When it comes to marketing, small businesses can easily spend a lot of money, for little return. Be it magazine ads, mailers, radio, website or email marketing, response rates of 0-1% are common. Even when there’s no sales, we’re told to continue spending all this money for ‘branding’…

Step back and consider some alternatives. For example, underwear merchant Bare Necessities in the US recently tested coordinating a postcard campaign with email to a segment of its customer file and saw a significant increase in revenue from those who received both marketing messages.

According to David Wauters, director of marketing for Bare Necessities, the company saw a 15% lift in revenue (note that’s SALES, not just a response rate boost) from customers who received the direct mail postcard and the email, compared to the control group who received only the email.

Wauters has apparently stumbled on something that a lot of marketers talk about, but seldom do. A relative few marketers truly coordinate their email and print efforts, according to Jane Kaiser, president of online marketing consultancy Eclipse Direct Marketing. She said her clients consistently see lifts of between 15% and 25% when they send coordinated print and email campaigns.

But wait there’s more!

If you’re satisfied with a 15-25% improvement then a simple combined email and direct mail postcard is a no-brainer. After all, who wouldn’t be delighted with amazing results like this?

However sales improvements of 50% or more are now possible using PURLs.  Here we take the above a step further. We simply add a unique webpage link to both the email and postcard.  A great Video by small business marketing expert, David Frey, outlines this very exciting, simple concept.

Here at CQ, we’ve the expertise to build your own personalised landing page and direct mail piece to complement your own email campaign, or provide a complete purl webpage, email and variable print turnkey package. Note our PURL package has special features beyond that outlined in the video.

Best of all? It’s all remarkably easy, affordable and just perfect for any corporate, small business or community group – You heard it here first!

Topic: databases, direct mail, marketing, Media Link, Personalisation, postcards, Print to Web, PURL's, ROI

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Direct mail marketing using the compact Postcard format is very popular overseas, especially popular with Realtors, Home Business and Health Services providers. They can save up to 60%, yet provide exceptional response rates compared with traditional direct mail campaigns involving the stuffing of envelopes.

However it’s not just the compact  format. The design, content and offer play a big part too. A card that engages people, sending them back to your company website to buy, for more information or enter competitions is the real secret.

There’s one particular postcard campaign in the US that’s consistently popular and super-successful, breaking sales records year after year through a simple technique. Response rates are over ten times the industry average. Watch the video below, courtesy of Small Business marketer, David Frey.

Now you’ve seen how easy it is, let us turn that concept, into reality.

We’re experts in affordable variable data printing, web-to-print and purl marketing technologies. Talk to us about our new super-effective personalisation options and the amazing business results that come with postcard mailings. Phone Dean on 03 963 8899 or email dean@cq.co.nz

Topic: databases, direct mail, Media Link, Personalisation, postcards, ROI, savings, Variable Data Printing

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