What Are the Benefits of Direct Mail Printing?

Online marketing has become one of the standard ways for companies to advertise their products and services. While there is nothing wrong with computer-based strategies, some entrepreneurs neglect the use of printing methods and direct mail advertising as a means to achieve maximum profits. The benefits of direct-mail printing include enhanced customer loyalty, low cost and personalization.

Sending promotions or special offers via mail to prospective or current customers is one of the best ways to increase sales. Direct mail printing services help businesses create, design and print brochures, order forms, sales letters, and other hard-copy pieces for a variety of uses.

The Advantages of Direct-Mail Printing

When you add pieces of direct mail to your existing marketing strategy, you complete the efforts that already exist online. Too many new and established companies neglect direct-mail advertising and suffer for it in terms of lost profits, fewer customers and weaker branding efforts.

Direct mail printing is:

• Extremely flexible: One of the primary advantages of direct-mail printing is flexibility. Business owners can send small postcards or large, full-color brochures. Based on your budget, goals and inclinations, you can send as much or as little information as you wish in a given piece of printed matter. Try the postcards for a week and then switch to flyers or brochures when you think it’s the right time.
• Cost-effective: Direct-mail printing allows you to test a wide range of approaches cost-effectively. Many business owners begin with small, targeted mailings and then ramp up when their customer list grows. During a busy season, you can expand the emails to take advantage of Christmas shopping or other special times of the year. When you decide to offer a new product or service, you can send flyers or cards to everyone on your list, or just offer a special discount or gift to a core group of preferred customers to instill brand loyalty.
• Has a vast reach: Studies have shown that about 78 percent of all consumers who receive a direct mail printing piece, either read it in full or at least scan the information. The same cannot be said for online ads, which, at best, get a scan/read result of five percent.
• Is individualized: Direct mail pieces go to specific addresses, individuals and families. There’s no better way to capture the attention of a group of specific customers or prospective customers. The ability for direct-mail printing to reach people by name is a unique advantage. According to the U.S. Postal Service, more than 55 percent of all mail recipients are “eager” to see what they’ve received. That means a printed piece with their name on it will get their attention more readily.
• Offers a fully-targeted approach: Business owners can purchase lists of residents in particular areas based on demographics and buying behavior. It is possible to send printed pieces to a specific list of potential customers with the goal of bringing in additional buyers to your store or online sales site. It is important to remember that direct mail advertising can work effectively as a way of boosting your profits even if you only sell online.
• Has easy-to-measure results: It’s easy to keep track of responses to targeted mailings. This is a great advantage for entrepreneurs who try to discover the best types of direct mail campaigns to reach customers. Companies have been perfecting their marketing strategies based on different responses to multiple direct mail campaigns for decades. It’s a simple but effective way of learning who responds to your marketing efforts.

Direct-Mail Printing Options

Direct mail, according to multiple studies, is an integral part of any comprehensive sales and marketing plan. The types of the printed material you can send are virtually endless, but some of the most popular options for growing and established businesses include:

• Color brochures: Eye-catching brochures can contain a lot of information about a particular product, service or promotional campaign. Law firms, medical practices and hundreds of other types of businesses base their marketing strategies on high-quality color brochures and mail them out year-round.
• Discount coupons: A single-sheet coupon designed to bring traffic to your location are one of the most effective marketing tools in existence. These printed pieces have been around for more than a century because they work.
• Informational post-cards: You can let local residents know about your new business or tell them about a special event or sale with a small postcard piece. Sized the same or larger than standard postal cards, these easy-to-see and scan cards often end up on refrigerators and in wallets because of their convenient size.
• Product and service order forms: You can target special groups of existing customers with pre-printed order forms that they can fill out in their free time and return it to you. Unlike online forms that require someone to interact with a computer or smartphone, printed forms arrive in their mailbox and offer a simple way to deliver information without the need of a computer.
• Prepaid envelopes: Whether it is with a printed order form, a discount offer or as part of a special registration or sign-up campaign, prepaid envelopes are an ideal way for people to return printed matter directly to you.
• Grand opening announcements: Consumers enjoy receiving print announcements about neighborhood events like grand openings. You can make these simple or include a full listing of what the event will include, like free food, entertainment and more.
• Personalized gift cards: One way to keep your customers watching out for your mailings is to occasionally include special, personalized gift cards for various free items like coffee, small gifts or car washes. Printed, individualized gift cards can be a way of saying “Thank you,” to preferred customers and bring in new people into your marketing list.
• Most entrepreneurs choose a unique combination of the choices listed above. Often, they change their approach based on seasonal business cycles, special promotions and the economy. The real beauty of direct mail printed pieces is their adaptability, among their many other advantages.

If you’ve been searching for top quality direct mail printing services near you, and reside in the Washington, DC, New York, NY, Baltimore, MD or Philadelphia, PA, area, contact Rite Envelope & Graphics for custom-made envelopes, special mailings and any other direct mail pieces you need. Call us today to get started.