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Archive for the ‘Direct Mail’ Category

Choosing the Right Medium for Your B2C Audience — Part I

September 22nd, 2011 by

In today’s economy, business owners and marketers need to get the most from their marketing dollars. In an era of shrinking budgets, marketers are putting more dollars into online marketing. Online marketing is less expensive than traditional marketing, and it can be targeted to specific groups. It’s also easy to measure; there are many tools available to report on almost every aspect of your online marketing efforts (unlike traditional marketing where you place an ad in the paper and hope for the best). Does that mean you should put your entire budget into online tactics? No, it means you should do some research, get the right mix of traditional and online mediums, and integrate your message across them all.

In Part One of this article, I’ll cover how to choose and integrate the right mediums. In Part Two, I’ll present a specific case study of a consumer brand that markets across many channels.

Do some research when developing your campaigns

It’s easy to say that traditional marketing methods are dead and focus solely on online (especially social media), yet according to research, many “maligned” marketing channels, including newspapers and TV, are still quite viable — with marketers increasing spend for 2011.

Even though newspaper readership is declining, it’s still relatively high for the age 50+ crowd, according to the Pew Research Center, with 38 percent of 50-to-65-year-olds reading the news and 47 percent of those over age 65 doing so.

Television advertising had a strong year in 2010, with spending jumping 10.3 percent over 2009. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

Spot TV ad spending got a 24.2 percent boost in 2010, making it the biggest percentage gainer, while network TV rose 5.3 percent, and cable TV recorded a 9.8 percent gain, according to Kantar Media.

And, although direct mail saw a decrease in spend in 2009, “Bruce Biegel, managing director of the Winterberry Group, told the Direct Marketing Club of New York on January 13, 2011, that . . . direct mail spending will grow 5.8% to $47.8 billion this year, driven by acquisition mail increases.” (Source: Direct Marketing News)

According to Biegel, “Direct mail still really works well for acquisition [marketing] because it’s easier to target [than other channels] . . . and because digital as an acquisition tool is still finding its way, direct mail will be an important tool for direct marketers.”

Integrate your selected mediums

Once you’ve identified which mediums you’ll use in your campaign, you’ll want to develop a strategy to make sure your customers can move seamlessly from medium to medium. To make this happen, you need to have consistent “creative” and cross-medium information:

Creative — A coupon delivered via email needs to look good on both a smartphone and a desktop computer Internet browser. This same coupon — along with its message — may need to be modified if delivered through Facebook and modified yet again if you distribute hardcopy versions in-store.

Cross-medium information — Every medium you use should contain information about where to find you in other mediums. If you have an in-store coupon display, for example, you’ll want to include your Facebook URL (and not just the icon!) in the creative — and maybe even give an immediate incentive for “Liking” your page. When you “Like” Naked Pizza’s page, for example, you’re sent a discount coupon that can be used at any of its stores.

Finally, before adopting any medium, be sure to get permission from your customers to contact them via that medium. Do they want email and text messages from you? A younger audience may appreciate the immediacy of your SMS messages; older demographics may get annoyed, especially if they have limited texting plans. Don’t assume — ask!

Even though your marketing resources are limited, you can maximize the impact of every dollar by spending a little time researching which mediums are best for you and then integrating them.

Do you have some great (or not-so-great) examples of integrated marketing campaigns — your own or others? Post them below.

 

Category:  Digital Marketing, Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing, Marketing Insights  |  Tags: , ,   |  No Comments

Practical Tips for Incorporating Social Media into Direct Mail

May 17th, 2011 by

In my last post, Direct Mail Should Be Like Social Media — Yes or No?, I raised the question of whether marketers should be adding some of social media’s innovative aspects to direct mail in order to increase response rates and better engage prospects.

In this post, I cover some practical tips for incorporating social into your direct mail pieces. The first three of these tips are fairly simple. The last two, augmented reality and “checking in,” are to inspire your creativity.

1. Add social media calls-to-action.

According to a 2010 DMA research study that quoted Nielsen findings, consumers are spending 43% more time on social media than they did in 2009, with social media and blogs topping online games and email.

In addition, the research study points out that marketers are spending more on social media to help increase brand loyalty and brand awareness.

Whether you’re doing postcards or traditional direct response letters, you can easily add “Like Us on Facebook” or “Follow Us on Twitter” calls-to-action to your outer envelopes, the letters themselves, lift notes, and even statements and other “official” mail. According to Jay Baer, publisher of the Convince and Convert blog, you’ll get more traction if you tell people why they should “like” your page, e.g., to receive discounts, etc.

If your budget allows, consider giving people an incentive to “like” your page the way BankAtlantic does. For each “like,” the bank gives $1 to that person’s favorite local charity. (To read the full story, download our free special report, “Attract and Retain Customers with Content Marketing.”)

2. Add QR codes.

I covered QR codes a few weeks ago in my post, “Use QR Codes to Boost Business Response.” As with adding social media calls-to-action, adding a QR code to any of your direct mail pieces is relatively simple:

  • Create the offer or piece of content — You’ll need to create something that people can download, whether it’s a landing page for a free report or a video.
  • Produce the QR code — A simple iPhone app, such as quiQR, will allow you to quickly generate a simple QR code. For more complex codes, or to create thousands of individual codes for PURLs, you’ll need a more robust application.
  • Add the QR code to your printed piece — I’ve seen QR codes on everything from catalogs and postcards to credit card offers and even mortgage statements!

3. Create offers based on what people are talking about on social media.

Many social media gurus advocate that you “listen in” on social media conversations. What this means is that if you’re on Twitter, use hashtags to follow discussions in your industry, including those that revolve around a conference or workshop or specific topic (e.g., #dma, #direct mail, #b2b). Listen to the questions people are asking. Can you use this information to create content, such as an e-book or report, that you can then offer via a direct mail lead generation campaign?

Ditto for Facebook. If your company has an active Facebook page, analyze which posts elicit comments and pay attention to what people are talking about to see if any ideas jump out at you for creating content offers.

4. Consider the future opportunities of augmented reality.

A very new and very cool technology, augmented reality (AR) apps add a virtual object into the real world. You view the “real world” through your smartphone camera, and the AR application adds virtual objects to what you see.

Although it might sound like a “so what” application, the implications are huge for marketers. A new iPad AR app, Magic Mirror, for example, scans your head and face and then adds virtual objects, such as a wig or a mask, to make it look like you’re actually wearing the item!

Total Immersion, developers of the app, is “a company known for the way it incorporates AR into online and print ads,” according to The Wall Street Journal article, “Why Smart Phones Can See More Than We Can”:

One online ad includes an interactive driving game that made users feel like they were driving the Volvo S60 through whatever their iPhone or Android camera displayed as AR obstacles fell into the road. In another campaign, people printed out a PDF of the Olympus PEN digital camera, held it to a webcam and saw animated demonstrations of the camera’s features, as if the camera — not a piece of paper — was in their hands.

Although a new and unproven application, augmented reality, if it plays out, could add tremendous innovation to your direct mail campaigns.

5. Let people “check in.”

The media world is abuzz that Pepsi let TV viewers check into its TV commercial — and win a free Diet Pepsi — using the new IntoNow app. (See the Ad Age article, “On TV Now: Watch an Ad, Get a Free Pepsi,” for details on how this works.)

Although relatively new, “checking in” has reached the tipping point. All kinds of companies here in the Denver area, including banks, let customers check in via Foursquare. And of course, you can let your friends know where you are with Facebook’s Places feature.

If people can check into TV commercials, why not your direct mail piece? You can easily encourage people to use Foursquare or Facebook Places in your direct mail. Going even further, you could find a way to literally let people check into your direct mail campaign — the same way Pepsi let people check into its TV commercial.

As with augmented reality, this tactic is sophisticated and requires some real research and planning. But the implications for direct mail are huge and bear watching.

As you can see, adding some of social media’s creativity and innovation to direct mail is fairly easy, and you don’t have to worry about displacing proven formats and formulas. Adding “Like” buttons, calls-to-action and QR codes can potentially increase engagement with your brand as consumers connect with you online.

If you test these ideas, let me know your results. I’d love to feature your campaign here on the Heinrich Report blog.

Category:  Direct Mail, Innovation, Integrated Direct Marketing, Marketing Research, Social Media Marketing  |  Tags: ,   |  2 Comments

Direct Mail Should Be More Like Social Media — Yes or No?

May 11th, 2011 by

American Express® is using social media to encourage customers to spend rewards points in “less traditional ways.” According to the Advertising Age article, “AMEX Campaign Positions Rewards Points as Social Currency,” the company is rolling out a new campaign that includes print, social media and TV.

Take a look at their new Facebook page “Points” tab.

This clever page includes American Express’s popular Twitter feed where people talk about how they’ve redeemed their points. It also includes the “Deal of the Week,” which members can redeem at a 50% rate.

Deborah Curtis, vice president of advertising at American Express, says, “Card members and consumers are looking for options and choices. There’s also education…because they aren’t aware of what they can do [with their points]. Some of it is an entrenched way of thinking about rewards programs when they were heavily travel-based and people saved up points for a big trip.”

“Entrenched way of thinking.” This phrase stood out for me with regard to direct mail marketing.

Despite the wonderful innovation in the digital space, and despite the fact that so many companies are using social media to engage and interact with consumers, direct mail packages still look the way they did 5 or even 10 years ago.

We’ve been doing direct mail for more than 30 years, and there’s no argument: Direct mail is still a workhorse, especially for Heinrich’s financial services clients. A proven, response-generating direct mail package still includes:

  • Envelope with teaser
  • Letter
  • Lift note with bonus offer
  • Reply card
  • Reply envelope

Because many of our clients still rely on direct mail — and because it does produce results — we don’t want to change proven formats and formulas just to be creative.

But I, and those of us here at Heinrich, are asking lots of questions in light of consumers flocking to social media:

  • Should direct mail change its ways even though the components of direct mail have been thoroughly tested?
  • Do relatively low response rates mean direct mail is perceived as staid and boring?
  • Can direct mail take a lesson from social media and become more engaging?

A look at direct mail response rates

The Direct Marketing Association’s 2010 Response Rate Trend Report shows the typical response rates for direct marketing campaigns for five mediums: direct mail (five formats), e-mail, paid search, Internet display and telephone. According to the DMA:

“Response rates for Direct Mail have held steady over the past four years. Letter-sized envelopes, for instance, had a response rate this year of 3.42 percent for a house list and 1.38 percent for a prospect list. In addition, nearly 60 percent of direct mail campaigns in financial services aimed to produce a direct sale. The average response rate was a comparatively low 2.66 percent to a house list and 1.01 percent to a prospect list.”

According to John Schlagel, director of strategy for Heinrich, these numbers are in line with what Heinrich clients see with their direct mail packages.  However, many clients base campaign success on lift over the control.

As John explains it, “Many clients evaluate results based on lift over a hold-out group, so while even 2.66% sounds like a strong response, it’s not unusual that the hold-out group has a 2.25% sales rate, indicating that, of the 2.66% responders receiving the direct mail, only .41% of the audience responded due to the direct mail.”

My questions are: Is this good enough? And, can we do better?

Why aren’t direct mail marketers taking a cue from social?

The American Express “social currency” campaign caught my eye because it’s different. The company is featuring real customers in its print, TV and social media outreach because it’s these “savvy” customers who are telling their friends how to redeem points.

With social media, we as marketers have the potential to start a conversation — versus making an actual sale. Writing out a 140-character tweet is a hook to get people to click through to your content. In other words, the purpose of social media is to capture people’s interest.

Direct mail, on the other hand, is a direct sales opportunity. Direct mail packages haven’t changed in five years precisely because direct mail is still a direct selling opportunity — and because it’s profitable for our clients.

But, would we engage more people and get better response rates if we incorporated some of social media’s innovations?

Here at Heinrich, we’re asking ourselves these questions. In Part 2 of this article, I’ll give you a few ideas of how you can add some of social’s innovations to your direct mail packages.

Until then, what do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Leave your comments below.

Category:  Customer Acquisition / Retention, Direct Mail, Marketing Insights, Social Media Marketing  |  Tags: ,   |  4 Comments

Use QR Codes to Boost Business Response

April 12th, 2011 by

You’ve heard the buzz — QR codes are the hot new thing marketers are talking about. Heinrich clients have certainly noticed them and want to know, “How can we use them in our business?”

Short for “Quick Response,” QR codes are also known as “2D datamatrix” codes. In fact, QR codes are simply barcodes that have been supersized. A standard barcode is limited in the amount of information it can hold: Typically a barcode holds up to 40 characters in ASCII or “text” format.

Datamatrix codes, on the other hand, can hold up to 2600 characters in non-ASCII format, which means that you can include a URL (and lots of other info!) in your QR code.

Quick QR code how-tos

To scan a QR code, you need a smartphone and a scanner app. I use quiQR, an iPhone app (cost: $1.99). Whichever app you choose, I recommend that you read the reviews as the quality level and ease of use varies greatly among apps.

Once you’ve downloaded your app, simply scan the QR code to be taken to a web page. Because Heinrich clients want to know how QR codes work, I developed a quick video showing how to scan a QR code using one I had printed on the back of my business card.

To make your own QR codes, you can use quiQR, bit.ly, which generates a QR code whenever you shorten a link, or Kaywa, an application developed by Datamatrix, the pioneers in datamatrix codes.

Integrating online and offline marketing

So how do you use QR codes in your marketing? I recommend using them to connect online with offline marketing tactics.

Remember, people don’t readily recall a URL and they aren’t always near a computer — but many of us don’t go anywhere (at least intentionally) without our smartphones and carry them everywhere with us. QR codes allow you to engage with people where they are — whether they’re standing in the grocery aisle or walking past your storefront — as they’re very mobile friendly.

While adding a QR code to a business card is pretty cool, you’re limited only by your imagination in how you can use these fascinating codes. Here are a few of the ways we’re seeing businesses use QR codes to integrate offline with online:

Direct mail lead generation: Many banks and financial institutions still communicate with their prospect and customer audiences using direct mail. Using QR codes can add an element of digital interactivity to their direct mail campaigns, connecting customers and prospects to the online channel — and moving them further along the sales cycle.

Store signage: For businesses with “brick and mortar” locations, adding a QR code to a store window sign allows passersby and store customers to access a coupon via their mobile device, encouraging people to stop in and browse or make a purchase.

One-to-one marketing: In a March 30, 2011, interview with B2B Magazine, Martha Willis, CMO of Oppenheimer Funds, discusses how her firm is using QR codes to great advantage. When you scan a QR code found in an Oppenheimer print ad, it pulls up a video of a fund manager talking about investment opportunities. Says Willis, “From my perspective an advisor looking for an asset manager wants somebody on the forefront of knowledge. If they’re using dated instruments or tools, they don’t look like they’re on the forefront of knowledge.” Amen!

From “Cool!” to “How did we live without them?”

Although QR codes are benefiting from the coolness factor at the moment, their potential for powering truly integrated marketing is huge — and something you as a direct marketer don’t want to dismiss. My colleague Neal Sceva, an Integrated Solutions Specialist at CPC Solutions, recently commented,

“I sat back not knowing what to do a decade ago while the Internet and email marketing virtually decimated direct mail and now I believe there’s a huge opportunity for direct marketers to become thought leaders with new mobile-driven marketing efforts such as QR codes. I’m really excited!”

The key to realizing the potential for QR codes is to understand that they give people the ability to click on something flat and then get taken to a rich interactive experience — anything from a website to a video.

We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes on this exciting technology and bringing you updates as they occur.

What do you think? Have you used QR codes in any of your campaigns? Are you thinking about it? Do you have other questions that I or someone else at Heinrich can answer for you? Post your comments below.

 

Category:  Digital Marketing, Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing, Social Media Marketing  |  Tags: , , , ,   |  3 Comments

Four Ways to Save Time and Money With These Direct Mail Innovations

August 23rd, 2010 by

Four Ways to Save Time and Money With These Direct Mail Innovations

Don’t let the constant chatter about digital fool you — direct mail can still be a viable part of any integrated marketing campaign. And thanks to new and exciting innovations popping up in the print production industry, it doesn’t have to break the bank. To learn more, we spoke to Debbie Roth, vice president of Japs-Olson Company, and a trusted Heinrich partner. Here’s her inside scoop.

1) Better quality for cost-efficient paper

Commodity-grade paper looks better than ever. “It’s brighter and doesn’t have that ‘dirty’ look to it,” says Debbie. “I’d say it even rivals the more expensive opaque papers.” She attributes some of this improvement to a consolidation of paper mills over the past few years. “The market went from a paper surplus to a belt-tightening mode,” and while that affects pricing, it also had the happy effect of offering more affordable paper with good quality.

2) The PDF bundle

Software like InDesign and Quark are still most-used among designers. The big difference — one that translates into a benefit for companies and print houses alike — is the way designers ready their files. According to Debbie, “The big increase in the number of designers sending us a PDF bundle results in a print-ready file that we don’t even have to touch. Fonts are embedded, appropriate bleeds and color specs are in place…it all adds up to a big cost savings, thanks to less processing time, less error and faster turnaround.”

3) Postal efficiencies

Postage prices are always on the rise, and it’s a constant thorn in a direct mailer’s side. But as Debbie often reminds her clients, “When it comes to response rates, direct mail is still the most cost-effective way to go. Electronic forms of direct response just can’t compare.” Not surprisingly, new tricks of the trade emerged to combat the rising rates.

To make the price increases less prohibitive, the National Change of Address rules changed. Now, addresses must be updated every 95 days — even for standard and business class mail. The result: cleaner lists, with more current addresses. That’s less waste, better data hygiene.  

4) Inline printing

For medium to large print runs, your format may be a candidate for inline printing. Although inline finishing has been available for years, commercial-quality inline personalization is now also an option. The product comes off the press ready-to-mail, making it more efficient and cost-effective to produce. It’s all thanks to industry-wide improvements to the inline imaging dpi. “The quality of the inline variable imaging is so much better than it used to be,” raves Debbie, who particularly calls out the introduction of the Versamark 600 dpi ink jet as a huge step forward. 

These printing innovations are just the tip of the iceberg. To learn more, revisit some past Heinrich Report articles:  

Five Ways To Get Smarter About Print

The Surprising Perks of Print on Demand  

 

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Category:  Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing  |  No Comments

Case Study: Cherry Creek Arts Festival Website

June 9th, 2010 by

 Cherry Creek Arts Festival Website: An Outdoor Galleria Goes Digital

Who the Client Is: The Cherry Creek Arts Festival (CCAF) is an annual, three-day Denver event and a world-class attendence and award-winning celebration of the visual, culinary and performing arts. With 350,000 visitors over three days, this signature event will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2010.   

Challenges to Overcome:  1) Embody both the spirit of a three-day event and create a hub for year-round festivals, education and outreach; 2) Facilitate logistics such as volunteer registration, artist entry and sponsor sign-up with convenience; 3) Leverage new media; 4) Offer a rare artistic experience; 5) Provide flexibility and scalability as CCAF grows from year to year. 

How Heinrich Approached the Project: We wanted to fuse the static and dynamic. To do that, we knew we needed a vibrant community component; a strong backend to accommodate registration, a shopping cart and volunteer signup; and a scalable and accessible content management system. Then, each of those components needed to spill into an online experience that was peppered with design, imagination and multidimensional elements.

What Heinrich Delivered: The virtual space of a traditional museum, complete with the wood floors, white walls and individual frames of an international gallery, filled with a modern, online experience of browsing, shopping, learning, connecting, registering, posting and playing.
“Hopefully, it will become one of the biggest virtual museums in the world,” says Rob McPhee, creative director at Heinrich. “There are 255 artist pages alone.”

Rather than adding connectors like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as the usual afterthought down the page,  iMac-inspired visuals form a central, comprehensive menu of social media. Real-time digital technology allows event visitors to upload photos directly to the website.

Why the Functionality Is Such a Good Fit: Any task, whether it’s purchasing art, volunteering for parking duty or signing up to be a multilevel sponsor, can be accomplished completely online.  In addition, the website can literally be redecorated on the fly. “With a superstructure and library on the backend, its flexibility is more than just updating images or changing text,” says McPhee. “We can swap out the walls, the floor and the ceiling of this website — even add people or artists.”

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Category:  Case Studies, Digital Marketing, Direct Mail, Heinrich News, Marketing Strategy  |  No Comments

The Surprising Perks of Print On Demand

June 9th, 2010 by

 

Mail has morphed in ways that not even the post office could have predicted.  The box looks smaller, but the mail is bigger. The dimensions are different, but the messages are similar. And just as the world turns away from tactility, print on demand is bringing it back.  And it’s better.

Why? Because the print-on-demand concept harnesses the hassle-free, cost-efficient, history-tracking hotness of an email message with the old-fashioned power, personalization and physical fit-ness of snail mail. 

Suspicious? We were too. But here’s the 411.

“It’s the fastest, easiest, most economical way to send 1 to 1 direct mail,” says Perry Wilson, vice president of sales at Heinrich’s long-time printing partner, Advanced Image Direct, who just launched Cloud2Mail, an application for CRM programs like SalesForce.com.  “At per-unit cost and automated triggers, you just can’t beat the price or the process.”

But, we asked, what about traditional direct mail? Print on demand isn’t for large-scale jobs, which makes it the perfect complement. But there’s another reason why we think it rocks: It supports the newfound Shangri-la of segmentation and loyalty programs, a tactic we love —because it works.

Say you want to reach a specific level of shoe shoppers — those who spend $500 per month. Rather than doing a en masse direct mail to your President’s Club Level Visa holders, your system activates a personalized thank-you note and coupon whenever one of your star shoppers buys a new pair of Manolos. Some applications, such as Cloud2Mail, utilize USPS intelligence bar codes, which provide delivery receipt. See image below.

Now, imagine that convenience for every communication piece you have: white papers, PDFs, brochures, sales letters, Power Point presentations.

The concept isn’t necessarily new, but the costs are.

“No one argues that more sophisticated targeting and robust personalization drive higher response,” says George Eddy, president of Heinrich, “But with print on demand, there’s less of a trade-off in terms of quality and investment. And that’s crucial.”

 


 Cloud2Mail

 

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Category:  Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing, Loyalty / Rewards Marketing  |  No Comments

What to Look for in a Direct Marketing Partner

March 22nd, 2010 by

 

Purpose has finally caught up with the pretty pictures. Measurement is more important than ever. That’s why businesses are tapping into durable direct marketing — and for a lot more than direct mail. With accountability and attention to context, these firms dive into consumer behavior and surface with current data and profit-driving, real-time strategies.  But how to discern the best from the rest?

They Drive the Sales Revenue

You can call it business development, but it’s really about revenue. A fabulous direct marketing partner helps you keep pace with ever-evolving consumers, tools and markets, then expertly weaves those opportunities into the current campaign without missing a beat.  

 They’ve Cracked the New Customer Experience

They know the difference between customer service and customer connection. That your opportunities reach the customer—on the road, at the kitchen sink, on their smartphone—are increasing exponentially every day, and they know how to make sure it happens.

They Rally for Real Response to Research

It’s strikingly simple, yet shockingly rare. A wise DM partner can conduct cost-effective research, get real-time results, make complex conclusions about consumer behavior and then architect a strategy to match the data.
 
They Can Master the Multichannel Puzzle

Direct mail is like the mashed potatoes on the direct marketing menu. It’s hearty and comforting and it’s not going anywhere.  For some clients, it’s extremely effective, but a good DM partner delivers an entire meal of channel choices driven from research, timing, brand and budget – and those channels never stop working together.  

 

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Category:  Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing, Metrics & ROI  |  No Comments

Showing Signs of Life

February 3rd, 2010 by

Direct Mail Showing Signs of Life

“It’s crucial to be able to build ways to carry on an ongoing dialogue with prospects and customers to drive retail traffic especially in this economic climate.”

Two categories of industry actually stepped up their direct mail presence in 2009, and it appears that the trend is continuing into 2010, according to Direct Magazine. “Direct mail was predominately the domain of ‘traditional direct marketing companies’ like catalogers, publishers, financial services firms, insurance companies and continuity clubs,” notes the article. “Now with the new decade upon us, the landscape has changed.” National retailers and restaurant chains are using direct mail to drive store traffic, and multichannel direct marketing tactics to collect customer information and boost retention and loyalty. “It’s crucial to be able to build ways to carry on an ongoing dialogue with prospects and customers to drive retail traffic especially in this economic climate,” notes Heinrich Marketing Senior Vice President Sandi McCann. Direct marketing tactics are growing in importance as part of integrated multichannel campaigns, all backed by insightful customer research, to build customer relationships, brand affinity and customer lifetime value,” she says. 

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Category:  Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing  |  No Comments

3 New Angles on Eco Paper

November 9th, 2009 by

3 New Angles on Eco Paper


We all want to do right by the planet. So how do you reconcile continuing to integrate direct mail and other forms of print marketing in your strategy when digital marketing channels seem cleaner and more efficient?

Because you need both online and offline channels to succeed with your marketing programs, you need to know the whole story about “green” marketing — and some new questions and standards to focus on.

 “Many people don’t realize that the print industry has made great strides environmentally,” says Heinrich Senior Print Production Manager Erika Lidster. She lists three specific ways paper companies have gotten more green:

  • Reforestation and ecologically responsible forestry. “For at least 15 years, forests owned by paper mills have been reforested at a rate that outstrips harvesting for paper-making. For every one tree they cut, they plant five.”
  • Higher percentages of recycled content in more papers. “Paper is one of the easiest types of material to recycle,” she adds. “And while papers made with 10 to 30 percent recycled content have been standard for quite some time,, today you can readily get 100 percent recycled content in more papers. Virgin content in paper is actually uncommon now.”
  • More papers made with post-consumer recycled content, made from paper that’s been recycled by end-users. And Lidster also points out that a lot of pre-consumer recycled paper comes from boxes, trimmings and other waste produced in the paper-making process. “It’s never actually been sent to a consumer, but it’s not made from virgin materials.“ (Not sure how eco-friendly your paper is? Contact Erika for help.)

Lidster references an article by International Paper noting that the paper industry is one of the largest consumers of clean energy like wind power. “Sixty percent of the energy used to make paper in the U.S. comes from carbon-neutral renewable resources and is produced on-site at mills,” the article explains. “Taking only the servers that power the Internet as a comparison, more than 90 percent of the energy used by the electronics industry is fossil-fuel based, greenhouse gas–emitting grid power. The printing industry is increasingly ‘green,’ and companies need to start telling their customers so.”

If paper is already so green, what should you be doing to step up to the plate on the eco-friendly front as a marketer? Lidster says it’s about going above and beyond run-of-the-mill:

  1. Find a printer that’s FSC certified and have them help you through the process. “Forest Stewardship Council certification is making a huge impact in the marketing industry as green has taken hold in our society,” says Lidster. “Even vendors that have already been using recycled paper practices for years have to put more strict practices in place to earn FSC certification.” She explains that FSC requirements include establishing standard operating procedures to keep energy usage down, not dumping into rivers, and running their plants in a full gamut of other eco-friendly ways

    “If FSC lets you put their logo on your piece, it means the paper wasn’t made by clearing forests,” she adds. “It certifies the sustainability of all the processes and products on the vendor and paper side. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but if you want FSC certification, you need to put it on your quote up front. The FSC stamp has to be put on by the vendor that is producing the piece.” (Contact Erika Lidster for more about how to get the FSC certified logo on your print marketing pieces.)

  2. Ask about eco if you’re using colored papers. “Not every recycled paper or even every color is FSC certified,” Lidster notes. “When FSC first started, there were maybe two or three papers available. It’s actually been just in the past year that some of the papers like Evergreen, in the recycled genre, have become FSC certified; because of how their dyes were made, they couldn’t previously get FSC certification.”

  3. Use vegetable-based inks, but only with the right expertise. “These have been around for a long time,” says Lidster. But she says going veggie isn’t a no-brainer. “Vegetable inks are harder to match to a specific PMS color. Your print production expert needs to know how to do this at the press check; you can still hit a specific color, but you have to know how to alter the color mix to achieve it. You need an agency with high print quality control.” She notes that most Heinrich vendors now use vegetable ink as the norm. “It depends on the printing method. You may have to use vegetable-based or water-based ink if you’re laser-printing, for example.”

Contact Erika Lidster at Heinrich Marketing to get ideas on greening your print program or to learn more about Heinrich’s print production management services.

 

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