Beyond Print: Email Services from Pel Hughes 

Our mission is to help our clients thrive. In addition to full-service print offerings, we provide cross media marketing support including email services. Merging print advertising with digital marketing is a powerful, modern approach to increasing brand recognition and boosting sales. Email marketing is inexpensive and involves minimal labor to execute because of automation. If you haven’t implemented digital marketing into your advertising initiatives, consider the following facts and benefits to utilizing Pel Hughes’ email services. 

Marketing Facts about Email Services

Email marketing might be a newer form of advertising but it has a earned a reputation for being a cost-conscious way to increase brand awareness and easily maintain a connection with your client base. While email marketing has some drawbacks, its benefits tend to shine when supported by conventional advertising methods like direct mail campaigns.

Following are some email marketing facts that might surprise you:

  • Email campaigns have pretty decent ROIs. Typically, every dollar spent on an email campaign yields about a $36 return on investment. 
  • Over half of the world’s population uses email. This fact is especially beneficial to businesses operating on an international level. 
  • Roughly 80% of marketing professionals agree that email campaigns have a positive effect on customer retention and sales.
  • Social media marketing is important but it doesn’t drive sales as much as email campaigns. For instance, 60% of consumers reported making a purchase after receiving emails while a little over 12% reported being influenced to purchase something based on social media posts. 
  • Email marketing can yield nearly immediate results. About 21% of email campaigns are opened within one hour of being sent to consumers. 
  • Automation helps keep email marketing costs low because it involves less labor. For example, our team can utilize automation to send “welcome” email campaigns within minutes of a potential customer opting in to email subscriptions. 
  • According to survey data, 61% of consumers enjoy receiving promotional emails from their favorite brands. 
  • Personalization makes email campaigns more effective. Automation makes personalizing email easier than many entrepreneurs might think.

How Email Campaigns Benefit Businesses

Email marketing campaigns can have a substantial impact on your business including enterprises beyond retail. Service-based businesses like cleaning companies and salons along with businesses operating in the dental, legal, and accounting industries can benefit from email marketing, too. Email marketing is a way to reach out to your client base with ease. For example, email campaigns can be sent to clients/customers on their birthdays or if it’s been a few months since their last purchase. These campaigns can also be used to promote deals on popular consumer goods or highlight new products or services. There’s no shortage of ways that email campaigns can be implemented to drive sales, make customers feel appreciated, and promote brand awareness. 

Our team at Pel Hughes can help you create a custom email marketing campaign that perfectly aligns with your brand’s message. Utilizing sophisticated technology, our marketing experts can maintain opt-in databases, personalize your messaging, and integrate your email campaigns with your social media presence. 

If you have questions about our email and database services, give our friendly team a call at (504) 486-8646. 

A Recent Campaign from Pel Hughes

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Over the Holidays, our team at Pel Hughes offered a fun promotion. We designed New Orleans-themed wrapping paper, which was a complimentary gift to our valued clients who responded to our e-mail and direct mail campaigns.

 

The customized wrapping paper featured themes that resonate with our rich New Orleans culture and history. We offered crawfish boil-themed paper in two different colors along with paper that depicted colorful outlines of our state’s unique shape and a toile-like wrapping paper with the iconic Fleur-De-Lis symbol. In light of 2021 being a tough year for businesses and our community, we thought it was apt to spread some Holiday cheer and joy while celebrating the resilient and compassionate spirit of the people of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana.

Our Direct Mail Campaign

To spread the word about this complimentary promotion, our team sent out a beautiful direct mail campaign to all our wonderful clients. The front of the campaign resembled a traditional wrapped gift (featuring one of our wrapping paper patterns) and a customized tag addressed to a specific recipient. We used variable data printing to address our direct mail to specific individuals and organizations. Below is the front side what our campaign looked like.

Then, the back of this direct mail featured the elements we frequently discuss in our blog. The copy concisely explained what we had to offer and how it can be used along with a QR code to make the process seamless for our clients (with an option to visit a PURL instead) and a step-by-step breakdown of how to select their desired pattern and color.

Our E-Mail Campaign

If you’ve kept up with our blog, you likely have seen us discuss the importance of merging print advertising with digital marketing. We take this advice to heart and often pair e-mail campaigns with direct mail to ensure that our clients know of all the services we have to offer. Information is powerful and we believe in keeping our clients up-to-speed with all the exciting happenings at Pel Hughes.

As you can see, our e-mail campaign closely matches the graphics and color scheme of our print one. Modern folks are inundated with information on a daily basis so keeping things as consistent as possible helps reduce confusion and makes decision-making for our busy clients a little easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also e-mailed follow-up campaigns for those who didn’t respond initially since this was a time-sensitive offer. Utilizing PURLs, which we’ve covered on this blog in the past, helped our clients respond with ease. It also made it a cinch for us to track responses to ensure that our mailing list was notified if they hadn’t yet responded.

All in all, our complimentary wrapping paper promotion was happily received by our clientele particularly because the wrapping paper options beautifully celebrated New Orleans culture. We enjoyed an 11% response rate, which isn’t too shabby. One thing we would change, however, is to begin this promotion a little sooner so that our clients had more time to respond.

Start A Direct Mail Campaign with Pel Hughes

If you’re looking to develop direct mail campaigns, the pros at Pel Hughes can help. We work with businesses and organizations develop stunning, effective, and personalized campaigns. Our team can also assist with database management, campaign automation, and graphic design. We pair sophisticated technology with old fashioned client service that can help your business level up in 2022. Give us a call at (504) 486-8646 to speak with our friendly staff.

 

 

 

Is an e-mail marketing list more effective than social media marketing?

Say you have a limited marketing budget and want the most bang for your buck. You might be thinking that social media campaigns and advertising will bring in conversions. While social media is a marketing powerhouse, it’s surprisingly not as effective as e-mail marketing. Data backs this up; e-mail marketing has a conversion rate that’s nearly five times higher than social media. 

Following are compelling reasons on why you should consider deploying an e-mail marketing campaign. 

#1 E-mail Marketing Can Be Personalized

Marketing through e-mail can be far more personal than social media. When you deploy an e-mail promotional campaign, you can personalize the copy with your recipient’s name. You can also send e-mails based on who has made purchases recently. For example, your e-mail campaign could offer a promotion to entice former buyers back to your business. Something along the lines of “We’ve missed you. Here’s 30% off your next order” could help generate sales from previous customers. 

#2 E-mail Marketing is Cost-Effective

Social media ad space can be expensive; there’s also little control over who sees your ads and when. When every cent counts, a user seeing your advertisement that doesn’t fit your target demographic is a waste of your money. Utilizing e-mail lists to send out promotions and discounts, however, ensures that your content is delivered to the people you want to receive it. 

#3 E-mail Marketing Offers Higher Conversions & Better ROI

Research shows that e-mail marketing produces higher rates of conversions and has better ROI than social media advertising. In fact, e-mail campaigns see an engagement rate of over 22% and an ROI of 4400%. Conversely, the ROI of social media advertising is not known and its engagement rate sits at roughly 0.58%. This data demonstrates the effectiveness of e-mail marketing when compared to social media. 

#4 E-mail Marketing Gives You Ownership of Your Audience

When you market to social media users, the social media platform stands between you and your target customer. When you market through e-mail, you have more ownership of who sees your promotions. Curating a great e-mail list takes time and effort. It’s best to maintain as much control over your promotional initiatives as possible. 

#5 E-mail Marketing Generates Visits to Your Website

The goal of any marketing campaign is to drive traffic to your website and/or your store. Embedding hyperlinks to your website in your e-mail campaigns can increase traffic. Visits to your website help familiarize consumers with your products and drive sales. 

Pel Hughes is a New Orleans-based printing company that provides in-house printing, graphic design services, and database management for e-mail and direct mail campaigns. If you’re looking to develop a stellar e-mail marketing strategy, visit our website to learn more about our services. Our experts can help you deploy effective marketing campaigns, interpret the data from them, and manage e-mail and mail lists. We also offer StoreFront, a centralized hub to order more printed materials and store brand-approved images. 

Call Pel Hughes today at (504) 486-8646 to speak with a knowledgeable member of our team. 

Making the Most of Your Email Lists

Did you know that email marketing produces more revenue than any other form of digital marketing? It’s true; e-mail marketing generates higher ROIs than social media campaigns, promotional offers, and pay-per-click advertising. Beyond cultivating great email lists, it’s vital that businesses know how to use their e-mail lists to yield the best results.

Developing Great E-mail Lists 

One of the best ways to develop a healthy email list is to correctly market the benefits of consumers subscribing to your website, blog, etc. In order to do this, you need a great call to action. You can do this with headers, footers, and pop-ups when visitors add an item to a cart or click on certain pages of your website. These sections should contain a concise, well-worded benefit to supplying an email. The call to action could be as simple as “don’t miss out on exclusive content” or “save 15% when you sign-up with your email”. Access to exclusive webinars, tutorials, and even blogs along with discounts are great motivators for getting consumers to sign-up for your list.

Another way to help develop a strong email list is to convey how popular your subscriber list is. A simple “join our community of 10,000 subscribers” could help give the gentle nudge your potential customer needs to commit.

Offer something for free. Even if you don’t run a traditional e-commerce platform, providing a free service could be of great benefit. Perhaps you’re a family attorney; you could offer a free e-book that gives tips for surviving divorce upon sign-up. Maybe you run a catering business and want to convert digital window shoppers into potential customers. A free e-book of recipes is another effective way to solicit emails from customers.

Create Different Categories for Recipients 

Once you have an established e-mail list, you might want to break it up into categories. One example would be having separate lists for existing customers and potential ones. You can tailor your marketing content to your audience. For those who have made purchases, your content could cater to introducing them to new products while the content used for potential customers could focus on product education and promotional offers for first-time buyers. Content for existing customers should also convey a sense of community so that they feel a sense of belonging to your organization.

If you run a large e-commerce platform that serves diverse demographics, you could theoretically create a number of categories tailored to the needs of specific demographics.

Make the Most of Analytical Tools 

Email campaigns offer helpful analytical tools. They provide metrics on who opened your newsletter, visited external links to your website, and more. These metrics also tell you if these emails were never opened, which can help you determine what types of content resonates with your subscribers and what doesn’t.

Use Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines 

The subject line of your e-mail list should command the attention of your subscribers. After all, people are busy and their inboxes are cluttered. The competition to motivate your readers to click on your email is stiff. This means your subject line should grab their attention with a generous offer or a promise to provide limited knowledge on a subject. Good examples of catchy subject lines include “5 Things Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know” or “save 20% when you refer a friend”, which can help keep your emails from being deleted.

Developing a great marketing strategy can be overwhelming. If you need help managing e-mail lists and other data, give our team at Pel Hughes a call at (504) 486-8646 or fill out this simple contact form. We provide printing and marketing support with excellent client service to businesses throughout the United States.

Email Marketing Challenges Solved by Direct Mail

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Those paying attention to trends in inbound and outbound marketing have caught wind of direct mail’s recent spike in popularity. Goldman Sachs recently devoted $25 million to the integration of direct mail in its email-centered automated advertising platforms.  Furthermore, the popular email marketing platform MailChimp, debuted a new service that empowers people to design and even mail their own postcards with minimal effort. These are just some of the examples of ways in which the marketing landscape is rapidly changing.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is highly effective if used in the proper fashion.  The challenge lies in establishing a legitimate email list and designing emails for distribution in mass quantity with minimal or no unit cost.  Ideally, email marketing messages will be centered on target customers’ buying habits, demographics and behaviors. As long as the message is relevant and presented in a somewhat artful manner, it will generate a response.  However, those who have an over-reliance on any one single marketing channel run the risk of tunnel vision that ultimately hampers sales.

How Direct Mail Solves Email Marketing problems: Email Fatigue

If you are on a mailing list, you know what it is like to grow tired of reading the same old messages over and over again.  The answer to this conundrum is for service/product providers to incorporate direct mail with email marketing. Direct mail steps can be included in advertising automation programs to provide a fully personalized message to target prospects and current customers.

Tackling the Problem of Unsubscribes

There is a good chance your emails will catch some recipients at a point in time at which they are excessively busy.  These irritated clients will likely unsubscribe if they continue to receive your messages amidst hectic workdays. The answer is to establish a direct mail based drip advertising push that keeps your business on the minds of target clients.  If the customer has a lengthy sales cycle, a quarterly transmission might prove acceptable. However, if the sales cycles are comparably short, consider transmitting large postcards on a monthly basis or even mixing things up with a more involved mailing.

The Battle for the Inbox

An email that is not read in the first couple hours probably won’t be read at all.  An even worse outcome is Gmail redirecting the email to the often-neglected Promotions folder.  Furthermore, it is challenging to distinguish a brand through email as the medium is inherently limited by a couple text boxes.  The best approach to overcoming these problems is to transmit direct mailers to marketing lists.

Embrace the Challenge of Building Your Email List

Do not shy away from email marketing out of a fear that you will never assemble an expansive email list.  You will build a solid email list in due time. It will help to use direct mail as the initial contact point for lead generation.  Use direct mail to ramp up brand awareness and warm those leads prior to a sales call and/or unique offer that steers leads to your landing page.  Once leads arrive at the landing page, have them enter their email address that is added directly to your email list.

The Latest Email Design Trends

Direct mail marketing has quickly become a highly effective means of maintaining a rapport with interested clients.  The design of your emails matters just as much, if not more, than the actual content. Find the right mix of design and content and it won’t be long until your direct mail marketing campaign generates real results.  Let’s take a look at the importance of using email as a direct form of outreach and the latest email design trends.

The Importance of Email Marketing

Email marketing is now considered an incredibly valuable marketing channel.  A list of legitimate email addresses is worth good money. After all, just about everyone has an email address in 2019.  More importantly, a good number of people check their email obsessively. In some cases, all it takes is clicking “send” on an email list to connect with upwards of tens of millions of people.  However, if the emails are not properly designed and informative, they will not prove effective. It is up to you to present a visually appealing combination of images and text to keep readers interested and coming back for more as time progresses.

Consider the use of Illustrations and Other Artwork

More and more email marketers are incorporating graphics and illustrations in their emails.  The careful use of images and color makes these messages that much more aesthetically appealing and indelible in the mind’s eye.  Everything from cartoons to mascots and illustrations are now being used to engage audiences and position the company as sympathetic to the human condition.  If you can’t come up with ideas for your email design, consider outsourcing the work to a graphic designer or another visual artist.

Shareability

Social sharing is all the rage these days.  The best email marketing campaigns allow for the sharing of specific sections.  Include sharing icons or lines in the midst of your emails to facilitate sharing.  This elevated user agency will keep the audience that much more engaged while helping spread the word about your expertise and services.

Mind Your Logo

Pay close attention to the manner in which your business logo is featured in your email marketing materials.  The logo design should be positioned at the top portion of the email as well as the bottom. Include your email signature toward the bottom by the logo.  Furthermore, it will help to create a unified theme by featuring the logo colors in other areas of the email for visual uniformity.

Request Feedback

A trend is emerging in which readers are directly asked to respond toward the end of emails and other marketing materials.  Requesting feedback is an efficient means of gauging the audience’s response to the marketing message.

Integrate Social Media With Care

It was not long ago when social media page buttons were lined up like ducks in a row at the bottom of emails and web pages.  Nowadays, designers are finding creative ways to implement social media icons. Consider enlarging some such buttons, display them as vibrating or presenting them in another creative manner to capture the audience’s attention.

Be Careful When Positioning the CTA Button

The CTA button should jive with the brand in terms of color and size.  Position this button toward the center of the page so it can be seen and clicked with ease.  Ideally, your CTA will be positioned above the fold, meaning in the middle portion of the top half of the page.

Keep an Open Mind as new Trends Emerge

Email marketing will continue to evolve in the months and years ahead.  As an example, interactive emails seem to be the new wave. This style of email is enjoyable, engaging and memorable.  Interactive emails feature everything from surveys to images, the option to purchase within emails, the ability to perform queries with built-in search bars and so much more.  Remain open to similar advancements and the investment you make in email marketing will pay big dividends.

Automotive Direct Mail vs. Email: Which is Best for Your Marketing Campaign?

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In the beginning, there was mail…

And the mail was good. Letter and post delivery has a centuries-long history. For much of the last 300 years, it’s been the main, and perhaps most efficient way for people to communicate with each other over long distances. Love letters, packages, bad news, catalogs, job applications, and so many other things were passed from delivery person to depot to station and back again to whomever it was addressed. For many who lived in rural and remote areas, mail was a way to reach out to the world and to get the things that weren’t readily available in the world around them.

But then came the information age.

Then, in the late 20th century, there was email. Email was first a means of electronic communication among the few, often within the same network or institution. Then came the digital age, household Internet, and free email services. Now, almost everyone has at least one email address.

Email is nearly instantaneous. It’s cheap, and for most recipients, it doesn’t cost a thing. An email to your co-worker in the next office takes just as long as to the office in London or Shanghai. 3 words or 3000, pictures, attachments, and the like can zip through space and time.

So, why would anyone still use snail mail?

Email never actually replaced snail mail.

Email can never be tangible. It can’t be glossy or satin, or brightly colored. It can’t be seen peeking out of the mailbox. It can’t be held in the hand, opened, and unfolded. It can’t contain a little gift, or a hand-signed letter. There’s nothing crisp and complete about email; unlike a letter, if there’s something to open in an email, it needs a virus scan first. No one wants to see the black-on-white text of your emails, but that letter with the cool graphics? The postal carrier, your roommate, your significant other, and whoever else can pick it up and look at it.

Email marketing hasn’t replaced direct mail, either.

In fact, direct mail marketing is seeing a quiet Renaissance. This may seem counterintuitive: after all, who reads mail anymore? Everyone who opens their mailbox reads some part of a single direct mail piece, even if it’s just the hook line the envelope before they throw it out. That is a visual-tactile sensory that will stay with the reader, an experience that email just can’t mimic.

On the other hand, does anyone actually go through their spam folder anymore? And how many times have you unsubscribed to an email list simply because you received too many emails?

Sure, email can be sent directly to someone important. If you want to reach the CEO of a company, you can email the CEO directly (if you have her email address). That doesn’t your email will be read by anyone though, or that the title of your email will make it stand it out any more than the other emails.

However, a beautiful direct mail piece may land on her desk, and even if she doesn’t open it, she sees it. She picks it up.

You may be getting less direct mail than you did 15, 20 years ago, but you’re looking at the direct mail you’re getting nowadays because it is specifically targeted to you, highly designed, and carefully planned.

Is Direct Mail always the answer to my marketing questions?

If the question is “How do I become seen by as many people as possible in the most direct way?” then the answer is yes. However, if the question is “how do I hold the attention of the customers I already have?” the answer is…

…it depends.

A good rule of thumb: quick campaign, quick method. Slow campaign, slow method.

Have a flash sale? Want to reach a core group of subscribers or members today? Use email. Are you anticipating more sales over the holiday season? Send a direct mail piece.

Or use both.

You can always send an email blast to your customer list, but if you want to reach just a few of them in certain demographics at certain times, or you want to do a favor for the most loyal customers, consider all the options that direct mail provides. Printing too has caught up with the times, and the possibilities are nearly endless. Now, you can create vivid, eye-catching direct mail packages for small campaigns without having to worry about the ROI on a niche campaign requiring no more technical know-how than desktop publishing.

You always have the option to email your customers, but don’t overlook direct mail and the power of curiosity that makes someone open an envelope.

Targeted, Personalized, and Web-To-Print Expected to Grow Fastest

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In order to grow your business, targeting marketing practices is extremely important. The more personal the advertisement, the greater the chance of the information landing home with the potential customer. In order to do this, utilizing different forms of marketing is key. One of the fastest growing methods for performing this action, especially at the local level is through a Web to print (also known as Web 2 Print) format. This method of marketing uses both traditional, print based marketing and Internet based options in order to best reach a perspective client.

The fact of the matter is some people respond better to local advertisements they receive in the mail while others are more likely to interact with an ad they see on their social media account. Due to this, it is very important for any business to obtain and source their information and use variable data they receive in order to convert their Internet visitors and possible clients into print recipients of marketing material, which can help drive sales up through the roof.

With the help of Web to print marketing, a company can obtain all of the specific information they need o a key demographic, ranging from the products they are more likely to purchase to the kinds of services they like. From there, they can alter their print marketing campaign and send out the mailers, posters or other marketing material directly to the customers. This way, the company uses the benefits of the Internet while producing the close, personal material of a traditionally produced marketing campaign. With the utilization of both of these formats, it is possible to take advantage of all of the different benefits and services available and to also grow the company faster than ever thought possible.

Email Marketing and Small Businesses

Time has changed for everyone in the world, especially for anyone in business. Whether the business is small, large or a corporation, technology has changed the way businesses market their company. Technology is everywhere in businesses and private homes and the Internet is becoming the fastest way to keep in contact with customers. Email marketing is what helps to keep the business profitable.

Email marketing is an affordable way to contact customers for any number of reasons such as, product information and problem solving, perks, rewards, coupons and promotions. Businesses find email marketing cost-effective and when small business email marketing done in the correct fashion can build their brand and form a group of loyal clients.

Most companies send out newsletters and there is no better way to do this than through inexpensive emails. Emails help businesses to tailor their products and their customer services through emails.

If a small business decides to correspond with their customer base through emails, they must decide if they need an HTML. There are pros and cons to this question and the small business owner must research these pros and cons and decide if an HTML is going to fit their needs. Next, the small business needs to ask themselves if they are going to offer a newsletter as many other businesses do for their customers.

Newsletters offer information about specific products, services, sales and special tips. Add a bit of humor to your new email newsletter and people will sit up and pay attention. There is an old saying that says it just right, “Why I am too broke to even pay attention.”

Surveys find that more and more businesses are establishing themselves on solid ground through a business website. When small businesses start email marketing like the big companies it puts them in the race and gives the small business owner the same advantages when it comes to competing businesses.

The small business owner must get in and run the race for profits through their use of Internet marketing and email marketing to stay profitable and compete with other small businesses offering the same products and services.

Five Steps To A Solid E-Mail marketing List

In order to extend sales opportunities and generate new customers an email marketing list is a very influential tool for reaching potential customers, with targeted messages or promotions. Here are five steps, that are sure to build a solid email marketing list according to Entrepreneur.com

Sign Up With Email Marketing Service Provider

In order to get the opt-in form, you must pay (around $20 a month) a service provider to collect email addresses, send messages to providers and manage the volume for you. Once you have your account set up, customers can sign up.

Create email opt- in link on your home page

Integrating an email opt-in link on the first landing page of the website will quickly get attention, ask the least amount information as possible-its gets more sign-ups. Offering a gift or bonus to customers for signing up is a great way to increase your list, and keep them coming back.

Ask For Opt-In At Check Out

Most payment processing companies work hand in hand with email marketing, adding an opt-in form at check out promising future discounts and sales information to customers that already buy your products is beneficial for return sales.

Pop-Up Forms

The continued presence of pop up ads proves although irritating, proves they are an effective marketing tool. However opt-in pop-up forms have to be tracked for an increased subscription rate, if it is effective you will see it in the metrics.

Opt-In Forms On Blog Sites

Proving a popular way of reaching people that are already VIP customers, communicate on your blog and have a genuine interest in what your company is all about. Engaging customers in useful conversation. Using blog plug-in software, a low cost investment (about $100) for a more personal connection with customers.

Email marketing strategies change, keeping current on trends and most importantly “what your customers want” will ensure a solid email marketing list to grow and business to expand. In order to continue the success, tracking and inventive ideas and promotions are sure steps to a solid email marketing list.