Low-Cost, High-Return Print Marketing

Lessons from the Best

Better Measures for a Successful 1:1 Strategy

ISSUE TWO • MAY 2011

MARKETINGBRIEF Macon

The Advantage of Foresight:Communicate your needs in advance to reduce costs and maximize ROI

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You can achieve great results with a smaller investment when your print marketing campaign is smart and well-crafted.

Take time to communicate with

Alphagraphics about the obvious

issues, like your budget and deadlines;

but also explain the details so we can

discuss any challenges we foresee.

Plan ahead. Mistakes happen more

frequently when everything is done at

the last moment. If we understand

the scope of your campaign from

the outset, we can help you make

decisions that will produce the

product you need in the most cost

effective way possible.

Trust us to use our expertise to

solve any last minute issues. We are

committed to delivering well-crafted

marketing pieces on time and within

your budget.

Bring us in earlyEven if you will be designing your project in-house, consult with

an Alphagraphics representative before you begin. If you're using

an agency or designer, remember that not all graphic designers

are well-versed in print. Including the printer in the planning

phase of a project is a good way to make sure that timelines and

budgets are achievable. We're always happy to offer suggestions

about the best ways to produce a printed marketing piece and also about new ways

to combine print with other marketing channels.

Alphagraphics offers design services for most projects and we can

recommend good freelance designers if you need more intensive

creative services.

Digital or Offset?Before the advent of digital color presses, long static print runs

were commonplace. Because of the volume requirements to produce full color

marketing pieces on an offset press, it was typical to print brochures in the thousands

and to hope that they would all be used before they were obsolete. One cost saving

technique is simply to cut the size of the print run.

Products and programs change rapidly today, and it's less common for most small

and medium-sized business to print quantities in the tens of thousands. Small offset

presses can efficiently print runs of 2,000 or more. Even better, today's digital presses

can print offset quality color in very small quantities, and they provide the capability

to print different versions for different audiences and even to personalize a printed

marketing piece for the individual.

What about color?Spot color and black and white printing is still very cost effective

and can make a great impression when it is creatively designed. It

might not be necessary to use full color on every marketing piece

you produce. In mail campaigns, especially, it is sometimes wise

to include a full color impact piece along with simpler and less

costly informational materials.

Try to minimize changesChanges become more expensive the further along you are in

the print job and too many changes or proofs increase the chances of error. If you

are preparing art or content, we strongly suggest that everyone

who needs to approve your files should do so before you submit

them for printing. Proofing is best done by one person, not by a

committee. If you're preparing digital files, pay attention to the

details, especially the resolution of art and photography.

Call Alphagraphics if you have specific technical questions or if

we can answer a question about how best to create and submit your project.

Examples of how you can lower your print budget:

them for printing. Proofing is

committee. If you're prepari

details, especially the resolut

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Lessons from the Best

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Want to see the future of print? Take a look

at Media magazine’s Creative Media Awards

issue. If that doesn’t get your creative juices

simmering, nothing will. Here are the “Top

Three Lessons” we selected from the Creative

Media Awards that you can use to punch up

your next marketing campaign.

Marketing Lesson #1 Multiple touches

boost intent to buy. With its Business on Main

campaign, Sprint created a branded destination online

where small business owners can network, get

advice from business experts, and promote their

companies—oh yes, and be exposed to Sprint’s

marketing message too. In fact, Sprint found

that if it could get people to come to the

Business on Main site at least three times, visitors’

“intent to buy” a Sprint product rose 60%.

Marketing Lesson #2 Use deep content

as a way to reach, educate, and hold customers.

How many uses of baking soda can you think of? Arm & Hammer

wants its customers to think of a million.

A&H joined Media’s Creative Media Award winners by doing

something an increasing number of marketers are doing these

days—using content as a branding tool. A&H placed vertical

educational ads next to related editorial content.

The copy was brief and offered little-known

tricks like using a pinch of A&H to keep

cupcakes from cracking. As a result, total

pounds of A&H baking soda increased

by 4.9% within a 52-week period.

The campaign also boosted

A&H’s share of the coveted

35–44-year-old demographic.

Huggies was another Creative Media

Awards winner recognized for its

use of content-driven branding.

The marketer launched its

own magazine, Countdown,

to educate consumers on

everything from pregnancy to

labor pain and baby development

while also gently promoting the Huggies brand. Media praised the

marketer for creating content that is “informative and practical

rather than relentlessly pitchy.” The results? Eighty-three percent

of the 1.5 million moms who received the magazine said they

would “definitely or probably” purchase Huggies diapers.

Content-driven marketing and branding works.

Marketing Lesson #3 Tap customer

frustration. We tend to think of targeting as being associated

with short-run digital printing and 1:1 personalization, but you

can target by selecting a specific demographic and marketing to

the needs, frustrations, and perceptions of that demographic too.

This year, Starcom TD Canada won accolades for this

approach in its Trust First Class Visa Infinite Card “Breaking

Down the Barriers” campaign, which tapped into

consumers’ frustration at not always being able to

use their travel rewards. The campaign used a

newspaper advertisement showing a man and a

woman looking out at a beautiful landscape

but seemingly separated from the scene by

glass. They stood with their hands up as if

pressing against the glass and longing to

pass through.

The image was powerful. In the week

following the campaign, sales spiked 29% and were 13% above

targets. Overall, sales were 15% over the company’s objectives

and beat the prior year’s numbers.

What should you take from this? Follow the lessons of these

award-winning campaigns: Create solid content. Tap (and then

provide solutions for) customer frustration. Touch your target

audience multiple times with a well-crafted message. Then watch

your marketing results soar!

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1:1 Success Through

Measurement

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When we think about success with 1:1

marketing efforts, we often think about data. How much data do we have? How clean is it? How is it used? Rarely do we ask one of the most important questions: How do we measure results?

If you don’t measure results, you

don’t know to what extent those

results are due to the campaign or

to something else. You don’t know

which elements of the campaign

work and which don’t. If you don’t

know what is most effective, you

don’t know how to improve the

campaign down the road. In other

words, you could just be wasting

your money.

This is the kind of critical

intelligence that will help you

refine your programs into

maximum effectiveness.

WHAT SHOULD YOU MEASURE?

Start with your costs. This means campaign development, graphic

design, list acquisition, data manipulation, production, mailing—measure it all.

This is the only way to analyze your true ROI. Otherwise, you’re just guessing.

On a 1,000-piece campaign selling high-end housewares, for example,

you might get an 18% response rate and an average per-order sale of

$125, but by the time you add in the costs to develop the program,

build and clean up your list and print and mail, you might barely

break even. On the other hand, if you are a Lexus dealer, perhaps

all you need to do is sell one vehicle and you’ve knocked it out

of the park.

Incentives. Not only is measurement necessary to gauge ROI, but it will also

give you important intelligence about future campaigns. This intelligence will

help you design programs and adjust incentives, not based on your gut feeling,

but on real data.

Say you give respondents a chance to win a sweepstakes for

$500 if they log into a Web site and fill out a survey. You know

that this campaign generates a 5% response rate, with 28%

of those responses converting to sales of $200 each. Now start

asking questions. What happens if you increase the incentive

to $2,500? Does the response rate go up? If so, does the dollar

per sale increase, as well? Does it generate a 2:1 return? A 3:1 return?

Or does it not affect the response rate or value per sale much at all? If

you test and measure these things, you know how much an additional $2,000

investment is worth to you.

Audience. Don’t stop at one or even two tests. Continue to analyze over

time. Break each campaign into multiple test groups, if necessary. For example,

if you continue to increase the incentive, does the response rate continue to go

up? Or does it flatten out? Does the effectiveness of the incentive change based

on the audience you are targeting? Does a sweepstakes to win a free mountain

bike motivate one audience, while a

Nintendo Wii motivates another?

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About This IssueAbout UsAlphaGraphics Macon is

a locally owned business

specializing in print, graphic

design, and marketing services

for small businesses and

organizations.

We provide a broad range

of products including

conventional business printing,

banners and displays, and

digital and offset color

printing. Our services include

graphic design, direct mail

and mailshop services, self-

publishing services, website

design, and implementation

of cross channel marketing

projects.

AlphaGraphics Macon566 Poplar Street

Macon, GA 31201www.agmacon.com

MARKETINGBRIEF

STANDARDPRESORT

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PAIDALPHAGRAPHICS

MACON, GA

AG Marketing Brief is a quarterly publication that features articles

about current marketing trends and practices. The focus is on smart

ways to combine print with new media applications to create a dia-

logue with clients, customers and prospects.

This issue was printed on 100 lb. Unisource Gloss text using

AlphaGraphics' new MGI DP60 digital press. This quarter's online ver-

sion is published on issuu.com and can be read online at www.agma-

con.com or on issuu.com at http://issuu.com/agmacon/docs/agmarketing-

brief.