5 High-Margin Ideas for Education, Nonprofit and Business Marketers
Organizations that operate with limited budgets, time and resources have unique challenges to overcome in marketing. At Perfect Image, we understand. We specialize in serving the print and marketing needs of educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and businesses. You need the most effective ways to connect in an increasingly complex marketplace, and a clear path to nurture and convert your target audiences.
More than ever, it is a marketing and budgetary necessity to let modern tools and proven techniques do the heavy lifting for you. By combining the latest powers of print and digital marketing, and applying proven methods to drive results, you will save money and resources, with more time to spend on nurturing promising leads.
5 statistically proven ways to increase your marketing results
Above all else, every marketer should heed the 40/40/20 rule. In the early stages of planning your campaign or outreach, it is paramount to concentrate planning on the following priorities:
- 40% of your success will be determined by the quality of your audience list selection.
- 40% of your success will be derived based on your offer or incentive.
- 20% of your success will be attributed to your creative execution.
Many marketers make the mistake of placing too much emphasis on creative execution, and fail to deliver the right message to the right people. It’s a fact that planning imagery, packaging and other visual elements is the most exciting part of creating a campaign – but prioritizing look-and-feel over list quality and messaging defeats a campaign coming out of the box.
1. Conduct 1-to-1 marketing – personalization is the way forward
According to one of the world’s largest manufacturers of imaging and optical products, adding a recipient’s name on a full-color direct mail piece can increase response rates by 135%, and combining those elements with more detailed personalized information can increase response rates by up to 500% compared to not applying any of these methods. Personalization is easily applied to both email and direct mail. In print, it is economically achieved with digital printing.
Affordable one-to-one communication is so critical to our clients that we recently installed a new digital press offering the latest technology for customized, personalized materials. In addition to producing outstanding quality, our press manages some of the largest format sizes available, along with unique treatment options – from dimensional and gold metallic inks to matte fusing technology on a variety of substrates. Bottom line: We provide the most versatile and economical digital print options for customizing your messages in ways that resonate with your most important audiences.
2. The more channels you employ, the higher your ROI
In today’s environment, multichannel marketing is a must for marketers to cast a net across many channels, so they can reach constituents where they are most likely to be found. According to statistics from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), brands on average can increase ROI 19% by expanding from one channel to two, with each additional channel adding to ROI, and with up to five channels improving ROI by 35% over just one. But the ARF also found 29% of campaigns relied on just one medium, and 60% relied on two or fewer. Smart marketers are outpacing their competitors through robust, multichannel engagement.
3. Prepare direct mail for delivery discounts and expand your audience
Savings on direct mail delivery opens your budget to print more, reach more targets, and consequently drive higher marketing results. The most critical component of a successful direct mail campaign is to start with a clean, high-value mailing list. This ensures print expenditures are not wasted on outdated or low-quality targets.
Second, your chosen distribution service is important, affecting your costs, delivery timing and whether your message is read at all. Whether using first class or standard service, we can help you identify the best saving options, evaluate the benefit of segmenting methods based on your audiences, and leverage effective tracking mechanisms for syncing other communications components, such as emails that are timed based on the arrival of your direct mail.
Perfect Image can assist you in multiple ways. We can help you refine your mailing lists, maintain your database, set up a bulk mail permit for you, and employ the latest in distribution and tracking services. We can also affordably integrate your direct mail with digital marketing, resulting in overall campaign effectiveness and cost savings. The United States Post Office offers direct mail promotions and incentives as well, to help marketers cut costs.
4. Consider a bigger envelope!
According to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), at 37%, oversized envelopes have the greatest household return on investment over other mediums (followed by postcards and letter-sized envelopes at 29%). Non-traditional sizes and shapes will help your direct mail stand out over other mail. The quality of the printed piece, its content and call-to-action are also key.
5. Get on the resurgent QR Code wave
If you haven’t yet, take the plunge! QR Codes have been around a while. They peaked, plateaued, and are now returning like a tsunami, making it easy for people to find you, especially through mobile devices. People want fast, instant information. You can deliver with Quick Response (QR) codes and make your marketing efforts fast and instant, too.
Juniper Research forecasts that by 2022, more than 1 billion mobile devices will access coupons through QR codes – and it’s not just coupons. Marketers in every industry are now using these simple yet loaded digital graphics to drive engagement and results through billboards, direct mail, videos, post cards, flyers, websites and magazines.
QR Codes are an easy and affordable means to transport people to your website or social pages in a flash, and depending on your purpose, people can also use them to dial your phone number, view your location and much more. Here’s a good primer on QR Code Generators.
No single tactic or tool is a silver bullet
To really thrive, we recommend a combination of the above and many other solutions to help schools, nonprofits and businesses create powerful and affordable marketing ecosystems. You can get high-margin results out of your budget and spend less doing it. Explore our specialized solutions and services for more ideas on affordable and effective marketing.
