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GRAPHIC ADVISOR ISSUE TWENTY EIGHT

“Go Green” the EASY Way! Low-Cost, High-Return Print Marketing Lessons from the Best

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MARKETING ADVISOR ISSUE TWENTY EIGHT

“Go Green” the EASY Way! Low-Cost, High-Return Print Marketing Lessons from the Best

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Examples of how you can lower your print budget: Combine your jobs One common money-saving technique is to gang your print jobs.

By placing many projects on the same sheet, or piggybacking on an unused portion of a sheet, we can reduce manpower, plates and prep time. This also results in reduced paper waste, which is important because paper can account for 30%–50% of your printing costs.

You can achieve great results with a smaller investment when your print marketing campaign is smart and well crafted.

The Advantage of Foresight:

Take time to communicate with us about the obvious issues, like your

Communicate your needs in advance and achieve low-cost, high-return print marketing

budget and deadlines; but also explain the more interpretive elements so we can discuss any challenges we foresee in giving you the effect you want.

Paper expenses can be reduced even further, if you . . .

• Reduce the size and number of pages. By slicing a little off each side of the page, you not only save paper costs, but the change in dimensions may also lower your mailing costs.

• Use thinner paper. Changing the weight of the paper can save 10%–15% of your paper costs. For important documents, use a heavier cover to create the look and feel you want, but use a more affordable paper inside.

• Make subtle changes to brightness. Generally speaking, the brighter the paper, the better the contrast between the paper and ink—and the higher the cost. But few people will notice a slight change in the brightness of your paper, especially if it’s mostly covered with ink.

• Consider colored papers instead of bleeds. If you need color at the edge of the

By understanding the scope of your

page, you may be able to create the effect you want less expensively with colored

campaign from the outset, we can

paper instead of ink.

incorporate creative and resourceful strategies to save you money at every stage of your printing project.

If you and your account representative have communicated your choices from the very beginning of your project, your print job will be

• Opt for the house paper. Paper prices fluctuate often, but you can save time and money by using papers we purchase in high volume. Ask us for samples.

Think less ink Inks present another savings opportunity. The more colors you use in traditional offset printing, the higher your cost will be.

If you choose to print in full color, choose four-color process versus full-color plus specific PMS colors. Unless you must preserve the integrity of a color for branding purposes (think

uneventful once it hits the pressroom.

McDonald’s yellow or Tiffany blue), convert your PMS colors to

Trust us to use our expertise to

their CMYK equivalents.

solve any last minute issues. We are committed to delivering your highimpact marketing pieces on time and within your budget.

Eliminate changes Changes become more expensive the further along you are in the print job. Everyone who needs to approve your files should do so before you submit them for printing. Make sure your copy has been proofread multiple times. Confirm that you’ve prepared your digital files properly, keeping in mind that the resolution of digital files varies greatly. What you provide to us to start with has

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the greatest impact on what you’ll get back.

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Quick! Name something you can do for

development. Nearly 60% of our

the environment that is quick, easy, and really makes a difference. Did you say buying

nation’s forests are privately owned.

environmentally certified paper? If not, you should. Not only do environmental paper certifications benefit the environment by ensuring that fiber is harvested legally and responsibly, but they actually help to promote the protection of forests. How do they do

According to Print Grows Trees, an educational arm of the Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic, one in five acres of family-owned forestland is owned by someone at least 75 years old. As these owners age, this land is being divided, sold, and transferred at an alarming rate,

this? Read on.

often for urban development.

In fact, Print Grows Trees reports that 55 million acres of

Legal, Responsible Harvest There are three primary environmental certifications for paper.

forestland are owned by people who plan to sell or transfer some

These are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Sustainable

or all of their land in the next five years.

Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), an international umbrella organization. Each certification system uses somewhat different standards and covers different elements in the chain of custody, but they all focus on the long-term health of forests and protection of local communities.

FSC-certified paper, for example, requires . . .

• No conversion of forests or any other natural habitat • Respect for international workers’ rights • No use of hazardous chemicals • Respect for human rights with particular attention to indigenous peoples

• • Identification and appropriate management of areas that need No corruption—follow all applicable laws

How can we protect these rich ecosystems? Give landowners an economic incentive to hang onto them!

Owners of woodlands have to pay taxes. Protecting these woodlands against fire, insects, invasive plants, and illegal logging adds more expense to ownership. When the land can pay for itself with selective harvesting and replanting of portions of these woodlands for timber sales, there’s less chance that a landowner will have to sell to a developer. But when the market for timber goes away, those landowners often don’t have a choice. [1] Certified Forests Are Healthy Forests Another reason buying environmentally certified paper helps to support forests is that responsibly managed forests are healthy forests. Certified forests are under the management of professional foresters who manage them for long-term sustainability, wildlife habitat, and water and soil conservation, as well as recreational

special protection (e.g., cultural or sacred sites, habitat of

use. When you print on FSC-, SFI-, PEFC-, or other certified

endangered animals or plants)

paper, you are helping to protect wildlife, biodiversity, carbon

Other certifications offer similar protections.

sequestration and, most importantly, water.

So why buy environmentally certified paper?

Buy Paper, Protect a Forest Wait, it gets even better. When you buy environmentally certified paper, it also helps to grow forests, too.

How? Commercial forestry provides an incentive for landowners

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not to sell off for

• It’s easy.

• It protects forests and ensures healthy, growing forests for future generations.

• It really makes a difference.

When was the last time doing something so good was so simple?

[1]

http://www.printgrowstrees.org/forest-facts.html

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Want to see the future of print? Take a look at Media magazine’s Creative Media Awards issue. If that doesn’t get your creative juices

use of content-driven branding.

The marketer launched its own magazine, Countdown,

Three Lessons” we selected from the Creative

to educate consumers on

Media Awards that you can use to punch up

everything from pregnancy to labor pain and baby development while also gently promoting the Huggies brand. Media praised the marketer for creating content that is “informative and practical

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Marketing Lesson #

Multiple touches

boost intent to buy. With its Business on Main campaign, Sprint created a branded destination online where small business owners can network, get advice from business experts, and promote their companies—oh yes, and be exposed to Sprint’s marketing message too. In fact, Sprint found that if it could get people to come to the Business on Main site at least three times, visitors’ “intent to buy” a Sprint product rose 60%.

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Marketing Lesson #

rather than relentlessly pitchy.” The results? Eighty-three percent of the 1.5 million moms who received the magazine said they would “definitely or probably” purchase Huggies diapers.

Content-driven marketing and branding works.

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Marketing Lesson #

Tap customer

frustration. We tend to think of targeting as being associated with short-run digital printing and 1:1 personalization, but you can target by selecting a specific demographic and marketing to the needs, frustrations, and perceptions of that demographic too.

This year, Starcom TD Canada won accolades for this

Use deep content

as a way to reach, educate, and hold customers.

How many uses of baking soda can you think of? Arm & Hammer wants its customers to think of a million.

A&H joined Media’s Creative Media Award winners by doing something an increasing number of marketers are doing these days—using content as a branding tool. A&H placed vertical educational ads next to related editorial content.

The copy was brief and offered little-known tricks like using a pinch of A&H to keep cupcakes from cracking. As a result, total pounds of A&H baking soda increased by 4.9% within a 52-week period.

The campaign also boosted A&H’s share of the coveted 35–44-year-old demographic.

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Awards winner recognized for its

simmering, nothing will. Here are the “Top

your next marketing campaign.

Lessons from the Best

Huggies was another Creative Media

approach in its Trust First Class Visa Infinite Card “Breaking Down the Barriers” campaign, which tapped into consumers’ frustration at not always being able to use their travel rewards. The campaign used a newspaper advertisement showing a man and a woman looking out at a beautiful landscape but seemingly separated from the scene by glass. They stood with their hands up as if pressing against the glass and longing to pass through.

The image was powerful. In the week following the campaign, sales spiked 29% and were 13% above targets. Overall, sales were 15% over the company’s objectives and beat the prior year’s numbers.

What should you take from this? Follow the lessons of these award-winning campaigns: Create solid content. Tap (and then provide solutions for) customer frustration. Touch your target audience multiple times with a well-crafted message. Then watch your marketing results soar!

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MARKETING ADVISOR

MAILING INFO HERE

Printer Name Phasellus porttitor elit In hac habitasse platea Donec tempor nonummy

QR CODE FPO Need a QR code?

Call Great Reach Communications at 978-332-5555

About Us

About This Issue

One or two small paragraphs about

Programs used: InDesign CS Illustrator CS Photoshop CS

you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company.

One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company.

One or two small paragraphs about you and your company.

Paper used: What paper did you use to print this issue?

Ink used: What kind of ink did you use to print this issue?

Coating used: What kind of coating did you use to print this issue?

Computers used: iMac Press used: What kind of press did you use to print this issue?

Bindery used: What kind of bindery did you use to print this issue?

W

hen we think about success with 1:1 personalized print, we often think about data.

How much data do we have? How clean is it?

How is it used? Rarely do we ask one of the most important questions: How do we measure results?

What should you measure?

Start with your costs. This means campaign development, graphic design, list acquisition, data manipulation, production, mailing—measure it all.

This is the only way to analyze your true ROI. Otherwise, you’re just guessing.

On a 1,000-piece campaign selling high-end housewares, for example, you might get an 18% response rate and an average per-order sale of $125, but by the time you add in the costs to develop the program, build and clean up your list and print and mail, you might barely break even. On the other hand, if you are a Lexus dealer, perhaps all you need to do is sell one vehicle and you’ve knocked it out of the park.

If you don’t measure results, you don’t know to what extent those

h g u o r h T s s e c c u S 1:1 urement s a e M

results are due to the campaign or

Incentives. Not only is measurement necessary to gauge ROI, but it will also give you important intelligence about future campaigns. This intelligence will

to something else. You don’t know

help you design programs and adjust incentives, not based on your gut feeling,

which elements of the campaign

but on real data.

work and which don’t. If you don’t

Say you give respondents a chance to win a sweepstakes for

know what is most effective, you

$500 if they log into a Web site and fill out a survey. You know

don’t know how to improve the

that this campaign generates a 5% response rate, with 28%

campaign down the road. In other

of those responses converting to sales of $200 each. Now start

words, you could just be wasting your money.

This is the kind of critical intelligence that will help you refine your programs into maximum effectiveness.

asking questions. What happens if you increase the incentive to $2,500? Does the response rate go up? If so, does the dollar per sale increase, as well? Does it generate a 2:1 return? A 3:1 return?

Or does it not affect the response rate or value per sale much at all? If you test and measure these things, you know how much an additional $2,000 investment is worth to you.

Audience. Don’t stop at one or even two tests. Continue to analyze over time. Break each campaign into multiple test groups, if necessary. For example, if you continue to increase the incentive, does the response rate continue to go up? Or does it flatten out? Does the effectiveness of the incentive change based on the audience you are targeting? Does a sweepstakes to win a free mountain bike motivate one audience, while a

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Nintendo Wii motivates another?

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