Archive for October, 2009

It’s a system!

Posted Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 in General

In today’s world of design and marketing we need to be focusing on more than just the piece in front of us. Let’s think of design and marketing as a system and not one project. We need to be asking ourselves “what’s next” while designing the current piece or mapping out our newest marketing campaign. If we keep thinking about how this drives the next piece or step we will find ourselves creating more meaningful pieces for our target audience as we progress through the campaign.

If we take a look at our iPod giveaway campaign from a couple of years ago we can see how this all comes together. We started with our customer list and designed a piece with variable data and personalized URLs (PURLs). The piece had a call to action on it that would ask the recipient to go to their PURL on the web and complete the survey in order to be registered for the iPod. While developing the survey questions we kept asking ourselves “what action does this question drive?”. Usually it was another segment of our database which is exactly what we wanted. We wanted to create groups of people that we could speak to on a more personal level during the next piece and that can only happen when you have specific messages for specific groups. Another question we asked in our survey, sticking with the music theme of the iPod, was “What is your favorite genre of music?”. This seems like a whimsical question at first but as a designer my mind quickly started having images of a rock and roll design, a country music design and so on. Now that we have a segmented list of people who answered questions in a particular way we can also associate a design that grabs their attention because they told us they like rock and roll or country and this just isn’t information you can buy through a list provider. We had to get that information on our own. That campaign and information gathering process drove sales leads for at least 6 months. It was a memorable piece that averaged a 15% response rate which is way, way above the industry norm of 1% – 1.5%.

I want to be clear that no one component drove those results. It was a combination of good planning, good design, a great giveaway and the necessary tools to track the results and leads and then good follow through by our sales department. Our ROI on this particular project was outstanding, not results I would expect every time, but it shows the possibility of a multichannel campaign. Next time you start to put together a piece ask yourself what your next step will be. If you draw a blank, you could probably get more bang for your buck.

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Thinking About the “Box”.

Posted Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 in General

I don’t know if I’m alone on this one but I hate the phrase “think outside the box”. I think I dislike it so much because the box isn’t ever the same. As designers we feel so much pressure to be creative and hit a home run on every project that we often forget to think about the things that have always worked. There is a reason there is a box in the first place and why things are considered classic! It’s because they have always worked.

When I struggle for a spark I take a look at things I’ve done in the past that have worked well. Now, obviously, I don’t recycle an old design but I may use certain elements, themes or even color palettes to jumpstart a new design. I look at it this way, every time I start completely from scratch I have the possibility of a flop. I know that sounds really pessimistic but we’ve all been there. You get this great idea, run with it, make a great piece and get absolutely nothing for results and, let’s face the facts, results are what matter. Results keep people coming back to you for work.

So, the next time you are struggling, take some time and look over those projects that were successful. I even look at the ones that weren’t. Over time I can be more objective and reevaluate a project. You will see where you missed the mark more often than not and the ones that worked will really stand out too. Take some mental notes of these projects and then start your design. You will find yourself focusing on what works and really avoiding the things that didn’t. Over time you can turn “the box” into a treasure chest.

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Optimism and opportunities.

Posted Thursday, October 8th, 2009 in General

I wanted to take a minute to discuss what seems to be on everyone’s mind these days… the economy. I would like to try to put a positive spin on a bad situation if I may. A bad economy is painful for just about everyone at some level. You may have lost your job, or, you may be required to wait longer for someone to answer the phone at tech support because they have “restructured”. The latter is not nearly as inconvenient as the prior but still frustrating. So where is the silver lining in all of this you say? Opportunity! It might be harder to find these days but I promise you it is there. Now more than ever marketing and advertising can pay big dividends.I know I have noticed the number of direct mail pieces in my mailbox dwindling over the last several months and that means less competition for my attention and ultimately my dollar. It is very easy for organizations to tighten the belt on their marketing dollars but I would argue that now is the perfect time to ramp up your marketing efforts.However, I would encourage you to be as selective as possible on who you market to and to be more creative with your messages. Take the extra time and effort to be selective with your mailing list. Try to segment the likely buyers from the unlikely. Now would be the time to send fewer pieces but more personalized. With todays technology it is easier than ever to be specific with your message. Make that potential buyer feel like you are talking to him/her alone and not their entire county. If you have specifics on past buyers now is the time to leverage them. Craft messages and designs for your female audience and then do the same for your male audience. You could segment further by age if you have that information available. I bet that if you spent a few minutes, you could quickly come up with 3 or 4 different segments for your current mail list. As a designer I find it much easier to design for a specific group of people and not all age and gender ranges. It is easier and quicker than you think.

Next time you are ready to do a mailing give personalization a thought and if you have questions you know where to find us.

Until next time….

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Introduction

Posted Thursday, October 8th, 2009 in General

Hello all.

My name is Brady Manthe and I am the Business Development Manager here at J-C Press. I am a 14 year veteran of the graphics community and have a very diverse background. I started in a small screen printing shop and have since participated in the signage / wide format industry, web printing, sheetfed printing and last but certainly not least digital printing. I am by no means the foremost expert in any of these fields but I have learned some valuable lessons through my experiences and I would like to share them with you. Hopefully I can provide some information that makes your job a little less stressful and a lot more exciting.

So, thank you for joining us here and please visit often.

Thank you.

Brady

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