Transforming Business Cards

These days, handing out business cards may seem like a waste. How many people actually keep them around for longer than the time you are speaking to them? How can business cards really show someone what your company can do?

 

So, how can business cards evolve with the ever-changing digital age? Roi Aldaag, founder of QRLead, a marketing platform that presents dynamic digital identity and profiles across platforms. QRLead is a dynamic extension of a “static” business card, presenting a digital identity and profile.

 

QRLead provides a complete marketing platform — once a business card is scanned, the recipient is able to see the promotions and the marketing plans of that company.

 

At WAM, we have the capability to create individual QR codes! We can put them on more than business cards too! Imagine sending out a postcard with a QR code and having your potential customers be able to scan that code and be taken directly where they need to go and see what they really want to see. Convenience is a key to marketing in today’s world.

 

Let us help you reach the customers you want with the ease and convenience they want! Call today (616) 957-6245.

The Perfect Score

To score or not to score? This question faces anyone creating a printed piece that must be folded before mailing, display, or delivery. While in some cases folding without scoring will be sufficient, in others, scoring eliminates any color cracking on the fold and can make all the difference in producing an elegant final result.

The top consideration in whether or not to score a printed piece is the thickness of the paper being used for the project. As a general rule, paper that is 100 lbs. or heavier should be scored before folding. Other instances where scoring the paper is recommended would include:

A steel rule is formed in the desired shape and braced in wood affixed to a metal frame. Paper is then pushed between the steel form and the press.

Postage Stamps

Postage stamps are miniature works of art designed to reflect the American experience and highlight heroes, history, milestones, achievements and natural wonders.

  • The Postal Service printed 19 billion U.S. postage stamps in 2016.
  • Forever stamps can be purchased at the current First-Class Mail postage price — they remain valid for full postage no matter how prices change.
  • Postal History was made in 2015 with the first non-denominational stamps issued at rates other than the First-Class Forever rate. Like Forever stamps, they will always be valid.
  • In 2016, Guinness World Records presented the Postal Service with a record holder certificate: “The farthest distanced travelled by a postage stamp is 5,250,843,896 km (3, 262,723,132 ml).” A postage stamp was inside the New Horizons Spacecraft which was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on January 19, 2006 and arrived on Pluto on July 14, 2015.
  • In May 2016, the first Postal Service Stamp app was introduced — the only official U.S. stamp collecting app — which includes a reference library along with user-generated content for philatelists to upload and manage stamp their collections.
  • In May 2016, for the first time, the 42nd edition of the Guide to U.S. Stamps was offered in a digital format.

Wine label Doubles as a book!

The following article was originally published by Package Printing. To read more of their content, subscribe to their newsletter, packagePRINTING inBOX.

A good book and a bottle of wine is a tough combo to beat. But what if a bottle of wine can double as a good book?

This labeling application for Librottiglia, a series of three wines produced by Italian winemaker Matteo Corregia winery, does exactly that. The labels, designed by Milan-based agency Reverse Innovation, open to reveal a short story inside, complete with multiple pages that are bound together by a decorative strand of twine.

The short stories contained in the wine labels for Librottiglia wines are intended to match the style of the wine. Photo courtesy of Reverse Innovation.

As Country Living UK reports, the Librottiglia bottles are smaller than typical wine bottles, with enough wine for two glasses. The reason for this, the report states, is that the amount of time needed to finish two glasses of wine is about the same amount of time it takes to read one of the short stories. To create even more of a connection for the consumer, the Librottiglia website explains that each short story was assigned to a specific wine in the series to match the characteristics of that wine.

For example, Librottiglia explains “L’Omicidio” (Murder) is a murder mystery with a humorous twist that matches a light white wine. “La Rana nella Pancia” (The Frog in the Belly) is a fable that is assigned to a red wine that Librottiglia states has an “uncommon personality.” Lastly, “Ti amo. Dimenticami” (I Love You. Forget Me) is a romance story that matches the “intense” red wine it serves as a label for.

According to the below video produced by Reverse Innovation, the label books are printed on uncoated textured paper and finished with a UV varnish.

Packaging Perspective: Wine labels are often considered the most artistic platform in label printing. With so many superbly printed labels stacking the shelves, it’s an extremely daunting task to stand out from the competition. But, there’s a reason why Reverse Innovation has been racking up packaging awards since the launch of Librottiglia.

With seven separate packaging awards thus far, including a prestigious Red Dot Award for Communication Design, Reverse Innovation has caught the eye of the global packaging community, which recognizes this innovative application as far more than a novelty or gimmick.

What takes this label above and beyond isn’t necessarily its dual purpose as a book. Instead, it turns the wine bottle into both a conversation starter and a display piece. Despite how visually appealing a wine’s label might be, when the bottle is empty, it typically ends up in the trash. But I can certainly see a wine bottle that doubles as a book serving as a repurposed decoration for a kitchen shelf.

The Librottiglia wine labels are bound with a piece of yarn, adding a functional design element. Photo courtesy of Reverse Innovation.

Plus, as Reverse Innovation explains on its website, the product appeals to consumers who appreciate a collectible item. By making the wine’s packaging a focal point of the product, Librottiglia has ensured that instead of consumers just picking up one bottle of wine, many will want to round out their collection and triple their purchase with all three varieties.

 

Want to do a project like this?? We can help!!

3 Split Tests to Improve Your Direct Mail Results

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

Of course you want better results from your mailings. The worst thing you can do is to become complacent and think the mailing piece you’ve got is “good enough.” The best thing you can do is to keep making variations to your mailing piece, and then test the results.

We recommend doing a split test, where you divide your list and mail the tear sheet piece to one part, and the new piece to the other part. When mailing a new sales piece I always recommend a split test.

Testing different aspects of your mail campaigns is critical to your marketing success. To get you started, here are three aspects of your direct mail campaign you can test. The results could help you significantly increase your response rate in future mailings.

Test Your Headline

The headline is one of the most important parts of the sales letter. If it doesn’t get your prospects’ atten­tion, they won’t read the rest of the sales letter and won’t respond to your offer. You only have about four seconds to get them to decide to read your letter.

When you find a headline that you think will be more powerful than your current headline, set up an A/B Split test to compare their results.

Test the Teaser Copy on the Envelope

To get a sales letter opened, some mailers put teaser copy on the outer envelope. Teaser copy consists of words on the envelope that will make the reader want to open it and see what’s inside.

Test a Different Offer

The offer is what the customer will get for respond­ing, and if it involves a purchase (rather than a free trial, for example), the cost of the product or service

The more you test, the more you will learn, and the better your response rate will be!

More Mail on Saturday? There's a Reason for That!

If you think your mailbox is fuller on Saturdays than it used to be, it’s not your imagination.

During the past year, the U.S. Postal Service made operational challenges that cause some letters to be delivered on Saturday even though they don't have to be delivered until the following week.

“When feasible, based on local operating conditions, the Postal Service advances Standard Mail [letters] scheduled for Monday and Tuesdaydelivery into a processing window that enables delivery on Saturday, which is generally the lightest delivery day of the week,” the USPS told the Postal Regulatory Commission yesterday (PDF, page 5).

“This practice balances the processing and delivery workload for Monday, which is generally the heaviest delivery day of the week.” Postal officials were responding to a question about how they managed to improve on-time delivery for Standard Mail during FY2016.

Last year, the Postal Service delivered more than 55 billion Standard letters, which generally are mass solicitations sent by businesses and other organizations. (The growing category is often called junk mail --but not by the Postal Service.) Standard letters have lower postage rates than do First Class letters, partly because First Class enjoys more expedited delivery.

'Ritual' around marketing mail, its physical presence allow brand content to take root, spur action

 

07/26/2015

Emotions associated with receiving, reading, keeping mail help to explain why it continues to resonate with consumers

Now new research offers fresh insights into why an enduring marketing tool breaks through the noise so effectively. Breaking Through the Noise is an ethnographic study that explores how consumers behave with mail, their attitudes and emotions toward it, and how they interact with it. The study Breaking Through the Noise examined how consumers experience, engage with and manage mail: physical mail, email and social media (Facebook).

Key findings include:

  • Collecting mail is part of the “coming home” routine, and is so embedded in life that many consumers have “ritualized” it – or made it a routine that is significant for them. People tend to sort it in the same part of the home every time: the kitchen, home office, living or dining room. Every time a brand contacts a customer via mail, it is a unique opportunity embed themselves within and benefit from the positive emotions of arriving in the intimate home setting. This can increase a consumer’s openness to offers.
  • Consumers are far more likely to notice, open and read mail than digital forms of advertising. Consumers state they are more likely to notice and read direct mail than email. One third say direct mail is the most effective way to get them to remember a product or service.
  • More than twice as many consumers say they enjoy receiving direct mail than digital advertising. They’re more likely to associate feelings of happiness or surprise with physical advertisements, while digital ads are more often experienced as distracting or intrusive. 
  • Direct mail is kept – catalogues and flyers often in the living room, other promotional mail on the fridge or by the couch, restaurant menus in a kitchen drawer. Mail that is kept and displayed presents repeated opportunities to engage the consumer.
  • Direct mail persuades, starting by being a go-to source of information and inspiration early in the purchase journey. More than 9 in 10 consumers say they get ideas for household shopping from flyers, and check grocery flyers at least once a month. Around one in five used unaddressed mail for unintentional purchases, and one in three use it to help with planned purchases.
  • Direct mail drives traffic, and is a powerful complement to the digital channel: a significant portion of consumers visit a website or a store, or engaged in social media, in response to receiving direct mail or a catalogue.

 

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