Thursday, November 30, 2017

Don’t Lose Customers Due to Inaction!

Do you know the primary reason companies lose customers? They stop communicating with them. It is that simple. When companies stop communicating, their customers lose interest. They move on to the competition and brands that pay attention to them. This is why it is not enough to just have a customer acquisition strategy. You must have a customer retention strategy, too. 

In this effort, one of your most powerful tools is personalized print. Think personalized newsletters. Personalized postcards. Personalized holiday giveaways and gifts. These are your customers. They should not be treated the same way as people you have never done business with. You need to reinforce the existing relationship and speak to customers on a personal basis.

When one chain of hair salons wanted to reduce guest churn, for example, it set up a customer retention program that included personalized direct mail. It personalized its mailers based on customer name, images, offer, salon location, and reward program status. Franchise owners started sending postcards every six weeks to stay current and top of mind with their hair salon clientele. 

The results?

    The chain has a high customer retention rate.
    Its rewards program customers have a one-third higher top “spend” than other customers.
    Franchisees have a much stronger upsell rate for their female customers.

Print personalization is all about strengthening relationships. It helps you stay relevant. It helps you stay top of mind. How often do you need to send out personalized campaigns? At a minimum, more often than your competition does!

Need ideas? Let us look at your list and talk about ways you can be engaging your customers on a consistent basis.  


Thursday, November 16, 2017

Three Tips for Getting More from Your Paper

It’s no secret. Marketers are benefitting from today’s healthy economy. But competition for consumers’ shopping dollars is still fierce, and marketing dollars are under more scrutiny than ever before. One of the places you can stretch your print dollars is with smart selections in paper. Here are three easy ways to manage your paper costs without impacting the quality of your print campaigns.   

1. Spend less, get more.
Paper prices fluctuate often, so if you haven't standardized on a specific paper, ask about less expensive options. Just because you notice a subtle difference between stocks doesn’t mean your customers will. (In fact, they probably won’t.) If you are mailing multi-page documents, consider switching to a lighter stock that can help you save on postage, too.

2. Try our in-house brand.
If your piece doesn't demand a specialty paper, opt to use our house stock. House paper isn’t less expensive because it’s lower quality. It’s less expensive because we purchase it in volume and pass the savings on to you.

3. Avoid the use of bleeds.
If color needs to go to the edge of the page, depending on the specs of the job, the job may need to be printed on a larger sheet of paper or on a larger press. This can increase your costs. If you don't include bleeds, your project might require less paper or be able to be run on a smaller format press. You might also be able to get a similar effect at lower cost by using colored paper.

We are experts at helping our customers maximizing their marketing budgets, including their use of paper. Need some ideas? Give us a call!