Web Printing Explained - The Web to Print Process

Web printing companies are not new. They've been around for at least a decade. But the concept of web printing has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years, largely because of exciting new technologies and a rise in the number of web-to-print companies.

But how does web printing work, and how can you use it to simplify your company's print program? These are the questions we will address in this blog post. I've worked for a couple of printing companies that had web-to-print technology, so I'm happy to tell you everything I know about the subject.

Web Printing Defined

Here's a short and sweet definition of what we are talking about here. A web printing company is a printer who has some kind of online file-transfer program. This is the most basic definition. In order for a printer to refer to itself as a web printing company, it has to offer some type of file upload process via the Internet -- plain and simple.

From here, things get more advanced. Once you get past this basic definition of a web printing service, the companies begin to distinguish themselves in many ways. For example, some offer online proofing while others do not. Some have online design tools that allow you to customize a product template online, while others lack this technology.

But regardless of what kind of bells and whistles they might have, a web printing company must offer some kind of online file transfer / upload. This is the one thing they all have in common.

Here's a list of features and benefits you can expect from some of the leading web-to-print companies (those that offer the most advanced tools):

• Variable-data technology that allows you to change certain creative elements from one printed piece to the next.
• Online proofing that expedites the approval process.
• Printing templates for various products, such as postcards and business cards.
• Online design and customization tools, often used in conjunction with the above-mentioned templates.
• Online file storage where you can save your finished designs for future orders.
• An online account or admin center that shows the status of current print jobs, a list of previous jobs completed, etc.

You can use the above list when researching web printing companies. It's a great way to compare their services, and to choose a printer who offers exactly what you need.

Direct Mail Marketing Ideas With a Website Connection

Where do you get ideas for a direct mail marketing campaign? How do you go from a blank slate to a well-crafted marketing message for your postcards or letters? In this article, I'll offer a variety of direct mail marketing ideas you might consider, and I'll also explain the "secret" to creating the best idea of all.

In fact, let's start with the best-case scenario. The most effective marketing campaign is one that springs from a great product or service. In this sense, the product is the marketing. So before you start worrying about how you're going to promote a certain product or service, you need to focus on the development of the item of itself.

There are obvious business reasons for this -- everybody wants to create a solid product. But there are marketing reasons for this as well. If you have a truly unique / useful / effective product, then your marketing campaign will be simple to conduct. This is the secret to coming up with marketing ideas. It all starts with having a product worth talking about.

So let's assume you've accomplished this important first step. You've created a product or service worth promoting, and you're trying to use direct mail to generate sales or inquiries about the product. Where do you start? Here are some direct mail marketing ideas you might want to consider.

Direct Mail to Website - Some Useful Marketing Ideas

Use your postcards or letters to drive people to a specific page of your website where they can learn all about the item you're promoting. This page might include product photos, customer testimonials, information about the various features and benefits, and perhaps even a free trial of some kind. Direct mail and websites go hand in hand, in terms of marketing. A website is a natural extension of a direct mail message -- it's a great way to expand on the information contained within your postcard or letter.

Ask yourself the following when using this direct mail marketing idea to drive web traffic:

What is the biggest benefit of my product or service? What's the one thing that really raises an eyebrow when people hear about it? You should include this on your direct mail piece, in order to generate the initial interest. In fact, the primary benefit can be used within the headline of your postcard or letter.

What are the second and third most important aspects of your product or service? These could also be included within your direct mail piece. But beyond this, it's best to defer other information to the product web page we talked about previously. With postcards, in particular, it's important to limit your initial message to one or two key points. Of course, only tracking and testing will reveal the truth. But in most cases, covering too many points in a postcard is a bad idea for direct mail campaigns.

Once you've created a compelling message for your postcard or letter, it's time to focus on your landing page. In most cases, it's best to send people to a specific page of your site, often referred to as a landing page or a pitch page. This page should be a natural extension of the direct mail piece, and it should pick up where that message left off.

Learn More
If you need more direct mail marketing ideas for your campaign, check out the strategy section of our website. If you're using postcards in particular, you might want to peruse our list of 55 tips for postcard success.

Postcard Marketing Success - 9 Steps to Success

We've covered a lot of material on this website over the years, and much of it has revolved around postcard marketing success and how to achieve it. So in this article, I thought I would round up some helpful articles from years past in the form of a new article. So without further ado, here are nine steps to achieving postcard marketing success (with links to further reading).

Step 1 — Identify Your Audience

When creating your postcard message, start by identifying your audience. This might seem obvious, but it’s a critical step upon which the rest of the process will rest. To identify your core audience, you simply have to ask yourself a series of questions.

What kind of person would really want my product or service? Where might I find these people? What's important to them? What do they fear or hope to overcome? What do they want to know? How can I solve their problems? What do I have to offer that might motivate them?

When you've answered these questions, you should be able to write a paragraph from the combined answers. This paragraph is your audience statement, and it will help you set your postcard marketing objectives accordingly. Once you've defined your audience, you can more easily determine the kinds of offers that might motivate them.

Step 2 — Determine Your Objective

For postcard marketing success, the best objective (i.e., most achievable) is lead generation or direct response. Why? Because postcards can actually achieve these things. A postcard cannot convince people that you're the best in your industry. But it can certainly generate a response. And once you generate a response, you'll have an opportunity to show them you're the best.

So if you really want to achieve postcard marketing success, you need to start by determining your direct mail objective.

Step 3 — Identify Your Idea

What's the big idea that will make your postcard different from similar postcards from your competitors? How will you make people say "Wow"? Have you brainstormed? A great postcard is born from the imagination. This gives it a solid skeleton. Then it gets "flesh" from the things we'll talk about next—the value, the offer, the message, etc. But it all starts with the idea.

Step 4 — Pile On the Value

So you've given them a good reason to contact you. But why stop there? Add "layers" of value to your original offer. If you're promoting a seminar, add on a take-home information kit, or some other item of value to the audience. If you're promoting your consulting services, offer a free e-book to respondents, just for calling to talk to you. There's also something to offer. So pile on the value.

Step 5 — Create Your Offer

You've heard me say this several times throughout this book—the value and relevance of your offer will determine the size of your response. That's a basic principle of postcard marketing that people overlook.

If you think of your postcard as a messenger and not a product, this will start to make a lot of sense. A messenger without an important message is worthless. But if the messenger has valuable news or information, everybody wants to hear what he has to say. A strong offer is a key ingredient for direct mail success with postcard marketing.

Step 6 — Shape Your Message

Notice how far down this list the writing and design are? That's intentional. Too many marketers plunge into the message and design before they even have an idea or an offer. What you write about is more important than how you write about it. An interesting offer will leap off the page even when described in plain English.

Remember how groundbreaking the iPod was when it first came out? They didn't have to work too hard to create a message for the iPod, because the iPod was the message. They simply said it's this small, it holds this much music, and it costs this amount. People went crazy.

When you have something interesting to say, the message writes itself. Refer back to my postcard samples to see this in action. Anybody could've written those headlines and messages -- but not everybody could offer a great seminar, a one-of-a-kind information report, or a massive informational website. It's what's behind the message that's important.

So once you've come up with your idea and your offer, the message should be fairly easy to write. All you have to do is describe the offer in clear, straightforward language. All you have to do is connect the dots. This is the essence of direct mail copywriting success.

Step 7 — Design Your Postcard

If you're not familiar with graphic design, it would be a wise investment to hire a designer. Your postcard's design will reflect directly on your organization, so you'll want it to look professional. Your marketing success depends upon it.

Most postcard printers have designers on staff. Their services usually range from $55 - $75 / hour. A competent designer can produce a postcard design in three hours or so. If you have a friend who's handy with Photoshop, Quark or Illustrator, you can probably design a decent card for free.

The important thing to remember is that the design should support the message. Sure, it can be eye-catching, but only as a means of focusing those eyes on the message and the offer before them.

Step 8 — Conduct Your Mailing

If you've decided to use a postcard vendor like I've recommended, this step is going to be fairly easy. Just upload your postcard design and your mailing list, and let the vendor do the rest. They will print it and mail it for you. Be sure to put your own name and address on the list (and maybe a couple of friends or family in the area). That way, you'll know when your postcards go out because you'll get one. This is called "seeding" the list.

Step 9 — Follow-up Activities

So what happens after you send your postcards? Well, hopefully you have some way to track the responses, even if it's as simple as asking people "How did you hear about me?" Tracking allows you to compare one postcard message to another to see which one performs better. Refer back to the "Tracking" section of the book for more on this.

What's Your Long Term Plan?

Before sending your first postcard, it's a good idea to have a long-range plan. You don't need anything elaborate, just a basic plan for how many mailings you want to do. A lot of the time, circumstances will tell you what course to take. For example, if your postcard is a big success and you get a lot of response, your next step should be to send that postcard again!

If your mailing performs poorly, it may be time to adjust your approach and try something new (perhaps by increasing the value and uniqueness of your offer).

Most importantly, keep learning. I'm willing to bet you learn something new each time you speak with a customer. Yes? Well postcard marketing is the same -- you'll learn something new each time you send a postcard. Sometimes the lessons are pleasant, sometimes they're painful. But you'll always learn something. This kind of perpetual education will help you climb the pyramid of postcard marketing success ... and that's the whole point of the process!

Direct Marketing Companies - The 2009 List

Economic hardships have changed the direct marketing industry. Many companies who used to thrive in this sector simply could not survive the economic downturn, being forced to shut down instead. So we thought it was about time to make an updated list of direct marketing companies in the U.S. that are still open for business.

The following list includes companies that provide general direct marketing services. The actual services offered will vary from one company to another. We have provided website addresses for each company so you can do your own research. We've also included a short summary of the primary services they offer. This list is presented in alphabetical order. We are not endorsing any of the direct marketing companies on this list, but are merely presenting them for your consideration.

Alan Rosenpan
Mr. Rosenspan specializes in the writing and strategy side of direct marketing. His company offers consulting services as well as creative work. He has a pretty impressive client list that you can view on his website.
www.alanrosenspan.com

Harte-Hanks
This company has been around since 1923, and they provide a wide range of direct marketing services. Basically, if you're looking for a way to reach your target audience, these folks can find a way to help you. Among other things, they are the creators of the Penny Saver mailers you're probably familiar with. Visit the website below to learn more about this direct marketing company and what they offer.
www.harte-hanks.com

Johnson Direct
This company labels itself as a multi-channel marketing firm. They offer a full range of direct mail services, from copywriting to printing and mailing. They have a pretty extensive portfolio available on their website, so you can see the kind of work they've done for past clients. They are located in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
www.johnsondirect.com

Red Clay Media
This company seems to specialize in the direct mail side of things, with a variety of services to support it (creative, mailings lists, etc.). They are located in Bayonne, New Jersey. Their website is very informative and easy to navigate, so if you want to learn more about this direct marketing company you should visit the address below.
www.redclaymedia.com

Vertis Communications
These folks offer a wide variety of direct mail marketing and printing services. They can also assist you with your print advertising needs. Their website is a bit jargon-heavy, but it offers a basic overview of the services they provide. They are based in Baltimore, MD.
www.vertisinc.com

Help us expand this list...

This list is a work in progress. We plan to add new direct marketing companies to it over time. If you would like to add your company to this list (and you provide a variety of direct marketing services), feel free to send us an email.

Which Postcard Sizes to Use for Marketing

Reader Question: Which postcard sizes are best to use for direct mail marketing campaigns? Are there any studies that show one being better than the other, like a standard size versus a jumbo postcard?

The message and offer you create for your postcard campaign is far more important than the size. When most marketers conduct A/B testing to see what gets the best results, they usually test variations of the headline on the piece, the overall message, the offer and the call-to-action. In most cases, the postcard size is a lesser consideration to these other important factors.

For the purposes of this discussion, commonly used postcard sizes can be defined as:

• Jumbo postcards are usually in the neighborhood of 6" high by 9" wide, give or take a half-inch on either side.
• Standard size postcards are typically 4" x 6" plus or minus a half-inch on the width.

With that being said, "jumbo" postcards will generally outperform standard sizes (with all other things being equal). There are two primary reasons for this. A larger postcard stands out from all of the standard-sized mail in the recipient's mailbox. Also, the larger format allows you to include more information, pictures, features, offers, etc. Both of these things can increase response rates on a direct mail postcard campaign.

Of course, you need to test your direct mail pieces to see what works. If you don't have a good testing program in place, you won't know what's working and what's not.

My advice is to start by defining the specific goals of your direct mail campaign. In other words, what do you want your postcards to accomplish. This will help you shape your marketing message, and you'll then know what size postcard you need to contain your message.

And keep in mind it all starts with the product or service. If your product isn't noteworthy in some way, then all of the postcards in the world won't help you. On the other hand, if your product is truly remarkable, your direct mail campaign will be much more successful.

I hope that answers your question.

Good luck and good marketing!

-Brandon