DIRECT MAIL ISN’T DEAD: 3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

In today’s age, digital rules. The Internet is a powerful and essential tool for professionals, marketers especially, and it may seem like something as archaic as direct mail doesn’t have a purpose anymore.  However, you may have a large gap in your marketing strategy if you’re not using direct mail as a tool. Here are seven reasons direct mail is alive and well in a world dominated by digital:

1. Direct Mail Response Rates are High

Direct mail response rates have increased by 14% in the last 10 years, while email marketing  response rates have decreased by 57% in the same amount of time.  If this trend continues, direct mail will become a major avenue for delivering marketing materials in the near future. 

2. You (Literally) Can’t Afford Not to Use Direct Mail

Direct mail is responsible for more than $700 billion of growth in U.S. companies in the past 3 years alone. With an ROI of 1,300% (yes, you read that right), direct mail is an essential asset to your overall marketing strategy. (Where is the proof of this number? I feel like we need a link here to lend credibility.) 

3. People Love Getting Mail - Real Mail

According to recent studies, nearly 60% of  all U.S. respondents prefer receiving physical advertisements in the mail to getting a templated, impersonal email in their inbox. These studies also showed that 40% of consumers will visit a store, either physical or online, after they’ve received the brand’s attractive promotional collateral in the mail.  

Conclusion - Find Your Balance  

Those studies showed that nearly 76% of small businesses utilize a combination of digital marketing and direct mail to reach their audiences. The key is finding the balance that will work best for your business, your budget, and your customer.

Is Your Small Business Ready for Social Media?

Social Media has revolutionized the online marketing world. Though many marketers predicted that the popularity of social media would fade over time, its presence has only grown and it’s now an essential part of any content marketing strategy. Social media is a great way to vastly widen your company’s reach, but it can take a lot of work in order to be effective. Is your small business ready to take on the responsibility of a full-fledged social media strategy?

Picking the Right Channels

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope: The list of social media sites goes on and on. It’s easy to create a presence for your business on all of these sites, but it may not be wise to. Small businesses don’t have the advantage of dedicating an entire team to growing their social media presence. It’s best to pick the sites that will give you the most bang for your buck; the most leads for your time. 

Before you jump into social media, evaluate which channels cater most to the audiences you hope to reach. For example, a B2B company may find more of a qualified audience on LinkedIn than on Facebook, but a retail boutique will have more success finding customers through Pinterest. Researching which social channels will give you the highest ROI will pay off tenfold.

Posting Regularly

One of the most important factors in growing your social audience and keeping them engaged is posting often and consistently. When you are breaking into social media, make sure you set a posting schedule that you can stick to. This schedule should go hand in hand with your overarching content strategy to make sure your blog posts, offers, and updates are being shared.

Engaging Your Fans

If you want your social media strategy to be successful, you can’t just post and walk away. It’s imperative to interact with your fans by replying to their comments and messages on a regular basis. As you build your audience, you can leverage them to create user-generated content to help fuel your content marketing strategy.

This is Just the Beginning

Once you’ve launched your small business’s social media strategy, you’re opening the door to a world of potential. As your business grows, you’ll be able to take advantage of all of the benefits these sites offer.

The Increasing Importance of Head Shots

Thanks to Leif Jensen, CPA, for contributing this story about why professional imagery is so important to business today.

I remember when I was in High School each year when we got our yearbooks there was one coach who used his H.S. Graduation photo for his picture for the yearbooks.  It was ridiculous and we all laughed at the idea that this was how he represented himself, even back then.
 
We have all seen people who use photos on their business cards as well.   Where it seems that their picture was taken long time ago, almost to the point they are barely recognizable when compared to their photo. 
 
That is why I try to keep the photos on our website as current as possible.  When I flip though the pictures and my hair gets whiter and my son gets taller.  Everyone else pretty much looks the same for the most part. 
 
But, I want those pictures to reflect what I actually look like.  Especially when I am meeting a new contact in a restaurant, we have to be able to identify each other.  I want them to be able to recognize me.  Just in case they are using a photo from the 1980’s or no photo on their LinkedIn profile for me to recognize them.
 
So take the time to examine how you and your business is being portrayed via imagery online, and then ask yourself the question, "How often am I updating our photos?"

Leif Jensen is a CPA in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. You can contact him via his website: www.leifjensenassoc.com

Is Your Brand Meaningful?

Strong brands incite feelings of trustworthiness and quality; does yours?

If you’re out of town and need to buy groceries, chances are you’ll opt to go into a store that you recognize over one that’s less well known. The power of a well-known, recognized brand is undeniable. Having a widespread reputation directly affects the success or failure of a company, so it’s important to build a positive, meaningful brand. Strong brands incite feelings of trustworthiness and quality in their customers. However, creating a meaningful brand involves much more than producing a quality, reliable product. 

What is a Meaningful Brand?
To create a meaningful brand, it’s important that your company not only satisfies your customers’ needs, but appeals to issues that are important to them. These days, meaningful brands are environmentally aware,  cruelty-free, and pursue some kind of mission that’s bigger than the brand itself. 

For instance, Coca-Cola is a well-known brand renowned for the quality of their product. However, the creativity of their ad campaigns coupled with their generosity in giving back to the community through the Coca-Cola Foundation are what really warms customers to their brand. 

Is Your Brand Meaningful?
It’s important to humanize your brand and communicate to customers that your brand cares about them, their needs, and their passions. Making that unique connection with each customer is extremely important. When customers know they can rely on your brand to make their lives better, you’ll start to see sustainable growth in your business. 

Catalog Product Photography: Separating Fiction From Fact

Catalog product photography is a huge industry bringing in huge profits. If you want to break into this world, there are a few things you should know. Here’s the basics on what’s fact or fiction: 

Fiction: It’s Expensive to Shoot

Although catalog photography may sometimes look expensive, even outright luxurious, it’s not necessarily costly to shoot. Sure, some fashion product campaigns may be over the top - but not all product photography requires fancy clothes, exorbitant equipment, or any other excessive costs. If you’ve got an eye and a few good pieces of equipment, you can turn product photography into a lucrative hobby, or even a career.

Fiction: It’ll Make You Rich Overnight

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. Yes, if you work hard and network, you can eventually build your reputation and make a career out of product photography. However, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, and photographers expecting to turn photos into profit overnight will be sorely disappointed. 
When you begin, you probably won’t have consistent product photography jobs to keep you busy. You’ll have to search for work and take the time to build your reputation and portfolio. 

Fact: Lighting is Important in Product Photography

Yes. In fact, this statement is an understatement. Lighting is one of the most important elements in product photography, and having the right lighting tools can make or break your shoot. The correct lighting can help you avoid harsh shadows, create drama and feeling in your image,  and bring out the product’s detail.

Fiction: Product Photography is Devoid of Emotion

If you think about visual advertisements from well known brands in the electronic, car, and watch industries, you’ll notice that most of their product photography elicits an emotional response from its viewer.  Their product photography makes people feel a certain way about their product. It’s important to the success of a campaign for product photography to carry the tone of the overall brand and to achieve an emotional bond with whoever is looking at it. 

Fact: A Tripod is your Best Friend

A tripod is an essential tool in the kit of any successful product photographer. The tripod ensures that your images stay sharp, stunning, and focused. It also frees up your hands to make any necessary adjustments to the product or its setting. 

Fiction: Utilizing Image Editing Software is “Cheating”

It is very rare to see an untouched image in the world of product photography. There’s no shame in using image editing software like Photoshop to make your photograph as visually appealing as possible. After all, the goal is to sell the product, and as long as it’s represented accurately, there’s no harm in it.