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Direct Mail

Why procrastinate?

3 October 2021 Stuart Nimmo Direct Mail Marketing Print based marketing Print in the marketing toolbox

We all know the facts, customers like being treated as privileged individuals, yet we scatter-gun generic marketing messages hoping they bite.

So why not be savvier?
Communication is best when it is one to one. Communication is best when it is direct and meaningful. So how come so many are just following the flock when being different makes you stand out.

We’ve recently done a select mailing for an event. Being able to have a catchy line which linked to the mailing aided us to get more time with recipients than an online campaign. You’ve heard us before but here’s a refresher on why direct mail is so good…

• A leader in response rates – yes how much physical mail do people get, therefore it attracts more time and attention with the recipient. Can you remember what you saw on whatever social media channel yesterday?

• Highly personalized, with digital print technology, we can add more personalisation than just names and locations, you can make it highly relevant to the individual in many different ways.

• Opened and read, with creative physical mail running alongside so many other channels, it is a refreshing experience for the receiver.

• Creative, lumpy mail creates a buzz, interest which stimulates more of the senses. Doing something which is out of the ordinary size or colour wise, also grabs attention.

• Tangible (physical) – it’s kinaesthetic one of the key learning methods, after all, marketing is teaching your audience about a product or service

• Versatile – seasonal, in shape, in format, in whatever manner you need it to be.

• Familiar everyone loves receiving a piece of creative engaging post.

• Simple to do – HAD-Print are a skilled practitioner with making your requirements fit within Royal Mail’s distribution channels – we take the hassle out of a mailing.

• Trust-building with too many scams being online, the real-world physical item adds kudos to your message about being taken seriously.

• Cost-effective, whether it is using bulk mail rates, specifying to fit within a certain mailing band, a lot can be achieved within the standard letter and up to 100gms

• Highly trackable – whether through delivery or engagement. There are many ways of tracking and monitoring engagement with direct mail. Clever use of short links, QR codes can make this monitorable in a compliant way.

• Highly targeted, we stated social can be a little scattergun in its approach. With careful use of datasets, and demographics targeting can be achieved to the relevant audience.

• A complement to digital marketing, it can link up, feed into and even be used as an engagement tool back. Exclusive offers belong in the club as they say, why not make Direct Mail part of the club USP?

• Data-driven – if you run a CRM, make sure you set triggers to fire crafted physical communications, or Direct Mail to trigger subsequent online progressive actions.

If you need case study material for any of these, have a chat with us. We have worked with some great clients over the years and also have brilliant case studies from peer colleagues around the globe!

Marketing – Back to basics

6 June 2021 Stuart Nimmo Direct Mail Marketing Our ethos Print based marketing

Marketing is all about educating your customer about a product or service.

Ask any educational professional about key learning styles or methods and they will talk about Visual Auditory and Kinaesthetic (or VAK).

Over the last decade, we have seen a rush to engage digital technologies for the ease and convenience they bring. However, the rush has made us forget the key premise of how we learn. The engagement from touch, reality, which builds trust, through physically being there is missing. 

The need throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to be still connected heightened the advancement of digital meetings, through zoom, teams and other platforms. We all read each other’s non-verbal language without even realising it, which has been devoid from digital platforms due to only seeing bust upwards of most participants. However, are we missing other communication receptors in this digital advancement? I know from people I have had conversations with, some have experienced zoom-burn-out, with back to back meetings, taxing the individual’s concentration to the max, through constantly staring at a small screen.

Working only with visual and auditory senses, it’s challenged us. When you think that sight is more than a small screen, hearing is more than the immediate speaker on a call. It leaves touch, which when we pick up something, a book, a pen or even a digital device, they are all crafted to evoke reactions. When we meet people we are aroused by the smell from perfume or aftershave or even fabric conditioner, the typical business meeting we’d meet for coffee or something else and we’d remember the taste and flavour of the coffee or the environment we were in. We build a picture of that moment and automatically attach it to the individual, this forming a mental picture and memories, whether favourable or not. 

So are we missing a trick? Is now the time to return to being physical, leading the waive in positively creating memories? Of course, I am biased, I feed of tactile engagements, through my own experiences in print and design. Is it time to arouse the senses?

I am fortunate that I can do things differently, that I am accountable to myself. We have even before the pandemic did engagements via traditional mail, which evoked the senses. Our 2nd birthday being one example, where we partnered with CHIPP Coffee to deliver a cupping experience for our guests. The invitations featured physical real coffee beans inside a tactile (Linen textured board) gatefold (opening out from the centre) invitation. This raised a significant level of interest. Plus, once Royal Mail had processed the mail, they had also gently ground the beans to release some coffee aromas. Over the years we’ve inserted enveloped tea bags, chocolate bars and many other things to play on the wealth of sensory receptors of your audience.

The thinking overall is to think about the total experience, not just the design or the visual. In a world where marketing messages swamp us, the need to be different and pronounced and clear is paramount to achieving better results.

Interesting times

21 June 2020 Stuart Nimmo Direct Mail Marketing Print based marketing Print in the marketing toolbox , No Comments

Many people are saying the world will be a different place and things will change. However, you can take a different view on how things will progress. People’s attitudes and value sets will have significantly shifted during Covid-19 lockdown. I am watching people “craving” after the smallest of things on Facebook, and much of this is physical things which people have missed. 

We are at a unique point where the button has almost been reset. You can be the individual, business or organisation that shifts thinking or leads, creating the way you want to be remembered for engaging with them. The quote “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi has a real resonance as your actions can be key. Many people would have heard me say, it’s not the “What” but the “How”. 

We use as the premise of how we talk about marketing as it’s about educating your customers, users, members about what you offer in your product or service. Educationalists often use a framework of Visual Auditory and kinaesthetic learning techniques. So whilst your audience has been bombarded with Visual and Auditory during Covid-19 lockdown, the opportunity lies with the kinaesthetic or physical engagements. In-person is very limited, with social distancing, and hesitance, getting physical with your marketing and communications will fill the void.

Last week, we had multiple conversations around this subject, with some very clever advisors and consultants to some interesting audiences. All with the same views around excessive online had dulled the message that the respective audiences were receiving. In every case the realization to change the communication method was key, yes that is the “what” but in every case, we turned to the “how” which resulted in different methods. All stemmed around the use of physical direct mail. Whether marketing communications or CPD educational programme resources, the need to engage and add value is at the heart of the message. 

Yes, you can follow the sheep, be bamboozled by the rhetoric, understanding how people engage, will only ensure you can get a result from your investment in communications. Speak to any seasoned marketing and communications professional, they will talk about the tools in the toolbox, one tool does not do everything. So if you want to get more physical and kinaesthetic, why not consider a conversation with us to add some magic back in your toolbox?



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