Tag Archive for: print marketing

How an Online Management System Can Make Marketing Easier 

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Marketing is the lifeblood for many businesses. The problem, however, is that managing marketing and advertising campaigns takes serious effort and time. Fortunately, technology has made producing marketing and advertising materials much easier with digital management systems. Our team at Pel Hughes offers Storefront—a management system that can increase efficiency and reduce your costs when it comes to handling your marketing campaigns.  

Following are four ways that Storefront can help your business.  

#1 A Convenient Hub for All Your Print Materials 

You can liken Storefront to a digital library. This system can store all your campaigns and other materials like tags and logos in one central location. Let’s say you need to update a franchise restaurant menu or edit existing materials like personalized business cards; you can do so with just a few clicks. Then, you can send these materials to the printer with ease.  

Beyond saving you time and money, Storefront can also set permissions for your account’s users. This is especially beneficial to enterprises with multiple locations or franchises. You can also enable customization for your users. This can be advantageous if you offer different services or prices from different locations. 

#2 Monitor Your Marketing Inventory & Order On-Demand 

Storefront allows for easy reporting. This is helpful for evaluating your marketing budgets or determining which materials are ordered most frequently. Automated reporting helps decision makers understand which materials are most effective and most used. It can also help ensure that your business stays within budget. 

Ordering on-demand also reduces wait times when collaborating with printing companies, marketing agencies, and freelancers. Having your materials in one convenient, secure location accelerates the deployment of your marketing and advertising campaigns.  

#3 Protect Your Brand’s Identity 

Sometimes, businesses with multiple locations and franchises can see inconsistent branding when local managers are left to their own devices. Maintaining a cohesive brand image is crucial to any enterprise’s marketing and advertising efforts. 

 Inconsistent brand messaging can produce a series of hiccups and unintended complications. With Storefront, company leaders can ensure that only approved materials are utilized. Since each user’s permissions are set by their superiors, you can eliminate the threat of inconsistent, unapproved campaigns. Decision makers can also add approval settings to each user’s profile, which adds additional protection in maintaining a cohesive brand identity.  

#4 Easy Payment Methods 

Storefront makes paying for and billing your marketing materials much easier. The interface accepts payments from PayPal and major credit/debit cards. It also allows for invoicing and purchase orders for businesses with multiple locations and franchises.  

Storefront takes a lot of the hassle out of maintaining and ordering advertising and marketing materials. With Storefront, you can protect the brand you worked so hard to develop while increasing your efficiency and reducing your marketing costs.  

If you’re interested in utilizing an online management system, we encourage you to give our helpful team at Pel Hughes a call. Pel Hughes is a woman-owned enterprise that serves businesses of all sizes in both private and non-profit sectors. We offer in-house printing and fulfillment as well as graphic design services. Visit our website or call us at (504) 486-8646 to learn more.  

10 Tips for Businesses New to Print Advertising

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Even in today’s highly digitized world, print is still a necessity. Well-executed print can increase your sales, develop interest in your brand, and reach target customers. If you’re new to print, however, the myriad of services available to you can feel overwhelming. Our team of printing pros can help. Here’s 10 tips to mull over when considering print marketing and advertising. 

10 Tips for Print Advertising and Marketing

 

#1 Learn About Your Audience

Do you know who your ideal customer is? Have you given much thought to what types of materials your target demographic responds to? Understanding your audience, their preferences, and their consumer habits can help you make wise decisions about how to utilize print advertising. 

#2 Determine What Sets Your Business Apart from the Competition

More than likely, there’s a handful (or more) of businesses offering similar services or products. Before you allocate your marketing and advertising budget toward print, you need to determine what makes your business unique to your competition. Knowing what sets you apart from similar businesses can help identify key points that should be addressed in your marketing and advertising. Perhaps you have lower prices or processes that make your customer experiences superior. Whatever makes your businesses stand out should be a focal point in your print materials. 

#3 Stick to Consistent Branding

Say the logos and colors used on your website differ from direct mail pieces and store signage. These inconsistencies can make it difficult for your business to develop brand recognition. When it comes to print materials, the imagery, font, and color selection should match your digital and in-store branding. Cohesiveness fosters brand recognition and ultimately, brand loyalty among consumers. 

#4 Know that Practicality Matters

As with other areas of life, being practical has its benefits. Whatever funds you allocate to print advertising should be well spent. It’s important to think in terms of “what yields the best results for the least amount of money?” 

#5 Understand Basic Elements of Great Print Execution

You don’t need to become an expert in print advertising but it is important to understand some basic elements of what makes printed materials eye-catching and effective. Important factors to great print execution include clean and crisp design, quality stock, and well-placed images. Working with a graphic designer and a printing professional can do wonders for your business.

#6 Know the Importance of Quality

Sometimes, quality is more important than quantity in the printing world. Low quality printed materials like direct mail and door hangers may end up in the trash with little consideration from potential customers. Eye-catching design, purchase incentives, and quality paper, however, can lead to increased sales. 

#7 Listen to the Experts

It’s impossible to be an expert at everything. When you’re developing print materials, listening to the experts will likely work in your favor. Printing professionals and graphic designers are masters of their craft. They know what works and what doesn’t. Besides, tapping into their expertise reduces your workload. 

#8 Use a Response System 

Print advertising can help grow your business but it’s important to develop a response system to find out what specific campaigns are producing the best results. A simple line of “How did you hear about us?” on your website, a contact form, or when new customers call or visit your business can help you determine what specific initiatives are resonating with your customers. 

#9 Utilize a Call to Action

All print advertising should have a strong call to action. Consumers need to know how to follow-up with you if they are interested in your products or services. Calls to action can include encouraging visits to your business, calls to inquire about your services, or for consumers to visit your website. 

#10 Welcome Creativity

The process to developing great print advertising involves welcoming creativity. Whether you’re conducting a survey to incorporate the perspectives of your employees or collaborating with a graphic designer, leaving room for creativity can help take your advertising to the next level. Welcoming creativity and collaboration can ensure that no stone is left unturned in developing materials that strike a chord with your customers. 

Pel Hughes is a woman-owned enterprise serving businesses in a number of industries. We offer in-house graphic design, printing, and fulfillment. We can also assist with developing omnichannel marketing. Give us a call at (504) 486-8646 to learn more. 

2021 Marketing Trends: Direct Mail Retargeting

 

Proprietary technology is making it easier to merge digital marketing with print. These advancements have made it possible to generate personalized direct mail within hours of a potential customer’s visit to your website, too. This type of marketing, known as direct mail retargeting, is one of the hottest trends emerging in 2021.

Businesses of all kinds are already utilizing direct mail retargeting. In fact, giants like Wells Fargo, Ashley HomeStore, GEICO, and Talbots have been implementing direct mail retargeting into their marketing initiatives. The good news is that these companies’ direct mail retargeting is fully compliant with privacy laws, too. 

If the concept of direct mail retargeting is new to you, our team at Pel Hughes has compiled some helpful information to help you determine if this type of marketing is something you should pursue. 

Direct Mail Retargeting: The Basics

You might already be utilizing retargeting through e-mail. Many businesses send personalized e-mails if a shopper abandons a purchase after placing goods in their digital shopping cart. Direct mail takes this principle a step further by sending personalized print materials to a shopper’s home. 

Personalized direct mail can be generated in a matter of hours after a potential customer places items in their cart but does not follow through on their purchase. This mail can include incentives like discounts or promotional codes to encourage a sale as well. 

The Case for Direct Mail

While many businesses are digitally-forward with their marketing, there is still a real need to engage in print from time-to-time. Print, particularly direct mail, offers high conversion rates and resonates well with customers across many demographics. 

To illustrate the effectiveness of print advertising, it’s important for business owners and decision makers to know that direct mail is the leading martech stack offering high YOY growth. The second martech stack is data, which is something that is necessary to produce an effective direct mail retargeting campaign. Direct mail when coupled with reliable data can lead to increased conversions, brand recognition, and customer loyalty. 

Direct mail alone sees higher ROI than e-mail marketing and social media advertising. It helps legitimize your business, too by giving your brand a real-life presence in a potential customer’s mailbox. 

If direct mail seems passé, consider the following statistics:

  • Over 50% of consumers feel that direct mail is a trustworthy method of advertising
  • More than 80% of direct mail is opened while about 30% of e-mail advertising is opened
  • Direct mail’s ROI hovers between 18% and 20% while social media and e-mail marketing sees an ROI between 1% and 3%

Direct mail is powerful—especially when it is properly executed. A good piece of direct mail has compelling copy, crisp design, and quality stock. If you need help harnessing the power of a direct mail, give the experts at Pel Hughes a call at (504) 486-8646. We provide in-house printing and graphic design. We also offer database management to help you keep track of your customers and new leads.