Direct mail is not dead. It is making a comback. There are two key factors helping with this change. One is smaller UV Coating Machines that assist with generating economical but high end direct mail material. The second is the post office Every Door Direct Mail programs.
One of the keys to making direct mail cost effective again are the new UV Coating Systems available for document preparation. Tec Lighting's vent free UV Coating systems makes it easy for a small print shop to do runs at an economical price for their customers. It can also be used for business cards, inserts, brochures, as well.
Let's look at what it takes to run a direct mail campaign today?Do you find your mailbox either empty or holding one or two items?. All your bills are electronic. Then, you get this direct mail piece from someone that has a really good offer on it. It usually comes in a very polished document that is easy to read. The incentive on the piece is worth using. If it had been delivered using email, it probably got trashed, spam filtered or undelivered. Why do I say this? Click through rates are relatively low today at 2%.
There are several changes happening that make direct mail more attractive.
1. Table Top UV Coating Systems
Tec Lighting has a small UV Coating machine that does not need ventilation like you had to in the past. Now, don't get me wrong. The system does generate some heat, so the room needs to be vented in some fashion. What is different is you don't need to vent a room to ward off toxic fumes, as they were in the past. They are more economical today too with a small model running at $11,000.
At that amount, your break even is far shorter if you are maximizing its use. You can make your money back in months.
How does it work?
Basically, there is a gloss or matte coating you can use to finish a document. Simply print the sheets and put them through the uv coating machine. The document is coated and processed through a heat lamp to dry. It is that simple.
The challenge is the UV Coating machine needs to be cleaned after every use because the coating material can act as a glue on the parts. If they are not cleaned properly after use, you can find yourself spending a lot of money on spare parts.
2. Postal Rates - Every Door Direct Mail
The post office is making it easier for you to send direct mail. No longer do you need to go through a middle-man to reach consumers. You can request delivery of your direct mail piece by zip codes. Every Door Direct Mail makes it easy for the mailman to deliver your marketing material to the target homes you want to reach. You can visit https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm for more details on the Every Door Direct Mail program. Or, download their PDF on the Every Door Direct Mail program.
You can measure all these activities by directing your direct mail pieces to specific landing pages or phone numbers to know what your exact cost per engagement is. Most important, it is time to give direct mail another try. If you are a print shop, a UV Coating System can help your clients take advantage of shift in mail delivery.
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Laminating a photograph was not always a great option because of how the laminate interactived with the inks on the paper. Today, these issues have been addressed with specific laminating pouches that help to actually preserve a photo through lamination.
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Print shops are finding it harder and harder to make a profit in their business. What to do? One is to get more customers in markets where there are fewer of them. The other is to improve efficiency to be more productive and offer more services. One area is the slitting, cutting and creasing operations. Today, there are several all-in-one slitter, cutter and creasers that help print shops produce a lot of product in far less the time.
