gift if the individual logged onto a PURL which included a survey question asking, “What is the most challenging aspect of your business?”
• Cross-Selling: A bank was very successful in getting new customers, but the new customers were completely unaware of its full product offerings. The bank’s PURL program targeted existing customers by urging a dialogue about relevant products, including a survey triggering cross-sell product opportunities.
• Acquisition, Subscription Renewal and Lead Generation: Direct mail letters, which contain a URL such as http://FirstNameLastName.freemagazine.com, become immediately personal. Ignoring an address like this is impossible, according to Ruth Sheldon, a copy writer for a magazine publisher. Ruth has gathered real time information and applied data successfully to acquiring and renewing subscribers.
Posted on Apr 15, 2011. Direct Mail Failures Don't Mean Direct Mail is Ineffective
Many times a marketer will say to me, "Well, we’ve already tried direct mail and the return just wasn’t what I thought it would be…” “So how many drop cycles did you do?” I ask. Time and time again, the answer is “One.” It is possible to be extremely successful with a direct mailing, but if you’re not talking to the right people, you’ll miss that boat. Let’s go over some key components of successful direct mail.
I’m sure most of those that read my blog, are expecting me to do yet another paragraph on variable data printing. While I definitely think VDP is a key component, here are some subtle secrets of a successful mailing.
First of all, while I do believe in creativity and getting the mailing to stand out-simplicity always works better. Clarity is crucial in a cluttered world of messages. We all want to be clever, and that’s great if you can be both clear and clever, but focus on a straightforward and clear message to be effective with direct mail.
Second. Pictures are great. Hey, if you’re selling dog food-why not have a great high resolution shot of a beautiful golden retriever and two little girls (VDP data)? WRONG. A colorful people image may not be right for you! Invest in the time and resources to compose solid data into graphics, for visuals. Presenting information in charts or graphs is quick and to the point. People don’t need to get lost in pretty pictures; they need to quickly connect summarized information. Stick to simple, visual displays of data and information over that pretty istock image.
Direct mail specialists argue time and time again, that envelope and format will have the biggest impact on the response rate. It turns out that the wide spread belief in the impact of the letter (meaning a self-mailer being more effective than a postcard) is not that which makes the biggest impact on the response. Keep in mind, the larger the envelope the more important your message. It’s human psychology! Indeed, the costs of a larger envelope may be higher, but do the testing to figure out if this works for you.
So, for the disbelievers, are you testing? Committing to the drop of various variables and keeping track of the response data is the one sure way to bet on success. One size never fits all.
When the trigger word “Personalization” is being dropped by marketers and printers, all we are talking about is relevancy. Is your patient due for a screening? Does your customer need sheets for the new bed they just purchased? Does someone always order a large cheese pizza? Then a coupon for ½ off breadsticks with an order of cheese pizza would be appropriate. The more heavily personalized and relevant an offer is the more effective the piece will be.
Last but not least, people: Rome wasn't built in a day. You have to expend the right amount of resources and time to brand yourself and get your message accross. Be consistent with your mailings. The more you test during your drop cycles, the more money you will save and the more effective you'll be.
If you have never done a mailing before, but would like to learn more-the best thing for you to do is to cruise in to speak with someone who can help you figure out what would be effective!
