Commercial Printing & Mailing Services
What is the #1 problem with most mailings?
Very simply - a poorly constructed customer database.
I’ve been working with mailings for over 45 years. This has been the one constant throughout the whole time. In fact, even with the very easy access to computers, this one thing hasn’t improved and has often gotten worse.
One of the most valuable assets you have to make a mailing successful is your customer database. It’s even more important than how nice the printed piece looks.
The customer database is usually the most valuable, and most neglected, asset of a business.
And there really is no excuse. The ability to create an effective customer database has never been easier to do.
Folks often use programs to maintain their customer database that were never intended to be used for that purpose.
Excel is commonly used. And in experienced hands, it can do the job.
From what I have observed, it is not the best tool. But it’s one many folks already have. That’s often why it’s used. Trying to save $$$.
But there is no other program that can trash a mailing list faster and not even give you a warning it has just destroyed all your hard work. And I’ve seen it happen more than you’d expect.
If you leave the Zipcode field defined as numeric, then all the leading zeros of the northeastern states will be stripped off. The format has to be changed to a text field. That’s just one item.
I’ve seen shipping databases from FedEx and UPS used.
These were never designed to be used for mailing. These programs are designed for use by their respective companies. They do very little to meet the specific requirements of the US Postal Service.
There are other miscellaneous programs.
While some may work just fine, they all need a person experienced not only in the program’s use, but the requirements of a properly constructed customer database.
Keeping the address in good order is the absolute minimum requirement. You'd be surprised how often I've seen this requirement not done.
But this doesn’t make it an effective marketing database.
For that, the database must have some demographics that allow you to better target your offering.
Otherwise, you’re blasting everyone on your mailing list with the same offer, when possibly only a handful of customers would be interested. That’s when demographics can be a real money saver.
An example of how to do it right is a recurring project we did for many years.
This client did take the time, effort and spent the $$$ to know something about their customers. The data collected was put in the customer database.
This client had different kinds of sales throughout the year. And they knew which customers liked which kind of sale.
The response rate was as high as 50%.
All because they took the time and spent the $$$ to maintain a very effective customer database.
The printing was a fairly simple design, very inexpensive to print, often just black ink on a color card stock.
What made the difference is the mailing was extremely well targeted.
This customer was unique. And their mailings made lots of money.
I’ve very seldom worked with businesses that have created an effective customer database. It’s usually relegated to almost an after-thought … a necessary evil.
And their mailing reflect the neglect.
Why do I emphasize getting your customer database in top shape?
Because if your mail piece doesn’t get to the right customer, how can it do any good?
And if it’s not well targeted, good chance many of your mailing $$$ will return very little.
I can show you how to produce effective mailings, utilizing an effective customer database.
It’s not something done over-night or instantly. It’s an ever improving effort that produces better and better results.
It’s something you work on carefully - polish, refine, make small improvements, and TEST.
Each mailing is a test of your latest efforts to create an effective and profitable solicitation. You see what works and what didn’t. Then you improve the next mailing, using the knowledge you’ve gained from previous mailings.
By combining all these efforts and doing continuous refinements, you will arrive at a mailing effort that can produce well above the average in regards to response.
After all, response should equal $$$. The better the response, the more the $$$.
Isn’t that what you want?
Contact me if you are interested in improving your mailing’s response. I can show you how.