If you want to create great marketing content for your brochure, direct mail or any other marketing piece, simply follow the masses.

The term, “monkey see, monkey do” has a lot of validity especially when it comes to marketing.  People in general follow the masses because it lessens their fear of standing alone and taking a risk that apparently other people aren’t willing to do.

Take for example copycat crimes.   Research has shown that the larger the news story, the greater the chances that imitative incidences will arises.  Another study in New York showed that when one person stopped in the street and looked up, approximately four percent of the people walking by also stopped to look up.  When five people stopped to look upward, 18 percent of those passing by stopped to take peek; and when the crowd increased to 15 people taking plight upward, 40 percent did so as well.  And if you have teenagers, you’ll understand this phenomenon well as they take to doing what their peers are doing rather than follow their own distinctive path alone.

Your Marketing Content Should Leverage Testimonials

Knowing and understanding how and why people follow the masses will help you move one step ahead so you can create content that works.  Leveraging testimonials reinforces that others took a risk on buying your products or services, easing potential customers’ fears of making the wrong purchasing decision.  Testimonials are powerful and provide information in which others can identify.

Your Marketing Content Should Create Some Buzz

Companies advertise the size of their customer base all the time.  Case in point, McDonalds proudly displays in numerical value how many billions they have served.  Like a gas station sign, they add to that count for every new billion served and if 100 billion people have chomped down on a McDonald’s hamburger at some point, it can’t be all that bad, right?  Remember, people like to follow the masses.

Your Marketing Content Should Tell a Story

Effective non-profits looking to raise funds do this well – they create marketing content that tells a story.  Stories are emotional and appeal to people because they provide a human side and are relatable.  Maybe your company doesn’t have a huge social cause behind it like working to cure malaria, but there’s probably story or two about how your products or services solved people’s problems and made their lives better.

Several years ago, Xona Resort Suites of Scottsdale came to us looking to spruce up their Guest Check-in Packet. The resort had just completed a multi-million dollar facelift, including the redesign of their logo.

Xona’s initial thought when they came to us was to have the Guest Check-in Packet placed within a three-ring binder (turned and sewn leather/leatherette), a similar look that many hotels and resorts leave for their guests in their rooms. Though this approach is oftentimes bland to the guest, it can also be a costly endeavor.

Jason Kaller at Greenway Print Solutions had another idea for the resort that would not only include a packet that was appealing to the resort’s guests but would compliment and reinforce their brand. Instead of the boring three-ring binder, Jason suggested they create a mini two-pocket folder using Silk Laminated cover stocks, four-color process printing and Spot UV coating. Plastic hotel key cards, property maps and guest identification tags for luggage were all created to go with this package.

Each piece was strategically designed and crafted to compliment the new corporate brand as well as to improve appeal and functionality of the piece.  With this new look and innovative display, Jason was actually able to save them money over their original idea using the binder.  And the quality of pieces were much higher because we used better paper, more color and upgraded the finishes.  Xona was able to implement brand cohesion and because the pieces were of a higher quality, they were extremely durable and could be reused over and over again.

Have an idea for a branded corporate piece?  Let Greenway Print Solutions help you develop the right pieces and the best price possible.

Before the vast use of the internet to reach potential customers, direct mail was king of the marketing world.  It’s true  a lot of business marketing and advertising strategists are adding more online campaigns to their mix these days, making traditional offline campaigns seem outdated and ineffective.  But with the wide use of the internet and it’s low to no cost to enter, is offline marketing and direct mail really dead?

Just the other day as I sat outside, I noticed the majority of my neighbors coming home only to stop by the communal mailbox to grab their snail mail.  If what lands in that mailbox is so unimportant, so unexciting to receive and so ineffective as sales pieces, why do we still stop at our mailbox each day to see what’s in there?

Has Direct Mail Been Replaced?

There has been an ongoing debate about whether or not direct mail is dead. The jury is still out despite the “hyper” hype about the internet, email marketing and how much less it costs to send virtual mail.  After all, it isn’t so much about the overall cost of a campaign as it is the effectiveness of the piece in relation to the cost.  You could send 100 emails to customers with little or not sales or you could send a direct mail piece that yields a high return.  Is your goal to get traffic and make sales or is it to flood cyberspace with free campaigns that bring in zero dollars.

Email Versus Direct Mail

Email is supposed to be the preferred way of getting your advertising message out to masses of people on your list.  It is supposed to be cheaper to execute, doesn’t irritate the recipient by the ugly “junk” mail that lands in their real mailbox and is more efficient because you can measure ROI metrics within minutes of doing an email blast.

The assumption, however, is that since you sent an email campaign, it must mean that everyone on your list opens it and reads the clever words you’ve used to entice them to buy.  Yet, emails can go unopened and they can go unread – possibly much easier than direct mail.  At least with direct mail, the recipient has to take the piece inside his house to throw it away.  At least he’s read it.

Direct Mail Still Gets High Marks

One key factor as to why direct mail works better than email is the list.  While you can rent a prospect list in the online world, there’s a 20 percent undeliverability rate from these online lists for the internet marketing crowd. Reason is there are more spam filters, corporate firewalls are set even tighter to keep out even legitimate emails and there’s a higher frequency of the recipient to mass delete emails for fear of email overload.  Direct mail, on the other hand gets almost a 95 percent deliverability rate because good list managers scrub their lists on a regular basis.

Finally, with email, you only get about two seconds or less to get the attention of the receiver or it gets deleted. Direct mail gives you a good five seconds or more to catch the attention of the receiver.  That’s huge!

Your marketing strategies should include a mix of online and offline campaigns in order to reach maximum effectiveness.  The fact is direct mail still works and it works well.