Solid Impressions

Results. Whether it’s weight loss, test scores, or finances, tangible success is the payoff everyone wants. With a limited marketing budget, it’s important for your business to make every penny count. And, according to a 2018 DMA Response Rate Report, direct mail consistently outperforms all digital marketing channels.  Direct mail allows readers to comprehend, process, and remember the material more quickly and easily, with postcards and large envelopes eliciting the best overall response. Think about how quickly you process your own mail – ‘bill, letter, junk, ad . . .’ It takes a split second to accept or discard each piece. Postcards put the message front and center as soon as the printed piece hits their hand. When it comes to results, 52.5 percent of potential recipients claim they will read a postcard, whereas a letter-sized envelope will be opened only a third of the time. Postcards get a fairly high response rate – 4.25% – followed by dimensional mailers with 4% and letter...

When email marketing began around 1978, its low cost, speedy delivery, and great response rates made marketers wonder if direct mail would disappear forever. Today, that couldn’t be further from the truth. An overload of digital messages has caused open and click-through rates to decline substantially, and many spam filters and firewalls block emails altogether. At the same time, a volume decrease in traditional mail has allowed direct mail marketing to rise to the top of the mailbox, being noticed, read, and responded to more frequently. Need proof? Here are some stats to consider: According to the Direct Marketing Association’s 2017 Response Rate Report, direct mail offered a 5.1 percent response to house lists and a 2.9 percent response to rented lists across all direct mail formats.  (In comparison, the 2017 response rate for all digital channels  combined  was 2 percent.) Eighty-five percent of consumers will open a piece of mail that catches their attention, a...

It's ironic, really. The lists that we struggle to be removed from are also the same lists our companies strive to obtain. The truth is, for many businesses, targeted mailing lists are the bread and butter of their marketing efforts. Being able to create niche-marketing materials and then putting those materials into the right hands is essential to a company's survival. Not all mailing lists are created equal, though. Understanding the different types of mailing lists is critical in maximizing the return on your investment of content and quality marketing materials. Consumer Mailing List Consumer mailing lists are comprehensive lists of people associated with their demographic, economic, and psychographic information. The consumer mailing list helps your business target individuals with very specific profiles for maximum return on investment. Typically, you can choose to filter these types of lists by the following data: - Gender - Age - Ethnicity - Marital Sta...

The United States Postal Service has announced a discount program that provides an amazing opportunity for businesses that want to increase their sales through direct mail marketing. For the months of July and August 2011, any business that uses QR codes on their direct mail piece will receive a 3% upfront discount off the postage amount. It is not often that the Postal Service has a sale, so this is a great time to take advantage of a discount and to also get started with your QR code campaign. Please review the FAQ below from the USPS for some general information, and please don't hesitate to contact us for help with your next direct mail marketing campaign. 2011 Mobile Barcode Promotion -- FAQs GENERAL INFORMATION, ELIGIBILITY, AND REQUIREMENTS 1. What is the 2011 Mobile Barcode Promotion? The Mobile Barcode Promotion is intended to build awareness of mobile technology and demonstrate to mailers how mobile barcodes can increase the value of mail. The promotion provides business...

PROCESSING Letter-Size Booklets The Postal Service has established new standards to improve processing and handling of automation compatible letter-size booklets. There are changes to tab size and location, paper weight and dimensions. Booklets are mail pieces with a bound edge and include sheets fastened with at least two staples in the manufacturing fold (saddle-stitched), perfect bound, pressed-glued, or joined together by another binding method that is automation-compatible and produces an end where pages are attached. In general, booklets are open on three sides before sealing, like a book, and must be uniformly thick. Large, bound booklets that are folded for mailing, also called “quarter-fold” booklets, qualify for automation and machinable prices if the final mailpiece remains nearly uniform in thickness. To improve the productivity of processing booklets and to decrease damage to mail pieces, the new standards require that booklets have three, 1 1/2-inch tabs placed on the sid...

On May 11 the price for a 1-ounce First-Class Mail stamp will increase from 42¢ to 44¢. Flats will increase to 88¢. The additional ounce price for all retail letters, flats and packages will remain at 17¢. The surcharge for retail and presort nonmachinable letters remains 20¢, and applies to all nonmachinable letters weighing up to 3.5 ounces. Prices for other mailing services — Standard Mail, Periodicals, Package Services (including Parcel Post), and Extra Services — will also change. The overall average increase is 3.8 percent. One major change in mailing standards is that machinable letters must now have the same physical characteristics as automation letters, with the exception of a qualifying barcode. All sortation levels for automation letters are optional with customers paying for the level of sortation they choose. The minimum number of pieces for a First Class Presort remains at 500 and for Standard Presort is 200. This may be confusing but rest assured you will receive the l...