Margie Dana

Braintree Printing Won’t Leave Me Alone. And That’s a Good Thing.

For the past few years I’ve been getting postcards on a regular basis from one local printing company – Braintree Printing. It’s left a impression on me.

This company is just south of Boston proper. They are a trade printer serving all of New England as well as New York and New Jersey (my home state!). Hoping to learn more about this direct mail campaign, I sent a list of questions to Jim Corliss, the owner.

Here’s what I found out.

Braintree Printing has been mailing postcards to the trade on a monthly basis or so, for the past two or three years. All of the postcards are personalized, which is one reason I love them. They use my name and my company name very effectively. The design (different each time) is big and bold, and the cards are often printed on different stock to make a point about that particular stock. I have one that’s a bumper sticker. Another is printed on 24 pt. board, and the message is all about Braintree’s ability to print on that substrate. The postcards are printed on their Xerox® iGen®4 or their iGen™150, using XMPie software for the personalization. They apply a UV coating offline.

Braintree card 3 The only hard cost for these cards is postage, about $.30 apiece. The company designs, prints and mails their postcards in-house. Jim says they mail about 2500 pieces each time.

Direct mail is not their only marketing channel. The postcards are coordinated with email blasts. I get the emails, too. I think this is a very smart one-two punch.

So, are these postcards and the accompanying emails effective? “People seem to enjoy getting our pieces,” Jim wrote. “We try to keep them simple and try not to be intrusive.” As a recipient, I can tell you they are not intrusive. The cards are fun and colorful. The emails are related and get to the point right away.

Jim says they get a 30% opening rate on the broadcast emails. The company does almost no other advertising, and they don’t have an outside sales force, so Jim feels that most of their sales can be attributed to the postcards and email blasts.

For now, the company will continue sending out their postcards – with accompanying emails – but Jim says they’re always on the lookout for different ways to communicate with their customers. Braintree card 2

There’s something iconic about these postcards that show up in my mail, and there are a few reasons why I think they work as a marketing tool:

1. I get them regularly.

2. I check out each one to see what’s being promoted.

3. They’re not overdone. There’s just enough copy, and the design isn’t “precious.”

4. Each one tells me about a particular product or service the company offers.

5. Accompanying emails reinforce the postcards.

Braintree card 1 When all’s said and done, these postcards are welcome. They’re lighthearted. Each one’s different. They shine a light on Braintree Printing. And most important of all, they keep the company’s name in my mind.

Is Print Effective? You Betcha!

My last post covered highlights of the print customer panel I put together for the 2016 NEDMA Conference last week. One remarkable thing about this daylong event was how much print was featured. There were several sessions on direct mail. My panel focused on how today’s customers deal with the print industry. And earlier in the day, Cory Funk of Japs-Olson Company facilitated another print customer panel. I sat in on this one. It was quite interesting.

Entitled, “Print Is Alive,” the session spotlighted two marketers who discussed using direct mail. One marketer represented Citizens Bank; another represented NexGen Insurance.

Here are a few highlights from that session.

Direct mail is a primary channel for both companies. The bank uses other channels to enhance its direct mail campaigns. And while the insurance company is highly digitally focused, marketing-wise, direct mail is still a core channel. As expected, they use multiple response mechanisms in their direct mail.

What’s changed in the insurance industry in the last five years, asked Cory? These trends were cited:

Direct mail is more likely to play a role in omnichannel campaigns.
Creative is more focused on storytelling.
There are multiple response mechanisms used in campaigns.
There’s much more personalization in marketing campaigns.
There’s increased pressure on print from a budgetary perspective. (I took this to mean there’s a push to measure print’s ROI.)

The marketer from Citizens Bank added that data has been a major factor in her business. How they use it is key. There was talk about how “good” data can help (increased relevance) but can also hurt (perceived privacy violations).

The insurance industry marketer also noted that there are now multiple data sources to manage and deal with. (He did say that thanks to sophisticated print companies who are experts in data analytics, print’s no longer cost prohibitive.)

The speakers talked about the importance of testing. Citizens does hundreds of tests a year, including a lot of multivariable testing. Different formats are tested to arrive at which lowest cost options drive the highest response. The timing of direct marketing channels is a challenge.

Bottom line? For these marketers, direct mail is an extremely powerful medium. As the speaker from Citizens said, “Print is going to be the lead.”

The One Time a Direct Mailer Let Me Down

The conference postcards we’d produced to attract attendance that year meant everything to us.

They were expensive to print and more expensive to mail. This was before social media took hold. We counted on direct mail plus email marketing to promote our event.

I presumed my mail person at the printer’s knew her stuff in ways that would not only keep my postage costs down, but also get the thousands of pieces delivered fast.

On this postcard, we offered an Early Bird rate for the conference. The deadline for this discount was approaching. We mailed the postcards First Class Presort.

What happened when the postcards were dropped into the mail stream? They went nowhere fast. We’d seeded our list as always. I remember sweating it out, frustrated for days, stretching into weeks, when we didn’t receive our postcards.

I had to dig to find out where the hold-up was. Someone at the USPS told me that because of the way the cards had been mailed, the post office had X number of days to get them in the mail stream. It was too close for comfort and caused us tremendous stress.

Direct mail campaigns require a subject matter expert – someone who knows the USPS regulations cold, or at least knows enough to find out key information for the customer.

We customers assume the pieces will be delivered with no undue delays, unless, of course, we’re aware of what’s allowable by the USPS. I think this is a reasonable expectation.

When that mailing issue surfaced, I felt blindsided. I didn’t get the advice I needed.

Today, I’m fortunate to know mailing experts like Christine J. Erna, Senior Postal Solutions Architect for Novitex Enterprise Solutions. I asked her how customers can better ensure that their direct mail provider is covering all the bases.

First, she pointed out certain sections on the USPS web site, like the one detailing the USPS Service Standards in 2015. Updated quarterly, these are officially defined as “A stated goal for service achievement for each mail class.” She also shared a link that allows you to enter the zip code of origin and the class of mail. It will show you a map of the service standards based upon these elements. Check it out.

Christine taught me more about “Intelligent Mail. “The USPS has worked hard to gain visibility of all of the mail in their operations. With the advent of the Intelligent Mail Barcode and Full Service Intelligent Mail, you can actually see the scan data of the intelligent mail barcode on your individual mailpieces, and for customers that present their mail as Full Service Intelligent Mail, this data is FREE. Full Service Intelligent mail requires the mail preparer to create a unique serial number for each mailpiece and upload an electronic data transmission of their mailing utilizing a mail.dat file. Industry software generates this and enables the visibility of mailpieces while they’re being scanned throughout the USPS network of mailing equipment.”

Finally, she suggested we ask our service partner questions like these:

Are you a Full-Service Intelligent Mail preparer?
Do you offer IMb Tracing Service with reporting?
Where do you present the mail to the US Postal Service?

What else can customers do? Contact the USPS Mailpiece Design Help Desk. They can review your mailpiece and explain the service standards early in the process. Here’s that number: 1-. Or email them at .

In today’s mailing environment, wrote Christine, you should never have to wonder where your mail is.

Print in the News & on My Mind

old-typewriter-with-NEWS-typed-out-email In today’s post, I’m sharing a few news items related to print that caught my eye.

1. Are you involved with 3D printing at all? Is it in any way a factor in your commercial printing business? I like this HBR post (that’s Harvard Business Review) very much – How 3D Printing is Changing the Way We Think – and wonder if you all agree.

2. Back in January 2014, I wrote in this space about a new quarterly magazine called Modern Farmer, coming out of Hudson NY. Well, earlier this month the NYT reported the publication had run into problems. The article says that back in December, the founder Ann Marie Gardner had “left amid financial concerns and conflicts” with the magazine’s financier. The spring 2015 issue was cancelled. But Frank Giustra, the financier, found a new editor (Sarah Gray Miller) with quite the pedigree in magazines. There’s a new staff – and just like that, the magazine is back on track.

3. Junk mail works. People respond emotionally to junk mail – more so than to email. Here’s a terrific article I read recently, complete with impressive stats on the effectiveness of direct mail. Share it liberally!

4. Yet another positive piece about the value of catalogs, particularly for retailers. It says that consumers who receive catalogs spend $850 a year on catalog purchases. And these publications are now considered “lifestyle publications,” don’t you know. I love good catalogs. (Just received the latest from J. Crew, and it’s the great copy as much as the fashion that I admire. Found an in-depth Forbes piece about its executive creative director and president, Jenna Lyons. In it they mention how she overhauled the catalog, which is “at the root of J. Crew’s business.”) I’ve covered the topic of catalogs before, highlighting Patagonia’s gorgeous publication, among others.

5. Finally, a woman at the helm! Printing Industry of the Carolinas has named Trish Sports, GM of Sheriar Press, as its new chairwoman. It’s the first time a woman’s leading the group in its 84-year history. Way to go, PICA!

That’s all for today, folks.

Direct Mail Hits & Misses for Commercial Printers

Too often, commercial printers confuse announcements with marketing. These two things are not synonymous. They have different purposes.

An announcement shares news – an equipment purchase, an award won, maybe a new CEO or a move to a bigger facility. These are typical examples of news you’d cover in a release. They also fit nicely into a newsletter or can be sent in an email that identifies the content as news.

A direct mail piece intended to help market a service or product can’t be just a news item. You can’t simply excerpt bits of a news release, package it as a postcard or brochure, and mail it to prospects with the expectation you’ll get business from it. The copy has to change.

Ideally, an effective direct marketing piece gets inside the head of a potential customer before the copy’s written. Its message addresses one key point from the recipient’s perspective: why should I care?

Numerous times a year I receive colorful postcards from a local trade printer – Braintree Printing in Braintree, MA. Sometimes they send a 5 x 8” postcard. Sometimes, it’s 6 x 9”. Always, the postcard is interesting and fun. And they’re never selling equipment; they’re giving me an answer to a problem or a need I have or may one day have.

My favorite postcard from Braintree Printing

My favorite so far is the card that said, “MARGIE, TRY AND TEAR ME!!” The copy explains that with a certain sheet of paper (Mohawk Synthetic, Premium Polyester), I could get things printed that are totally tear resistant. What did I do immediately? I tried to tear it. I couldn’t.

It’s a great example of a direct mail piece from a printer. I look forward to receiving these postcards.

Another postcard from Braintree Printing was printed on 24 pt board, and that’s what they were trumpeting – or promoting – on this piece, the fact that they can print jobs for me using this paper. It worked well because it put a sample of the sturdy stock in my hands. The copy gave a short list of perfect applications, including signage, packaging, and POP, so that I could relate.

I save all of their postcards so I can follow the marketing trail and learn from them. I also like that these pieces are all personalized and use my first name in the design.

Compare that approach – addressing an issue, desire, or problem your market may have – with a direct mail piece from a printer that features a new press. Using a photo of the press is a mistake if you’re trying to impress a print customer. There’s nothing clever or interesting about it. And listing the features, straight from the manufacturer, doesn’t speak to my needs as a customer.

It is an example of an announcement that thinks it’s a marketing piece. It is not.

Unless the mail piece tells me immediately what the new press can do for my print jobs that I care about, it’s not working.

Bottom line? When creating a direct mail campaign for your print customers, always put yourself in a customer’s shoes and focus on answering this question: Why does this matter to me and how might it help my company?

Don’t confuse an announcement with a marketing campaign.

The first one says, “Look at us!” A good marketing piece says, “Here’s looking at you.”

10 Reasons Why I Love Direct Mail

Call me crazy (you won’t be the first), but I look forward to the mail every day. Last week’s snowstorm here in the Boston area kept the mail carrier from our door – although the UPS guy made it up the front stairs through 10 inches of “why I long to live in Florida.”

I missed the mail.

So I sat down to figure out exactly why I love getting direct mail. Here’s why:

It has the power to delight me. Whether it’s a flyer, catalog, or postcard, I am often impressed by design, printing process, good copy (that I wish I’d written), or some amazing technique that stops me cold. I don’t register “delight” with an email.
I can enjoy it later at my own pace. I put aside some mail, like catalogs from favorite retailers (Anthropologie, Williams Sonoma, J. Crew), to look thorough carefully when I have more time. Usually it’s over lunch. Leisurely perusal – how sweet it is.
Direct mail is portable and easily shared. Flyers about upcoming concerts, plays, movies, or other special events come to mind. I put them in particular spots in my office or home. Maybe they’re pinned to a bulletin board. If family or friends are interested, I can share mail pieces with them. This “in your face” quality makes mail more memorable than email.
Direct mail is unobtrusive. It may (and should) attract my attention, but it sits quietly in a pile until I’m ready to look at it. No audible alerts and no annoying pop-ups on the bottom of my computer screen announcing I’ve got mail.
It’s easier to sort through than email. Maybe it’s just me, but I get hundreds of emails daily, in two different email accounts, and managing them all is stressful and a nuisance. If emails fall “below the fold” on my monitor, I occasionally forget about them and fail to act on them. I get less real mail delivered; it’s a breeze managing it.
It has dimension. Though lots of basic #10 envelopes all look and feel the same, my mail is generally a stack of different shapes, sizes and hefts. Handling mail is physical. It registers an impression no matter who it’s from or what shape it takes. Email is just more of a passive thing. And it’s so easy to scan a subject of an email message and hit delete in a nanosecond.
Direct mail can surprise me. Clever offerings, stunning design, exquisite paper or specialty finishing – all of these can result in my responding to a direct mail piece. “In living color” comes to mind. That’s what good direct mail is. I love it when something smart convinces me to open a piece of mail.
It often inspires me. Is it because I’m in the business? Maybe. But I save a lot of special pieces that are exceptional, in ways both good and bad. For example, I keep samples of mail with QR codes and PURLs, mail printed on unique substrates, mail that screams “great copy!” or “I can’t believe they sent this out with typos.”
There’s comfort in touching it. It seems more “real”….does this make sense? Having a physical interaction with direct mail (or anything), makes it just seem more real to me.
It’s unexpected. What I get delivered in the mail each day is a total surprise to me. Color me juvenile for this, but it’s fun to be surprised.

Direct mail can be produced using lots of dimensions and sizes. Tons of printing techniques. Special inks (like scented). Fabulous and fun folds. Then there’s the paper, which gives you endless options.

There are more ways a business can be creative and outstanding with direct mail than it can in an email.

That’s why I love direct mail.

Call Me Names

I’m a sucker for personalized anything. There’s the coffee mug with a huge M that Jacob gave me for Christmas last year. A personalized jigsaw puzzle of my address in Madison, NJ, where I grew up (Your Hometown Map Puzzle, available through LL Bean, too). And this sweet product tag from a fundraiser I attended recently, which just happened to be calling my name. I couldn’t throw the tag out – but the dog chew toy to which it was attached has already been shredded by Charlie.

The point is simple: I love seeing my name on products. It’s totally magnetic. I just wish more marketers got personalization right on print materials.

Make sure the name is correct, and you’re not using someone’s last name when you should be using their first. “Dana, are you planning for your dream retirement?” is a piece that would get tossed posthaste.

Highly personalized full-color direct mail typically generates a 6.5% response rate (Melissa Data), as compared to non-personalized direct mail, which usually gets a 2% response rate. That’s a radical difference.

Every year, right around my birthday, I get special, personalized print offers from a few retailers with whom I do business – Anthropologie, Coach, Staples, and Ann Taylor come to mind. Email offers arrive around the same time from personal service companies I use, like my hairdresser and massage therapist. These are all very effective. Often, an offer is integrated among several channels, like print + email + telephone.

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The offer has to be compelling enough, that’s a fact. It has to be a great deal for me. Adding my name and even referring to previous purchases makes it all the more relevant. Throw in a clever design with fantastic copy, and I’m hooked. Have the images reflect where I live or shop – or relate them somehow, in some way, to me – and you’ve hit a home run.

Margie Latte

Want my attention? Include the word “Margie” or “Margaret,” for starters. Just make sure the entire message is compelling, relevant, and meaningful to me. If it’s printed or an email, make sure there are no typos or bad grammar.

I even had a personalized latte, once – printed on an inkjet printer.

Do you have any good (or bad examples) of personalized direct mail you’d care to share? I’d love to see them and hear why they worked – or failed.

Why Mail? Why Not?

At a recent NEDMA event (that’s New England Direct Marketing Association, of which I’m an enthusiastic member), we learned about direct mail trends and technologies. I attend educational sessions on direct mail whenever I can. (If you’re in print, design, production, paper, and/or print buying, I suggest you do, too.

My favorite presenter was Jane Larson. Jane works for the USPS as a Senior Sales Executive, Mailing, based in Providence, RI. Before I give you the highlights of what she said, I must give her props for being an animated, quick-thinking and thoroughly entertaining speaker. I do a ton of public speaking and have hired dozens of speakers for my past conferences, so I know what I’m talking about.

Here’s why she excelled as a speaker: for a long time, the AV in the room didn’t work, so she had no slides to show. Did that trip her up? Hell, no! As a skilled public speaker, Jane gave most of her presentation from memory, using no notes, and not skipping a beat. (Side bar: As a Jersey girl, I loved hearing her pronounce “coffee” as only the folks from NY/NJ do, as in, “cawfee.” She got embarrassed, had a good laugh, and from then on, replaced the word with “caffeinated beverage.” LOL!)

Back to her session on “It’s Not Your Grandma’s Postal Service.” I won’t recount all that I learned from Jane, but the bits you will find most interesting are these:

Why use mail – and not e-messaging, including mobile texts and emails? Mail is relevant and valued. It delivers results and it connects. Plus, it matters.

The following stats come from the Mail Moment Survey of 2012, which analyzed how people react to getting their daily mail:

– 80% of consumers look at their mail daily as a valuable news source

– 75% of consumers like to see what’s in the mail

– 63% of mail is kept for at least two days

– 65% of consumers have made a purchase as a direct result of direct mail

She also referenced a December 2012 article by Heinz Marketing, out of Redmond, WA, which said, “B2B marketers are making direct mail a more prominent part of their marketing mix again.” This was, in fact, the first trend that Heinz listed in their piece called, “The 10 most important B2B marketing trends from 2012.”

Finally, here are the six direct mail trends that Jane outlined for us:

1. Dimensional mailers. We’re talking 3D mailers, folks. Unique, eye-catching mailers that don’t “just sit there.” We saw great samples from Jane as well as from another speaker from Structural Graphics in CT. These pieces engage the recipients.

2. Self mailers.

3. Postcard marketing.

4. Increased segmentation.

5. Personalized mail.

6. Integrated technology. Think QR codes, AR codes, and NFC (Near Field Communication). I would also add PURLs to this group, because they entice you to go to the web and click on a specific URL.

At the end of the day, the message I took away was this: B2B as well as B2C marketers shouldn’t kick direct mail to the curb. It plays well with mobile marketing, and oftentimes, it stands out as the most effective marketing channel.

When Print Makes Sense

Just heard this on the radio: beginning in December, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles will be reinstating the mailed license renewal notices. How interesting – and smart.

My license expires at the end of this month, my birthday month. Had I not happened to notice this one day over the summer, I guarantee I’d have failed to renew it. Licenses are valid for several years here in the state.

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Somewhere in time the ROMV decided to can the mailing reminder program.

On their site it still reads: “The responsibility of renewing a Massachusetts license/ID card before the expiration date lies solely with the holder of the Massachusetts license/ID card.” (I expect an update soon.)

It must have been disastrous for them if they’re reinstating the mailed courtesy notices. I heard on the same news report that the mailing program (it’s a postcard) costs the state $1 million annually, but this go-round it won’t cost them anything, thanks to an advertiser. No mention of who the advertiser is. I won’t find out for 5 more years.

Here’s hoping the postcard program is still in place then, although who knows? They could replace it with text messages to our smartphones.

Say It with PURLs & QRs!

Standard mailer pic Recently I got a slick mailer from Standard Finishing Systems, a MA company in the graphic arts manufacturing industry. They’re exhibiting at the print industry’s largest annual trade show, Print 2013. It takes place next month in Chicago (I’ll be there delivering two sessions, BTW).

What interested me about this mailer? Its use of a PURL and a QR code. Most of the time, in my humble opinion, PURLs (Personalized URLs) are lame. They bring you to a page on a web site that gives you nothing more than a bit of info about the firm and why you “must” do business with them. In these instances, a PURL is a waste of money – nothing clever, nothing inspiring, nothing worth seeing.

Ho. Hum.

But I loved what Standard did with this PURL. It brought me to a page that showed pre-generated contact information for me (which I corrected, since they still showed my company as Print Buyers International). The copy asked a few key questions, such as whether I plan on attending the Chicago show and, if so, do I want to stop by their booth for a demo.

This page also linked me to several videos that demonstrated different pieces of their equipment. The videos are high quality and quite zippy, plus they use great music. It’s a terrific use of videos to showcase a manufacturer’s strengths.

While editing the contact form I landed on, I supplied my new email address. Within two minutes I received a thank you email from Standard, for my interest in their upcoming show.

As a writer I pay extreme attention to email content. This one was letter perfect: not a typo or bit of dicey grammar anywhere. Short and to the point, very professional. Two thumbs up from this marcom expert!

Postcard pic 2 for blog

On the inside of this mailer I noticed a small QR code, encouraging me to scan it with my smart phone to see video previews of their featured products. So I did. The results were equally impressive – great information, interesting video content, and totally viewable on my iPhone. Much of the time I am not impressed by QR codes I scan. This one was well done.

Using PURLs and/or QR codes to engage your audience in a direct mail campaign is smart marketing if you do it correctly. It worked on this piece because the “payoff” in both cases was brainy. They didn’t lead us to lame landing pages. They offered good quality content, including videos that were professionally done.

So for this mailer, it wasn’t the creative or the offer that pulled me in. It was the one-two marketing punch made possible by a PURL and a QR code.

With the PURL and QR code, Standard effectively engaged me, and the campaign was expertly implemented. The combination of offline (direct mail piece) and online (PURL’s customized landing page plus the QR code’s landing page) was very powerful.

I fully expect to hear from Standard again. A company that executes a solid integrated marketing campaign to connect with its audience before a major event will surely keep in touch. Will it be an email message or another direct mail piece? Perhaps a phone call. I’m putting my money on an email. What do you think?

Let me ask you this: are you one to click on a PURL? How about a QR code?

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