5 Direct Mail Statistics Your Customers Should Know

Posted on July 17, 2019 Written by

a personalized printed direct mail envelope in a mailbox surrounded with icons representing statisticsWith every year, your customer has more and more options for their marketing campaigns. Email, print ads, television ads, digital ads, and direct mail all compete for their time and budgets. However, direct mail is an essential tool for their marketing campaigns, and the statistics prove it. Here are five direct mail statistics that your customers should know!

1. 90% of Millennials Think Direct Mail Advertising is Reliable
Millennials might be a digital generation, but they definitely value the information they receive in the mail! Not only do 90% of them think that direct mail advertising is reliable, more than half of consumers in this age group have made purchases based on direct mail offers. 50% of millennials surveyed also ignore digital ads, compared to only 15% of millennials saying they ignore direct mail. You can learn more about how this age group responds to print in this whitepaper from the US Postal Service.

2. Adding a Person’s Name and Full Color in Direct Mail Can Increase Response By 135%
According to Canon Solutions America, personalization and color can make a huge impact on the effectiveness of a campaign. And no wonder—we all love the feeling of receiving a personalized piece, and full color print can help your customer’s postcard catch consumer attention among plain white envelopes.

3. Direct Mail With Digital Ads Yield 28% Higher Conversion Rate
Direct mail pieces don’t have to work on their own—in fact, according to NonProfit PRO, when your customer pairs their digital ads with direct mail, both are more effective! This makes direct mail and digital ads a great team, and it also makes a direct mail piece an important way to boost the effectiveness of your customer’s digital ad.

4. 18.4% of Former Customers Respond to Direct Mail
If your customers are looking for a way to bring back customers who haven’t done business with them in some time, direct mail is a great way to get them to respond. According to the US Postal Service, direct mail will bring nearly 1/5 of former customers back to give your customer’s business another look.

5. Oversized Envelopes Attract 6.6% of Household Responses
According to the DMA, oversized envelopes have the greatest household response rates over other mediums. Their impressive 6.6% of household responses is followed by postcards at 5.7% and letter-sized envelopes at 4.3%.

Are your customers ready to start building their direct mail campaign? We’re here to help. With a wide variety of postcards available and more arriving soon, your customer can create an extraordinary direct mail piece that is sure to gain attention in the mailbox. Click here to explore the selection of postcards available online, or check out our catalog for more information.

Were any of these statistics a surprise to you? Do you think there are any statistics that we missed? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

Filed Under: Education, Marketing, News, Print Products, Stationery

Have You Met These Voicemail Characters?

Posted on July 12, 2019 Written by

people who might be on the voicemail for your personalized print business, image of two smart phones and the characters on themYou’ve missed a call. Maybe you stepped out of the office for a moment, or maybe you were out of town for a few days. You might have even received a call over the weekend when your business wasn’t open. Whatever the reason, you’ve got a voicemail, and one of these characters might be waiting for you! Have you met these characters on your voicemail?

The Lost Information
This person may be nervous, or they simply might be forgetful. Either way, you’re missing some important information on their call. The Lost Information often forgets the information you need to get back to them: their full name, their phone number, their order number, and even the question they called to ask in the first place! While caller ID can help, chances are you’ll need to return their call—or even do some research and guesswork to figure out whether they’re an existing customer—before you can actually help them with their request.

And you might have also met The Lost Information’s twin…

The Double-Caller
Unlike The Lost Information, you don’t have to track down the information this caller forgot—that’s what their second message is for! The Double-Caller can be very helpful because they fill in the additional information you missed in the first message. However, it’s a good idea to take notes while listening to their messages because the important details might be split between the two messages.

The Mumbler
You’re going to need to listen to this message a few times! The Mumbler doesn’t speak quite loud enough into their phone, but without a person on the other end of the line they didn’t have a chance to adjust their volume while leaving their message. As a result, you might have to listen again to catch what they are saying.

The Speedy Speaker
Like the mumbler, you’re going to need to listen to this message more than once to make sure you’ve caught anything. When you’re dealing with a Speedy Speaker, they might be perfectly clear, but they speak so quickly that you may only catch part of the important information when you listen the first time. The Speedy Speaker might also surprise you by leaving a message at normal speed but rattling off their contact information so quickly that you can barely catch it. Either way, get ready to listen a few times.

The Unintended Visitor
This person didn’t intend to leave a message—in fact, they didn’t even intend to call! The Unintended Visitor dialed you accidentally, and their voicemail message reflects it. You might hear muted conversation, clothing rustling around the pocket the phone was in, or vehicle noise. The good news, though, is that you don’t need to worry about returning this call.

The Distracted Dialer
This character in your voicemail is doing their best to leave a great message, but something keeps getting in the way. Someone might be talking to them while they try to leave the message, or they might be talking in a busy area. Whatever the reason, the Distracted Dialer is just that—distracted. As a result, like the Lost Information, some important details might be missing.

The Final Word
We all want The Final Word in our voicemail! Their messages are short, sweet, and to the point. They include all the information you need to get back to them about their question. Their messages aren’t just great to receive: they also allow you to return the call quickly and get back to your day.

Have you met these characters in your voicemail? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

Filed Under: Education, Marketing, Misc, News

4 Sales and Marketing Tools You Can Use Without Leaving the Air Conditioning

Posted on July 4, 2019 Written by

personalized print sales tools you can use without leaving the air conditioningWhen summer heat is here, sometimes it’s nice for both you and your customers to stay inside where it’s cool. That makes summer the perfect time for digital sales tools! Not only are these tools an ideal way to inform your customers about your product offering, they also allow both of you to stay cool. Here are four of the best sales and marketing tools you can use without leaving air conditioning behind.

Getting Digital with Emails
Emails are a wonderful tool when the weather heats up. You can send a company newsletter. You can start a conversation with your customer about their order or ask whether they need to stock up on a product they ordered last summer around this time. You can send PDF proofs of your customer’s print piece for one last check before the order goes to press. Emails are a modern essential sales tool for a reason.

And don’t forget to update your email signature with favorite products for summer or with a link to a digital sales tool. Speaking of links to sales tools…

Send More Information Fast With ZOOMcatalog
When you’re showing your customers the wide selection of print products that your business offers, don’t be afraid to send them the entire Navitor catalog! ZOOMcatalog gives you the option to personalize an unbranded version of our catalog and either download the PDF or link your customers to it directly. This gives your customers the time they need to browse those products.

Highlight Products with Digital Flyers
Want to highlight a single product without getting bogged down with an entire catalog? We’ve got the digital tools for you! Download an unbranded flyer and attach it to an email for a ready-made awareness campaign or send a flyer when starting an email conversation with customers who are interested in a particular product. We’ve also got vertical market focused sales flyers to you to explore.

Keep it Simple With Your Phone—and Your Voicemail Message
You might use your phone every day, but it’s still important to consider when you’re marketing your business—especially when the weather is hot. Whether you’re reaching out to your customers to touch base after some time or you are returning a call with more information about their order, your phone is a powerful way to reach out to your customers wherever they are.

And don’t forget about your voicemail message! Take a moment to record a new message for your business phone to let your customers know both that you’ll return their call and the popular products they might want to add to their order.

How do you keep your marketing efforts moving when the weather is hot? We’d love to see your ideas in the comments below.

Filed Under: Education, Marketing, Misc, News

Bringing in a Heavyweight: Navigating Paper Weight and Thickness

Posted on July 3, 2019 Written by

When your customer is creating a print piece, often their stock choices are one of the biggest factors in how that project fits into their budget. With stocks labeled with both points and pounds, though, it can be tricky to decode what these labels mean. Luckily, we’re here to help! Here is a little advice on navigating lightweight stocks, heavyweight stocks, and everything in between!

Pound vs. Point
Two of the most common measurements for paper are pound (lb.) and point (pt.), but it can be challenging to know what this stock information means. What really makes these measurements difficult to navigate is that they are literally measuring different aspects of paper.

Pound is a measurement of how much a one ream of a paper stock weighs; weights range from 20 to 80 pounds for bond paper and 50 to 140 pounds for card stock. Point is a measurement of the paper’s thickness, with each pt. equal to .001 inch—14 pt. paper, for example, measures in at .014 inches thick.

With both of these measurements, though, you can be sure of one very important thing: the bigger the number, the more heft the stock will have.

How Do These Stocks Measure Up?
Unfortunately, it can be hard to match up thicknesses and weights because the measurements simply aren’t easy to translate. For example, 12 pt. cardstock weighs in at approximately 100 lb., but they aren’t exactly the same thickness. Your best bet is to focus on the type of paper first and the weight or thickness afterward.

This confusing set of measurements also means that your customers might have a hard time visualizing the stock thickness when they’re just reading numbers. After all, unless they are looking at stocks that are both measured by weight, the comparison is a challenge. That’s part of why swatch books are so important to have on hand when you’re making a sales pitch—they allow for easy stock comparisons.

Keep an Eye Out for New Heavyweight Champions
We know that many customers are looking for heavier paper options—that’s why we’ve got exciting new stock options coming soon! Keep an eye on your inbox for news about new stock options in a variety of different weights. And, if you’re not signed up to get Navitor’s emails, take a moment to sign up or update your email preferences.

Do you have any other questions about how to navigate stock choices? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

Filed Under: Business Cards, Education, Folders, News, Print Products, Resources, Stationery

Challenging Customers You Might Meet This Summer

Posted on June 26, 2019 Written by

challenging customers you might meet in the summer at your custom personalized print businessSummertime is filled with great weather, summer trips, events and distractions, and that can make the sales process challenging. There are also a few customer challenges that you’re more likely to see in the summer. Here are just a few of the challenging customers that you might meet this summer and how to better serve them during this very social season.

The Very Ready Vacationer
You’ve probably worked with this customer. You might have even been this customer when you were on the cusp of an exciting trip. The Very Ready Vacationer might be trying to get as much off their plate as possible, or they might be trying to put off an important meeting until after they’ve returned from their trip. Whichever way they try to clear their schedule for travel, chances are you’re going to run into difficult scheduling with this customer, especially if they also have deadlines to meet.

When you’re working with a Very Ready Vacationer, make sure that you’ve talked about whether there are any deadlines that will hit during their absence. If there are, ask them about how you can contact them with important questions or who to contact while they are away. If they need their print pieces after they’ve returned, take a moment to touch base with them once they’re back.

And, speaking of vacations…

The Wistful Worker
When you have a customer who isn’t going on vacation—but really wishes they were—you face an entirely different kind of distraction. This person might try to rush every sales meeting or forget what you’ve told them because they aren’t necessarily focusing on the work ahead of them.

How can you connect better with the wistful worker? When they’re distracted, logic is less likely to bring back their attention. Show them something exciting or ask them what they’re most interested in to get them more emotionally engaged in the conversation.

The Unconventional Office
Summer can lead to some unconventional work environments, and that can lead to big distractions. When your customer is working outside to take advantage of great weather, working from a coffee shop to change things up, or working from a summer event where they are promoting their business, the Unconventional Office can be difficult to speak to over the phone. Consider switching to email or text unless you need to have a conversation.

The Friday Flyer
This person’s personal life got much busier when summer started, and they’re prone to flying out the door earlier in the afternoon. And their absence might not just be an early exit on a Friday. Whether it’s children’s activities or sports event, the Friday Flyer’s absence can be a challenge no matter the cause. They might not be there to receive your call, and that can leave you without the information you need to move forward with their order.

When you’re dealing with a Friday Flyer, documentation and planning ahead are key. Try to use email to schedule conversations ahead of time, and, if you aren’t able to update them in a conversation, leave a message and include a mention of when you intend to follow up. And, if you need more information from them, make sure that you tell them exactly what information you need and that their order is on hold until you’ve heard back from them.

Have you met these challenging customers? How do you handle these summery challenges? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

Filed Under: Education, Marketing, Misc, News

Is it Time For Your Customers to Update Their Form Design?

Posted on June 21, 2019 Written by

When your customers use a form every day, it can be easy to let it stay exactly the same. However, if they’re looking to add another touch of branded flair to their day-to-day interactions with consumers, their form offers big opportunities! Not only are custom forms a blank canvas for their creation, but they can use their form as a foundation for better brand recognition. Here are some simple ways for customers to update their form design.

Remove the Information They Don’t Need
One of the biggest benefits of custom forms is that your customer can include all the information they need and save space by not including anything that they don’t actually need. When it comes time for your customer to update their form design, it’s also a good time to take a look at the information that they have on their form. Is there a piece of information that often gets included in a note on a Post-it® Note when the form gets filed? Is there a form category that your customer simply doesn’t use anymore? It’s time to make an adjustment!

Put it in Full Color
If your customer has been using the same form design for a long time, chances are that they haven’t updated the details that could make their form truly shine. One of the best—and quickest—ways for your customers to update their form design is to put their logo in full color if they’ve previously used black and white forms.

And, if you want to take that full color logo to the next level…

Add a Pop of Branding
Your customer’s form is a branded piece that will be seen by many of the consumers they work with, so adding a bit more of their brand is a great way to increase brand recognition. Your customer can easily add a border of one of your customers’ brand colors or use their brand fonts to create a cohesive look.

Add a Photo to the Header
Does your customer work in an industry that values great visuals? Add a photo to the header! Whether they decorate cakes, work as a contractor for striking remodeling projects, or offer design services, a photo can be a great reminder of what their clients will receive. They’re also a great visual nod to the design of brochures or sales sheets that consumers might be looking at to make their order.

When your customers update their form design, what special touches do they love most? We’d love to see your suggestions in the comments below.

Filed Under: Design, Education, News, Print Products

4 Ways to Make Your Next Project Run Smoothly

Posted on June 20, 2019 Written by

Whether you’re working on creating a new marketing campaign or getting ready to exhibit at a trade show, large scale projects can be a challenge. When things go right, having many people working on a project can help get things done faster. When things don’t, however, the friction between team members can bring progress to a halt. So, how can you keep things running smoothly?

1. Make Sure Everyone Knows the Plan
Nothing helps a project so much as keeping everyone on the same page, so make sure that everyone involved in your project knows on a high level what the plan looks like. That way everyone knows what their part is, what their deadlines are, and whose work might rely on theirs.

2. And Make Sure that Plan is Consistent
Have you ever been in a meeting and walked out of it with a strong game plan, only to have someone else get a completely different message from the meeting they attended? Not only does this make a plan hard to execute, but it can become frustrating for everyone working on the project. Instead, make sure the plan for your project is as consistent as possible and make sure that everyone is updated when changes do occur.

3. Give Updates When Needed
Take time to touch base often! Not only does this ensure that everyone knows how much progress you’ve made as a team, it also lets everyone know when one person’s task has hit a snag. For example, if one employee is researching the market before another employee can get started creating a marketing piece, it’s essential for both employees to know where the research has hit a snag.

One of the best ways to do this is to have periodic meetings. For big projects with a quick turnaround, scheduling 30 minutes every day to touch base can help keep things moving. For long term projects, a weekly, biweekly, or even monthly meeting could be the option you need to keep things moving.

4. Don’t Neglect the Social Aspect
While not a result of the project itself, social friction can also cause difficulties in your work day. Being short or grumpy while working on a project can easily stress everyone out.

That’s why it’s important not to neglect the social aspect of a project. When possible, give employees a chance to talk face-to-face about the project and its progress, because it can be easy to lose sight of the other people working on a project when we’re buried in our work. Consider ways to keep morale up when deadlines loom. Not only will this help employees keep their mood up individually, but it will help foster teamwork overall.

How do you ensure that projects keep moving? We’d love to see your suggestions in the comments below.

Filed Under: Education, Marketing, News

5 Ways to Keep Up Momentum During the Summer Months

Posted on June 19, 2019 Written by

ways to keep up productivity during the summer slump at your personalized custom print businessWe know that sometimes your sales can slow in the summer, but that additional space in your schedule could give you the opportunity to build momentum that can continue through the end of the year! Here are just a few of the ways that you can keep your business moving during the summer months.

1. Take the Opportunity to Make a Personal Connection
When things are a bit slower, consider using that extra time in your schedule to contact customers directly. You could take a moment to give top customers a call to thank them for their business—and let them know about products that they might be interested in—or you could call customers whose sales have flagged to encourage them to come back to your business. Not only will this help encourage sales during a slower time of the year, but it will help make your customers feel more emotionally connected to your business at the same time.

2. Prepare for a Busier Season
Just like a more open schedule gives you the opportunity to connect with customers, it also gives you the chance to work ahead. Organize your financial information from the first half of the year so that your documentation is ready come tax season or prepare your emails for upcoming events. Go through your files and remove documents that you no longer need. The slower season is a chance to take those tasks off your plate before sales pick up again in the fall.

3. Take a Look At Your Goals
You made your goals early in the year, but you might not have spent much time looking at them since. After all, between winter weather and customer needs, you’ve had a lot on your plate. The summer slump is a great time to take a look at your goals, see how you’re doing on those goals, and readjust as needed.

4. Build New Habits
Is there something you want to do better in your business? Do you want to get better about building to-do lists or more diligent about sending updates on customer orders? Do you want to neaten up your desk at the end of every week or file documents more regularly at the end of a project? This is the time to build those habits! When business is slower, it’s easier to get into good habits and ensure that they’ll stick around during busier months.

5. Take a Break
Rest is important, and whether you’re a workaholic or tempted by the sunny days outside the window, taking a break can help you be more productive in your day-to-day work. When you take a break, you’ll come back rested, refreshed, and ready to work harder and smarter.

Do you have tips for staying productive during the summer season? We’d love to see your tips in the comments below.

Filed Under: Education, Marketing, News

Brochures vs. Sales Sheets: Which One is Right For Your Customer?

Posted on June 14, 2019 Written by

Sometimes the print piece your customer needs is obvious. It might be the perfect business card or just the right promotional product to make their business memorable. However, the right product doesn’t always jump out at you. Sometimes it takes some thought. This is especially true when those print pieces are seemingly very similar—like brochures and sales sheets. That’s why we’re running down the questions you should ask to help them decide whether brochures or sales sheets are right for them.

Do They Want Their Piece to Stand Alone?
If your customer wants to create an informational piece that will create a big impact right away, flyers are a great choice. Their large, unfolded size and vibrant color allows them to stand alone, catching consumer attention and informing at a glance.

Brochures, on the other hand, are a better fit for customers who want a larger number of informational pieces to be displayed in one place. Their more compact folded size makes them easier to display in a compact tradeshow booth, as a part of a tabletop display, or at the front desk of their business.

Will Their Customers be Reading Now or Later?
If consumers are going to read their piece now, your customer might want them to get directly to the message. Sales sheets are the perfect way to deliver that! With no folds to undo, they are easy to read immediately after they are received.

Brochures are a great option for customers who want their piece to be read at a later date because of their more compact size. However, if your customer is creating a folder of informational pieces or sending a piece along with a mailing, a flyer might still do the job—just remember that its size makes it harder to stow in a tote bag.

Who Will Be Reading This and How Familiar Are They With Your Customer?
If your customer is looking for a great introduction to their business, flyers printed on sales sheets are a great choice. With a large size, vibrant color and no folds standing between the reader and the information in front of them, they can be a splashy introduction to your customer’s business or to a new product.

Brochures, on the other hand, are a good option for consumers who have a little more of an idea what they’re getting into. Whether your customer has had a chance to chat with them at a tradeshow booth or they’ve had an introduction to the company but still need to get to know the products, a little more knowledge is often the incentive that consumers need to open the brochure and discover the information inside.

What questions do you ask to help your customers make a decision about their print order? We’d love to see your suggestions in the comments below.

Filed Under: Education, Marketing, News, Print Products, Stationery

6 Seemingly Small Reasons Some Businesses Fail

Posted on June 12, 2019 Written by

reasons why some personalized print businesses fail while others succeedSometimes when you see another business fail, why they got there seems obvious. Other times, it can seem like a mystery. In many of those failures, what seems like a small detail can mean big problems for those businesses. Here are six of the reasons why some businesses fail while others succeed.

1. Ignoring Customer Needs
Every business will tell you that the customer is the most important thing, but many businesses don’t deliver on that promise. What are your customers telling you? Have you been listening to the feedback you’ve received? How can you make that feedback a part of your business plan? These are important questions for all businesses to ask and answer.

2. Not Learning From Failure
Not every project or plan will be a success. However, it’s important to learn from that failure. If a business isn’t learning from their mistakes, they may repeat them.

3. Growing Too Fast
Whether it’s investing in a new piece of equipment before they’re ready or rushing into a larger building or move to a new location, growing too fast can be a big challenge for businesses if your customer base doesn’t match that growth.

This is part of why Navitor offers you such a wide selection of products—you can offer your customers more without having to make the investment to produce those products in house!

4. Not Identifying What Makes Them Different
Some businesses pay too close attention to what their competition is doing and don’t take the time to highlight what makes them different. While looking to the competition can be a great way to know what works for customers, doing too much of the same can make their business unmemorable. Instead, successful businesses figure out what makes them different and highlight the things that set them apart from their competition.

5. Leadership That Doesn’t Grow
While employees need to continue growing and improving throughout their careers, sometimes businesses don’t realize that the members of their leadership team also need to grow and change in order to keep things working. Businesses with leadership that doesn’t work to improve might see those challenges impacting all levels of the business.

Leadership improvement doesn’t have to be difficult, though. It can be as simple as identifying a problem and working to improve one aspect of their leadership skills at a time.

6. Relying on Enthusiasm Rather Than a Strong Plan
It can be easy see the drive of an employee or team and expect it to keep a business going. However, without a plan to guide growth, even the most driven business can easily misplace employee efforts and find itself going in entirely the wrong direction.

When you see other businesses fail, what reasons can you see for that failure? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

Filed Under: Education, Marketing, News
« Previous Page
Next Page »