At this point in time, most marketers accept that direct mail generates response. A recent Data & Marketing Association Response Rate Report indicates that the response rate for direct mail is 3.7%. The response rate for all digital channels combined is less than 0.75%. Marketers believe in direct mail so much, spending on it is growing again. In 2016, brands spent $46 billion on direct mail, according to the Winterberry Group.

If you’re using direct mail as one of your primary marketing channels (as you should be), there are a few ways to make sure you get a response rate that meets or exceeds the average. Not surprisingly, they all have to do with technology.

IP Targeting

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), IP targeting is digital messaging that is delivered to a user’s geographic location as determined by his or her Internet Protocol (IP) address. This technology lets marketers serve digital ads directly to specific IP addresses that are mapped from the physical addresses on their mail list. When combined with direct mail, IP targeting technology lets marketers direct one-to-one messages to prospects both in print and online.

IP targeting is better than traditional geo-targeting technology because it directs advertising to specific households and businesses. If you have a defined audience with a specific interest in your product or service, IP targeting is a cost-effective option because there is less waste than traditional digital approaches. Combining IP targeting with direct mail is an ideal technique for universities, financial institutions, banks, realtors and professional service firms.

Enhanced Finishing

Print is a visual, tactile medium. The more senses you can engage with it the better the reader will remember your message. The physicality of print is something digital marketing cannot match.

Innovative technologies are helping marketers make better physical connections by adding special effects to mail pieces. They are digital technologies, so they can provide the effects at a much lower cost than in the past, when most special effects required the use of a die. Nowadays, digital foils, special laminates and white inks can be applied to printed pieces to increase the likelihood that they will stand out against competing messages.

Track Your Mail

One of the challenges with direct mail is knowing if (and when) it has been delivered. Well, you no longer need to guess about it. The USPS has provided advanced technology that lets you track individual pieces through the mail, so you can know exactly when they are going to be delivered. You can get information on both the projected delivery date and the actual delivery date.

By knowing when mail gets delivered, you can adjust drop dates as needed to ensure your pieces arrive at the right time, which is key for follow up and planning. You can also use your insight into delivery times to consider using standard vs. first class postage, which can potentially save you money. Additionally, knowing projected delivery dates lets you anticipate customer response. With advanced notice, you can prepare for it and make sure your team is ready and available to handle it.

Personalization

The saying in direct mail used to be “spray and pray.” Brands sent out a large volume of mailers and hoped some hit the mark. This approach wasted a lot of marketers’ money. Today, with data-driven technologies, marketers can take a more targeted approach and personalize their messages to each recipient. According to Marketo, 79% of consumers are likely to take advantage of a brand’s offer when it is personalized to reflect their previous engagements with the brand. An InfoTrends study from 2016 showed that more than 75% of marketers consider delivering more personalized print communications to be “important” or “very important.”

Instead of relying on volume like the old days, you can target just the prospects who are most likely to make a purchase. And, you can appeal to them as individuals. Direct mail is a particularly good channel for personalization because it offers a variety of formats and the ability to connect with the recipient physically. You should be using your customer data to personalize the content and images in your direct mail, so you ensure a positive response.

Not long ago, brands turned away from direct mail marketing. It was expensive and there was stiff competition for reader attention in mailboxes that were overflowing with “junk mail.” On top of that, emerging digital channels offered a less-expensive way to reach large numbers of customers easily.

Now, the tables have turned. Marketers aren’t blindly accepting the effectiveness of digital channels anymore. Digital is full of competing messages and swarming with fraudulent bot activity. So, where can brands get attention today? In the mailbox.

According to 2017 Media Usage Survey results, although down from its peak years ago, direct mail marketing is growing. Thirty-one percent of marketers surveyed reported increasing their use of direct mail last year. Another 33 percent kept it at 2016 rates. In 2016, brands spent $46 billion on direct mail marketing, according to the Winterberry Group.

Companies are returning to direct mail marketing because it works. A recent Data & Marketing Association Response Rate Report shows the response rate for direct mail is 3.7%. The response rate for all digital channels combined is less than 0.75%.

Direct mail marketing is effective because it combines the targeting potential of a channel such as email with the emotional power of advertising. Recent studies have demonstrated that consumers are reading direct mail more and more. Almost 80% of consumers will act on direct mail immediately. Only 45% do it with email. The fact is, high-quality print pieces get brand attention. Nowadays, print gives you a competitive edge.

The marketing holy grail of omnichannel campaigns, where all channels work in concert to target the same version of a customer, must include direct mail. Direct mail is fantastic for reaching customers early in the buyer’s journey, when you can make attention-getting, personalized connections.

According to Andrew Paparozzi, chief economist with Idealliance, the future of marketing lies in personalized, integrated communications where direct mail complements digital experiences. Studies by the U.S. Postal service have demonstrated that when direct mail is used as part of an integrated campaign, it boosts brands’ ROI by 20 percent and helps improve the lift of online campaigns by 62 percent. That seems like good reason to make sure direct mail marketing is part of your mix going forward.

A dimensional mailer is by far the most effective form of direct mail. Some industry data indicates dimensional mailers have a nearly 100% open rate. According to the DMA’s annual Response Rate Report of just a few years ago, dimensional mail had the best B2B response rate of any direct mail at 8.51%. This effectiveness, however, comes at a price.

Dimensional mailers are pieces that have a third dimension beyond length and width. This third dimension creates a mailer that costs more to produce and requires special (more expensive) postal handling. Even so, if you have the budget, a dimensional mailer will earn you a higher return on your direct marketing campaign than any other type of direct mail.

Dimensional mailers include boxes, tubes, containers, bags and other carriers that have length, width and height. The US Postal Service has helpful information on the sizing of dimensional mail.

Frequently, dimensional mail contains a giveaway item, such as a product sample, promotional premium or widget. The goal is to create an opening experience that is so exciting it results in more effective brand recall. The recipient must spend time with the piece to open it; physically interacting with the piece establishes a better emotional connection between the recipient and the mailer’s brand, assuming the experience is a positive one.

What form a dimensional mailer takes is limited only by the creativity of the designer. At Perfect, we’ve produced custom boxes, fulfilled containers and produced premium packages. We’ve even seen dimensional mailers that have “pop-up” or “pop-out” elements. Just like other marketing pieces, though, success with a dimensional mailer requires a strong message that connects with the recipient and an effective call to action.

Since costs associated with producing and mailing dimensional mail are more than regular direct mail, targeting high-value recipients is the most effective use of it. For this reason, a dimensional mailer tends to be better for B2B marketing than B2C. The ideal application is targeting a small, vetted list of recipients with a product or service that has a high price point. This way, a few successful conversions can more than make up for the expense.

A couple ways you can limit the expense of a dimensional mailer is to use folds to create dimension or ship the piece flat, requiring the recipient to assemble the piece as part of the opening experience.

For some designers, using stock imagery sourced from online marketplaces like Adobe Stock is like taking cough medicine—you know you need to use it, but it doesn’t mean you have to like it.

Since the early 2000s, when stock photography became widely accessible through the launch of online image marketplaces, professional designers have debated whether they should use it.

On one side are designers who say stock photography offers nothing but cheesy, inauthentic images that can never properly represent their product or company. They prefer custom photos featuring real employees, real customers and real products. They’ll even take their own photos around the office to get them.

On the other side are designers who think that wisely selecting stock imagery from an online marketplace is an easy and affordable way to meet most of their image needs. With the availability of vector graphics, stock marketplaces also provide a fast way to get illustrations and icons. This can be incredibly helpful in design environments with limited budgets and tight timelines. Stock marketplaces also offer stock video and audio, and they’ve improved their libraries with “signature” collections that have photos with higher production value and better content.

Considering the online stock image market is a $3 billion business, our guess is many designers come down on the “easy and affordable” side of the debate. Whether they do it with a smile or a frown, we’re not sure. It is just an unfortunate fact that many designers work in organizations that can’t afford custom photo shoots.

So, if you need to find stock imagery, which marketplace should you use?

Shutterstock, Getty Images, iStock and Adobe Stock are some of the most recognized names in the stock image market. They all have advantages and drawbacks. Adobe Stock, however, the most recent paid platform to launch, is an option worth seriously considering.

Adobe Stock offers the right balance of convenience and cost when compared with other options. Its tight integration with the Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) platform sets it apart from other marketplaces. Stock’s benefits include:

• Ease of use (ability to work from within one application)
• Competitive cost
• Ability to buy single images
• A simple pricing model

The value of Stock’s integration with Adobe creative tools that designers use constantly outweighs its smaller image library and its lack of audio. According to a study commissioned by Adobe, Stock’s integrated workflow reduces the time involved in licensing an image from 3 minutes to 16 seconds. Since 85% of creatives who buy stock imagery use Adobe software to manipulate and place it, if you haven’t tried Stock yet, you should.

Users can search Stock from within Adobe CC software like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign and save images to their CC Library. One of Stock’s neatest features is a preview mode that lets users add effects and tweaks to a low-res version of an image. The preview version is replaced with a high-res version and all effects are reapplied automatically when the image is purchased.

In June 2016, Adobe launched an upgrade to the Stock platform as part of its CC update, deepening its integration with CC tools. Stock now has a workflow that lets you select and place an image in your work with one click. The update also introduced the industry’s only one-click purchase capability.

In addition, Adobe added a Premium collection to Stock, a set of 100,000 hand-selected images sourced from some of the world’s leading photographers. They provide exceptional content, style and production quality.

If the rationale for relying on stock imagery is its ease of use and affordability, then the same rationale can apply when selecting a marketplace. Other platforms have been around longer and may offer wider selections, but Adobe Stock is the easiest to use and one of the most affordable options out there.

If you’re a marketing or design professional today, in addition to all of your other responsibilities, you are most likely tasked with buying print services. Years ago, a dedicated production manager or print buyer would find qualified vendors, get bids, submit files and deal with the printer. Unfortunately, that position has almost completely disappeared from the industry. These days, you’re responsible. Considering that you’re already trying to stay up-to-date on things like customer experience, personalization and big data, is it realistic to think you can also acquire a deep understanding of a complex subject like print?

Take paper, for example. Many creative professionals today can’t dedicate the time needed to get familiar with terms like opacity, formation, brightness or permanence. Given their other competing priorities, the benefit of having this knowledge isn’t worth the investment.

For example, do you need to know about opacity to be able to buy print for your most common projects? Probably not. A good print service partner will fill in any knowledge gaps you have to make sure your project uses the appropriate paper, based on the design and specifications.

But, if buying print, should you have a basic understanding of the general types of paper available? Probably. Being familiar with the types will help you know what to ask for when sending a project to print. It will also help ensure that you know what to anticipate in terms of quality and performance. This means a better chance of your final product matching your expectations.

Below is a quick summary of the general types of paper available for business and marketing communications.

Commercial Printing Papers

Coated

During manufacturing, a coating is added to the surface of this paper to limit the amount of ink that gets absorbed during printing. With coated paper, ink stays on top, increasing the sharpness of complex graphics.

Coated paper comes in several finishes:

• Gloss – a shiny surface good for crisp images in full-color printing
• Dull/Silk – a non-gloss surface good for large sections of solid ink and improved readability
• Matte – a low-glare surface, good for readability

Coated paper is ideal for glossy photos, publications, product brochures and catalogs. It is not ideal for materials that need to be written on.

Offset & Opaque (Uncoated)

Offset uncoated paper is sold in large volumes and used in a lot of printing applications. It is more economical than Opaque and it is a good option for when budget is more of a concern than print quality.

Opaque uncoated paper has more opacity than offset, which provides increased brightness. Ink absorbs more evenly on opaque, providing smooth solids and good reproduction. Opaque has less show-through on two-sided printing, which is good when designs have solid blocks of color, bold type and heavy coverage.

Offset and Opaque papers are ideal for long print runs, direct mail, and general business documents.

Text & Cover (Uncoated)

Text & Cover is the phrase used to describe premium uncoated paper. It is more expensive than other uncoated options. Text & Cover provides superior printing reproduction, a variety of colors and a wide array of textures. It can handle finishing options like coatings, foil stamping and embossing. Textures include selections like cockle (rough and wavy), eggshell, felt, laid, smooth and more.

Text & Cover is ideal for high-impact communications like reports, corporate brochures, identity pieces, business cards and luxury packaging.

Specialty

The last category of paper includes more than just paper. The broad “specialty” category includes unique paper options as well as options that are not paper at all. Any material that can be printed on that is not already included in the categories above is considered specialty. Specialty papers include things like metallic, translucent, synthetic (non-tree), thermal, and food packaging.