Whether you’re a designer who’s been tasked with the challenge of designing a postcard for a mailing campaign, or you’re the business owner who wants some creative input in the design, these tips are for you!

Striking Images

If you’re going to use a photograph on the visual side of your postcard it’s absolutely vital that the photo stands out. Often, it pays to invest in a high-quality image rather than taking your own photos. You can find a brilliant variety of professional photos from many online sources. Sometimes a professional photo bought from an online source can be a better way to go.

Choose something bold and striking rather than something that’s going to fade into the background. Just because one photo is more relevant to the offer or your company, doesn’t make it right for a postcard campaign. Try thinking outside the box; if you sell real estate could you use a dog and kennel or even a hot air balloon to creatively deliver the same message? Which brings us on to our next point….

Provoke Emotion

To grab immediate attention you need something that’s going to create an emotional response. Does the design or imagery do this successfully? It doesn’t matter what that emotional response is (within reason) as long as it fits with your message and gets their attention! It could be humour, it could be excitement or even empathy. We can all think of an advert that uses a ‘cute’ animal such as a puppy or kitten. The very reason for this is to create that emotional connection; no one can resist looking at a puppy!

Simple Message

If you’re going to include wording on the image side of the postcard, keep it very short and simple. It’s about finding the right balance; you don’t want to reduce the impact of the message by reducing the words, but you also don’t want to jeopardize that immediate attention.

There should only be one central message, even if you have several offers you want to shout about. A postcard does not leave a lot of space for providing buckets of information. Instead, try to choose one central theme or offer and stick to this.

Give Priority to the Printing

All that hard work will be for nothing if you don’t work with a high-quality printing company. It’s useful to know what type of material the postcard will be printed on and what finish will be applied. This can make all the difference to colors within the design and the overall quality of any photos used. Printing on paper will appear different to seeing those same images on a screen. A 96dpi image will look fine on the screen; however, it can look grainy when printed. Always try to use high-resolution images (300 dpi+) when possible for printing.

With a color digital postcard that goes in the mail, it is essential that it is UV coated. This is a plastic coating that protects the card and gives it a high-quality professional feel. If cards are not coated they often get scuffed in the mail leaving unprofessional and unattractive streak marks. Zairmail offers UV coating at no extra charge.

Test Your Design

Before investing in a mailing campaign, run your design by some unsuspecting participants. Lay out your postcard amongst several other designs (either from competitors or from earlier options in the design process) and ask individuals which one they connect with the most. This sounds very simple, but often designs are only seen by the designer and the business owner before being mailed out.

At Zairmail, we like to keep everything streamlined, so we offer in-house postcard design services to our clients as well as customizable templates. This means we can handle everything from design, printing and mailing! Alternatively, if you’ve worked with your own designer already, you can upload your design directly into our system. Zairmail also provides a free tracking service for your postcards, so you can tell exactly when they are delivered.

Finally, if you don’t have your own mailing list but are keen to try direct mail campaigns, we’ve taken the hassle out of that too. You can purchase a targeted consumer or business list directly from us using our online list targeting.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.

Whether you own a B2B or B2C business, there are often similar small things that you can do to have a significant impact on sales. Sometimes these are less than obvious. When you’re focusing on a wider marketing strategy it’s easy to forget the simple things. Here are four easy ways to rack in more revenue.

First Impressions Count

Usually, you only have one chance to make an impact and leave a good impression. The thing is, some customer’s first experience of your business will be when they pick up the phone and call you, for others, it will be when they land on your website. One of the first things to do is make sure that all your channels of communication are aligned. If your website boasts a great offer across the homepage, this needs to be the same when someone phones in. To flip this on its head, will someone who calls up and speaks with your support team receive the same information and offers as someone who’s on your website?

Complementary Services

A good motto to live by is to ‘always go the extra mile’. Going above and beyond gets you noticed and keeps you highly sought after as a business. One way to do this is by adding complementary services or products to an order. Choose something that isn’t time-consuming or complex to deliver. The freebie should add enough value for your customer that they are impressed by the additional service/product. It shouldn’t, however, put a strain on your own business or lose you any money in the process. It’s worth checking your competitors and seeing which extras they might be already be offering to customers. If something is working well you could match or (ideally), beat that offer.

Extend Your Market Area

Limiting yourself to certain geographical areas, when there is no real need to, can be just that – limiting! Spread your business wings and try running similar campaigns slightly further afield. Just a small radius increase on the areas you target could make all the difference. As well as this, if you’ve been hitting a dead-end with your immediate local area, it’s always worth looking at places where your market is less saturated.

Check-in & Say Hello

Sometimes just checking in with a customer will remind them of something that you can help with or that they have been putting off.  That could spur them into action, especially if your message has a compelling offer.  You could send an email and get lost in the digital clutter, or instead, send a card or letter to stand-out and be different.  The fact that you made the extra effort to send a personal letter can win extra points with your customer.  It is quite common for our customers to see a surge in calls/contacts when they send out a monthly newsletter in print.

Offer Bundle Deals

Some products and services just go together like peanut butter and jelly. It’s a fact! That’s why many mortgage brokers might also offer home insurance deals. That’s why websites that sell shoes might also sell handbags. Companies that sell phones usually sells phone cases too. You get the picture! So, when offering deals and pushing out that initial promotion, it can really pay to bundle items together and offer a discount. This way you are increasing the overall value of each transaction. It’s similar to upselling, but instead, you offer that bundle from the very start. Don’t force people to buy bundle deals, offer them as an alternative that’s better value for money.

Even before you begin working on marketing campaigns, do the legwork so that your price point, target market and products/deals are always at top of their game. Don’t get left behind as things change. There has never been a more dynamic time for businesses than the present day. Change is constant and as a business, you constantly need to innovate, reassess and check that everything still fits with your overall vision and goal.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.

When you send out a direct mail campaign you’re typically looking at two things to determine the results. The cost per lead and the cost per sale. ROI (return on investment) is your number one priority. Typically, when a campaign proves profitable, those initial leads that did not convert are lost or forgotten. Sure you might follow up once, or post out another campaign later down the line, but is that enough?

If you receive 100 calls from a postcard mailing, you will work out the cost for each of those by dividing responses by the total you paid for the mailing. This gives you a ‘cost per lead’ figure. If 20 of those leads converted into sales, you would divide 20 by the total cost to be left with the CPS (cost per sale). Let’s assume in this case you’ve made a healthy profit from the 20 sales. What happens with the remaining 80 leads? You have paid for these leads, so letting them disappear into the background is simply a waste of money.

It is much easier to close a lead who has already reached out to your business. It actually involves less effort and lowers costs to remarket to this group of people. Consider this before sending out a completely new campaign and starting from scratch again. You need to create a funnel so you have a step-by-step approach to following up each lead.

Remarketing Funnels

A good funnel will optimize a range of different communication methods, so let’s explore an example below.

After your business receives that initial call you will have collected some vital further information such as an email address and contact phone number. This enables you to follow-up initially via email before reaching out and calling them directly.

Lead calls in > Follow up via Email > Call them directly > Follow up via Email > Second Phone Call > Send them a follow up direct mail

Regular phone calls can be the quickest and most effective way to close a lead because you can contact them directly, at any time and find out what might be holding them back. Sending out further emails or a second form of direct mail can work too, but this is a one-way form of communication.

Email autoresponders are a series of emails that are delivered at certain points following a lead. You might create a schedule so that each follow-up email is delivered automatically 2 days later, a week later, 10 days and so on. Each one should be designed to build on the previous message and generate action at that point of contact.

Just as you can drip-feed email campaigns, you can do the same with postcards. If you do a follow-up with postcards, (or another form of direct mail) be sure to recognize that the lead has already contacted you. Don’t send out the same campaign that you would mail to new prospects.

Categorizing Leads

A good approach, if possible, is to categorize your leads into A, B & C categories to make follow-up simpler. This is common in B2B marketing, but something similar can be applied to B2C.

A leads have the need and have the budget so will most likely make a decision within the next 30-60 days. This timeframe will, of course, depend on the product.
B leads have the need but do not yet have the budget so that decision will take longer.
C leads have the need but no budget and therefore they have no plans on making a decision anytime soon.

Based on this, you should follow-up with A leads immediately and focus the majority of your attention here. B leads should also receive a follow-up, but you can take a little more time with these. B leads are ideal for a drip campaign that is spread over several weeks/months. Finally, C leads might not require a call or follow-up at all but can join the list for regular communications like your newsletter. One day C leads might become A leads! Of course, these parameters will change depending on your business model.

The content of your follow-up funnel is crucial. Special discounts and limited time offers can entice leads to take further action more quickly. However, not all leads will become sales quickly, some might not take action for weeks, months or even years. Never give up on your leads unless they have asked to be removed from your database. You never know how close someone is to making a purchase.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.

By 2020 Generation Z will account for 40% of all consumers! As marketers or business owners, we should really be turning our attention to targeting this group now. Generation Z, or ‘Gen Z’ as they are often referred to is anyone born between 1995-2010. This generation has grown up entirely in an online world. They are constantly ‘on’ and used to instant access and instant gratification from online communities.

It’s surprising then that Gen Z appreciates ‘old-school’ approaches to marketing. Yes, they appreciate new technological developments and are largely early adopters of tech. However, print marketing resonates very well with this group. The digital world is constantly interrupted with adverts and promotions. Gen Z is inundated with sponsored posts on social media and search engines. Their email inboxes are overflowing with further promotional content. This is perhaps why they value offline marketing when it is relevant and clear. In research conducted by MNI, 61% of Gen Z think thought that their generation would benefit from unplugging more often.

Provide Value

In a world that has more data than ever, 44% of Gen Z expect adverts to be targeted and relevant to them personally. This is a huge contrast even to the millennial generation who grew up seeing blanket ads online. Due to the extreme amount of content, this audience sees every single day you must add value with any type of communication. If you’re a brick-and-mortar business trying to bring in more Gen Z customers, here’s a great tip for adding value: Try offering something that will improve the retail experience. For example, a special voucher for an in-store freebie or VIP treatment.

Keep it Omnichannel

When utilizing direct mail to reach this group of people, always think omnichannel! Offline flyers should still make it easy to check things online or get in touch online. Generation Z like choice because choice offers convenience and practicality to each individual.

The Right Price

Although value and identity are crucial elements of any branding when reaching Gen Z, they are still very price conscious. If the price isn’t right they can instantly find a better offer at their fingertips. The great recession ruled over their early years, so this might explain why 72% of those who MNI surveyed agreed that price was the number-one deciding factor when making a purchase.

Best Direct Mail for Generation Z

To reach Gen Z right now it’s important to note that most of them still live at home. In 2018, the oldest group of Gen Z’s are only 23. The largest group are still in their teenage years. Keeping this in mind, you need something that is going to cut through the clutter in the mailbox. Postcards are the most appropriate form of mail to do just this. A striking graphic design on one side of the postcard gives you an opportunity to show your brand identity and connect.

As consumers, even though this generation has more choice than ever before, they can also be very loyal customers. 63% of Gen Z participates in at least one loyalty program and 15% participate in more than 3.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.

There are various different types of direct mail you can select to deliver your campaign. We’re going to run through some of them and talk about the different scenarios in which you might select each one.

The Postcard

Postcards are ideal if you’re looking for an immediate impact. This type of campaign is designed to grab attention from the minute it’s received and deliver a powerful message through visuals. One of the benefits of a postcard is that is doesn’t need to be opened; this means you can get your business in front of people quicker and more effectively. Think of a postcard campaign like a mini-billboard in the mailbox.

A postcard does need to pop and stand out from the crowd, so great design is key. Zairmail offers custom postcard design if you’re looking for a cost-effective way to create the best postcard.

The only real limitation of a postcard is if you require the inclusion of personal information for the recipient. A standard postcard (4.25 x 5.5 or 4 x 6) gives you less space to work with compared to a jumbo (5.5 x 8.5 or 6 x 9). You can also go with a sumo postcard (5.5 x 11 or 8.5 x 11) for even more initial impact! There is a discount for First Class postage on standard postcards – jumbo and sumo postcards mail at regular First Class rates. You will need to weigh the lower price against the greater potential impact and response rates

Postcards are all about the imagery and suffer if there is too much (dense) text. They are often reasonably informal in appearance, so they could work very well for some brands, but may lack the formality and/or privacy some formal business communication requires.

The Letter

A letter, of course, allows for a great deal of privacy. If detail in the explanation is important to your message, a letter will work better than a postcard. You have the space to be very specific and even include detailed personal information if necessary.

The challenge with a letter is to get an “open” so your message is delivered. The open rates with First Class postage tend to be higher than Standard A. Color usually produces a slightly better response than black and white. A live stamp will usually pull a little better than an indicia (postage paid box); but the costs can be quite a bit more. A teaser message on the outside of the envelope can also help to boost open rates in some cases. One other popular approach is to use a double window envelope that looks similar to a bill or invoice.

Although on the surface this might seem counter-intuitive, people are worried about not opening the letter, to begin with, and relieved to find it’s a not a bill after it has been opened.

The Snap-Pack

The snap-pack is the catchy nickname for a pressure-sealed mailer. These are the type of mailers that require the recipient to peel off the edges to open. This format is often used to deliver rebates and PIN numbers. Just as with a letter, the snap-pack allows for the inclusion of personal information and complete message privacy. What sets it apart from a letter is that it’s far more uncommon. Snap-packs are produced using a specific type of equipment that not all printers have access to. When someone receives a snap-pack in the mail it stands compared to other mail types. Just as with a letter, you can choose the type of postage, color or black & white printing, and the option to include a teaser message on the outside. The fact that many consumers associate this format with rebates and PIN’s can really help with open rates.

Ultimately, open rates and response rates vary by industry, type of offer, and even the time of the year. The number one goal is always to maximize return on investment (ROI). The rule of thumb is “when in doubt, test it”. If you do not know which format to use, or you have a fresh piece that has not been proven, it is best to send out a few smaller test projects. You can vary the format (e.g. postcard, letter, snap-pack) and mailing options. Then, when you find a format and message that works well, step on the gas!

If you require any advice on which direct mail type would work best for your business, please give Zairmail a shout. We offer free consulting and we’re always pleased to help you make the right decision based on your brand and your business goals. Zairmail is the fastest and easiest way to grow your business using the mail.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.

We constantly hear about the opportunities and possibilities that come from digital marketing. We know that the internet provides us with amazing scope to reach millions of people every day. However, it isn’t without its challenges. Digital marketing is not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that many would have you think. It’s hard work, it’s crowded and it isn’t or shouldn’t be the only approach to your marketing efforts.

Here on the Zairmail blog, we want to offer tips and guidance an all things marketing, including both online and offline. But do traditional methods of marketing still carry value in a very digital world? Can offline marketing work for businesses that operate almost 100% online?

Cut Through the Noise

Direct mail marketing is still one of the best ways to reach new customers in specified locations. It’s ideal for both local businesses and larger brands hoping to generate action and responses. Direct mail campaigns often cut through the noise of email and social by offering a tangible message. Ask yourself this, where is there the most competition for customer attention? We can assure you it isn’t through the front door. The digital age has made sure of this and it’s now a fantastic time to utilize direct mail.

Use the Right Type of Mail for Your Message

Like any marketing effort, success with direct mail all comes down to the type of mail you send against the message you are trying to convey. Postcards are hard-hitting and straight to the point, offering a unique way to drive home a concept and get it in front of the right people. Snap packs can deliver a sense of urgency and importance, grabbing attention in a slightly different way. If you would like advice regarding the best solution for your direct mail campaign, please get in touch. We offer free consulting on the matter as well as a whole host of other benefits.

Overcome Advert Numbness

Advertisements and Promotions are everywhere we turn. You cannot visit social media, use a search engine or click on any website without seeing some form of advertisement. Whilst the same could be said for billboards, TV and magazines, there is a truth that as online consumers we have become numb to advertising. There are certain techniques for combatting this within digital campaigns, but that is for another article. What we’re trying to say, is that offline promotions can potentially build trust much quicker and garner quicker responses. At the very least, give this medium a try and compare the results against other campaigns both online and offline.

Are you ready to send your first mail or purchase a mailing list? Get started by opening a free account with us today. No credit card is required and we will be on hand to help every step of the way.

Zairmail (www.zairmail.com) is the fastest and easiest way to send (real) postal mail. Give us a call anytime at 888.898.0066, we would be happy to help with your direct mail needs.

Don’t underestimate the power of postcards when it comes to direct mail marketing. They are very efficient at delivering impact and getting results. So how can you ensure success when putting together your first postcard campaign?

Try a Different Mail List

Your direct mail list can make or break any campaign. If you’ve been mailing out to the same target audience for some time now, you need to switch things up. If you target people based on income, try lowering or increasing this threshold to see what happens. Expand your outreach to further locations, simply increase that radius to people who live 20 miles out instead of 10 miles out.

If the postcard itself has a solid design and message, there’s no reason you can’t mail out to an entirely new list, or at least a tweaked and expanded version of your current list. If you need assistance acquiring a new highly targeted mailing list please get in touch.

It’s All In the Visuals

Postcards are all about the visual aspect. It’s the design itself that will grab attention and stand out amongst other letters and parcels that come through the mail. Don’t just settle for an average photo, use something really adventurous and striking. Play on emotions or incorporate something unusual into the design. Your postcard needs to cut through the clutter with one glance. Need a custom design? At Zairmail, as well as offering basic templates, we also provide a custom postcard design service to help you effectively communicate any message.

Multiply Your Mail

How many postcards should you send to get the desired results? You might base your decision on an estimate of the number of postcards you think will garner a response. This makes sense if you’ve never sent out a high-quality direct mail campaign before. Here’s the trick though, when you’ve made that estimate, triple it! Yes, you need 3 times as much! By sending out 3 times more postcards than you think you need, you will hit those goals sooner. When you invest more into your direct mail marketing, you get far more out of it in the form of steady growth.

Of course, you always want a manageable response. If you only have a couple of employees in your call center and you have 5000 pieces to mail, you might want to break this mailing into a couple of smaller batches. This allows each prospect to receive immediate engagement. That being said, you might find when you double-down (or triple) efforts, you hit initial response goals and don’t actually over-perform.

Follow Up With Digital

There is definitely a place for traditional direct mail alongside digital marketing. Direct mail is one of the most effective ways to get your message in front of people. From seeing that initial postcard, the next thing they might do is visit your website. In fact, at least 90% of your leads are likely to visit your website. Using this influx of web traffic from your postcard campaign, you can re-target those website visitors online.

The key here is to use slightly different images that all tie together in some way. When consumers see the exact same image over and over they become desensitized to it and might not even acknowledge it. You should definitely keep any messaging the same throughout, but the design itself should be different. You can use Google Adword campaigns or Social media campaigns to retarget adverts to website visitors. This means once someone has received your postcard and visited your website, they won’t forget about your business.

Please give us a call or leave us a message if you need any assistance with your postcard campaigns or other areas of direct mail marketing. We offer free consultations for design work or targeted mailing list services. Pack more punch into your postcards with Zairmail.