Category: Creativity, Marketing, Print, Promotional Items — Tags: Burst Marketing, clutter buster, direct mail, lunchbox — Sarah @ 8:32 am
So many of our clients are living proof that direct mail totally works as a marketing strategy. We’re honest kids, so we’re not afraid to admit that brochures and pamphlets aren’t going to hook all of their recipients, but they certainly will entice plenty of folks to get out there and spend some money.
Still, sometimes instead of suggesting that our clients send out typical mailers, we recommend that they bring out the big guns.
Who You Gonna Call?
Clutter Busters!
“Clutter Buster” is a printing geek term for direct mail that is so unique that its chances of winding up in a junk mail clutter pile are super slim. We’re talking about mailing out something so random or interesting that people feel like they have to open it before curiosity consumes them. Most of the time, clutter busters are 3-D because larger objects are much less likely to be ignored than, say, a postcard.
A Recent Clutter Buster Masterpiece, Courtesy of Us
We recently provided graphics, printing, and imPress flair to a clutter buster piece that our Burst Marketing associates developed for a client. It definitely fell under the category of unique 3-D mail.
It was a lunchbox. A real, functioning, metal lunchbox. Filled with goodies and information, the lunchbox stands a very good chance of being opened and explored by its curious recipients just because most people don’t receive lunchboxes in the mail every day.
A Sweet Clutter Buster
Don’t believe us? Next time you receive a surprise lunchbox in the mail, see how long it takes before you decide to open it.
Effective Marketing, Even for Non-Bajillionaires
Of course, if you decide to send out lunchboxes or other creative 3-D containers of fun, you have to realize that each mailer is going to be a lot more expensive than the aforementioned postcard. So sending them out to everyone in your zip code is probably not a viable option for most businesses. And that’s okay.
Clutter busters like this work best if they are sent only to a small number of strategically chosen targets. You should send them out when you really want to get certain potential clients’ attention. And if you pick the right recipients and the right objects to send, our experience tells us that clutter busters get results.
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Category: Marketing, Print — Tags: brain, direct mail, Don't Make Me Think, printed materials, Steve Krug — Sarah @ 5:21 am
Have you used your brain today? Okay, we’re sure you have, technically, but have you really used it? Have you, for example, studied electrochemistry? Calculated the surface area of any of your office furniture? Translated any documents from German to Spanish?
Yeah, we haven’t, either.
Even though humans have these awesome brains that can do all sorts of ridiculously complex things, most of us are happiest when we keep things simple and let our brains relax. In fact, we tend to go out of our way to make sure our brains don’t have to do any extra work.
Don’t Make Them Think!
Enter Steve Krug, author of the popular web design book Don’t Make Me Think. Krug makes many great points in his book, but the title really says it all.
Krug points out that when people visit a website, they just don’t want to have to push their brains to the limit. If you want an effective website, Krug believes that you have to set it up in a user-friendly way that will spoon feed your point to the site’s visitors. Web surfers, he argues, are not going to read paragraph after paragraph of text on a web page; they are going to scan the page to find what they need and move on.
Krug’s book specifically focuses on web design, yet the point he makes carries over to print advertising as well. When you send out a postcard or a brochure advertising your business, you can’t expect its recipients to devote much time and brainpower to reading it. You really have to get your call to action out there in a big way if you don’t want your audience to miss it. In other words, don’t present the information in a way that requires your direct mail recipients to use their brains; tell them precisely what you want them to do and why they should do it.
Maybe one day, putting our brains into high gear will become trendy and we’ll spend our spare time solving calculus problems instead of playing Minesweeper and watching reruns of Jersey Shore. But until then, you’ll definitely have the most success with your marketing efforts if you follow Krug’s advice and keep your message straightforward and simple.
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Category: Print — Tags: direct mail, variable data printing — Sarah @ 6:59 am
Just out of curiosity, do you have any friends, relatives, or acquaintances who refer to you as “Resident”?
We didn’t think so.
Use of “Resident” is even more impersonal than “Hey, you!”, but we see it all the time on direct mail address labels. When a company addresses a mail recipient as “Resident,” the implied message is, “Listen, we’re sending out this information, but we don’t give a rat’s booty about who reads it. It could be read by the owner of the property, the family dog, or a termite who resides under the front porch, for all we care. Any resident will do.”
And we’re pretty sure that’s not the idea you are hoping to get across with your advertising campaign.
VDP to the Rescue
Avoid the ridiculously impersonal “Resident” by using variable data printing (VDP) to customize the address label on each piece of direct mail you send. People’s names are very important to them, so you’ve got a better shot at getting off on the right foot if your postcards include the recipients’ names.
And While You’re At It…
Variable data printing can do much more than just get your direct mail off to a rocking start with personalized address labels. You can also use VDP to customize other parts of your direct mail pieces and make your message stand out.
If you run a car repair shop, for instance, you could send out one postcard telling a customer that it’s time for his Dodge Stratus to get an oil change and another postcard telling a different customer that he should consider bringing his Honda Civic in for a tune-up. You’ll find that your customers are more inclined to respond to relevant, personally specific reminders like that than they would be to a “one-size fits all” advertisement.
So, give it a go. Let variable data printing humanize your address list and revitalize your direct mail pieces. Former “Residents” will thank you.
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Category: Creativity — Tags: art, Creativity, Louis Sachar, Sideways Stories from Wayside School — Sarah @ 5:51 am
If you were a parent or a child in the last thirty years, chances are you’ve experienced the amusing insanity of Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, the book is a collection of anecdotes about a school full of zany kids and teachers. Basically, Wayside School is to education what imPress is to the world of printing – the fun, unconventional alternative.
We’re here today to talk about creativity, and one of the Wayside School stories actually does a pretty darn good job of illustrating our point. Bebe, a student in Mrs. Jewls’ class, is known for being able to draw things reeeeeeally fast. By the end of a typical art class, Bebe has drawn hundreds of pictures. After one particular art class, Mrs. Jewls has a heart to heart with young Bebe and tells her that art is not about quantity. Mrs. Jewls insightfully explains that someone who has drawn one really amazing picture has actually created more art than Bebe can produce with her super fast drawing skills.
Mrs. Jewls Knows Her Stuff
At imPress, we’re in the art world, and we think Mrs. Jewls was dead on. Art really isn’t something you can mindlessly mass produce like Bebe was trying to do. And the creativity required for art, or in our case, print and graphic design, isn’t something that you can summon on cue. If, like Bebe, we sat down and cranked out brochure after brochure without stopping for a creativity break, we wouldn’t be producing many brochures worth looking at.
So, in order to design printed materials our clients will love, we like to take our time. Sometimes, when we’re looking for inspiration, we take a walk. Or take a shower. Or have a pillow fight. Or read a few chapters of a children’s book. The truth is, we never know what’s going to kick our creativity into high gear. But we have to get sufficiently creative before we can produce anything that’s awesome enough for our standards.
Give Your Art Time to Grow
So here’s the deal. Whether we’re working on a project for you or you’re working on a project for yourself, allowing ample time for creativity is essential if you want great results. So don’t stress yourself out if a project you’re doing for work takes a little time getting off the ground. And we’ll stay relaxed as we unhurriedly but spectacularly put together printed materials for you.
And because we all took the time to think and be inspired, the creative ideas that develop will be unique and diverse and wonderful — just like the loopy cast of characters from Wayside School.
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