The Principles of Paper, Direct Marketing, and the New Age

Published on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
By Pronto Post Editorial Board for Pronto

?WHAT?!? the cynic wails. ?You still use mail and paper products for business? Are you still living in the 70s? C?mon! Get with the program. Digital is the only way to go.?

As a direct marketer, there?s a real good chance you?ve either heard this or a variation of it in the last 15 years or so. You?re at a business convention, a party, or even a family gathering and someone who comes off as more knowledgeable than you gives you the third degree once you tell him or her what sort of work you are in. He or she feels what you do is inferior and that you need to get ?with it? if you?re going to be any kind of success in today?s world.

To be as fair as possible, and without giving these folks too much credit, they do make a point. The world isn?t what it once was. Screens are everywhere, analog is out, and people are trying to harness technology to see how they can become successful. Unless you have cornered a special niche market, the old business days of typewriters, door-to-door canvassing, and telegram communication are gone. Sad but true. You have to be knowledgeable to a certain degree regarding digital technology today if you are going to be successful in any business, whether you want to or not.

But that doesn?t mean that all hope for past formats is lost, especially if you are a direct marketer using direct mail. In fact, there are enough economical options for you to put your direct marketing and paper-based marketing campaigns on the cusp of some great successful ventures.

These days, it?s all about the figures. Saving money is the name of the game, facilitated by a few years of tough economic circumstances. In a way, it?s positive. If you are going to be in direct marketing, the tough times of today force you to be on your game in terms of money. This requires you to budget accordingly. If you are printing material, you have to watch the high-volume printing to see what your budget allows and how much direct marketing material you can produce. When doing large-sized direct marketing material like catalogues and brochures, you have to make sure you make them a tight unit?good copy, hard sales pitches, sent out to the appropriate clients, etc. Knowing prices for on-demand printing or other related processes, it?s good to scout around for the services that offer the most competitive rates. Tough times call for tough action and direct marketers can use this to make their ventures lean and mean.

With costs comes the tracking of results. Since you are sinking a lot of cash into this, however well-controlled, you have to make sure that you are getting the money back on your investment. You have to take the time to see what your response rates from your mail products are to see if direct mail is worth your while or how you can improve on it to make it a more effective marketing strategy. With most direct mail procedures, you measure response rates based on the orders you receive from clients and how people respond to your flyers, brochures, and other print material. Unlike a lot of digital marketing formats, tracking response rates from the public is easy and you can see firsthand with hard numbers how many people are coming to the table from your direct mail material. The top quality of the product you send out should lead to your business getting greater amounts of green paper in return.

Until the last door is shut on the last post office and the last mailbox is tossed into the garbage, direct mail using paper products will still have some life. As a direct marketer, you can still use it and, if you work the right channels correctly, there is no reason why success will not find you. Long live the tried, tested and true.

Need solutions to your direct-mail problems? With over 30 years of experience, Pronto Post has the solutions you need to make your direct mail more successful. Contact Pronto Post by e-mail at fulfillment@prontopost.com, visit our web site at www.prontopost.com or phone (866) 834-2153 toll-free.

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Tags: catalogues and brochures, high-volume printing, on-demand printing, postage, response rates

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