Pop Quiz: Best Marketing Method?

By Mike in Marketing, Profitability

We hope your pencils are sharpened, because today we have a pop quiz for you. Don’t worry, it’s painless. One question.

Ready?

What’s the most effective marketing method?

 

☐ A. Radio

☐ B. Direct mail

☐ C. Internet and E-mail

☐ D. Television

 

Okay, time’s up.

Pencils down.

The correct answer is…

 

☑E. All of the above.

 

I know, I know. You’re probably saying, “Hey, that’s not fair! That wasn’t even a choice.” And you’re right. We cheated. But be honest, it’d have been way too easy if all of the above was an option. It’s always all of the above, right?

We wanted you to think about each individual method and the unique advantages and disadvantages they present. Because yes, while one is better than all the others, the real lesson here is the power of using multiple marketing methods at the same time.

the real lesson here is the power of using multiple marketing methods at the same time.

You need to reach your target audience on multiple fronts to really send home your messaging. We’ve talked about the importance of exposure rate many times before, but if you need a quick refresher – the more someone sees your message, the more likely they are to act on it.

And if they’re exposed to your messaging on different platforms, they’re less likely to tune it out. People tend to be either auditory learners or visual learners, so relying on just one marketing method can be inefficient.

Using multiple methods of marketing can be more costly, but are you actually saving money if you’re not reaching the people you need to reach? Because when it comes to marketing, there’s really only two options:

☐ A. you reach them.

☐ B. you don’t.

Take all the time you need on that one, folks.

Healthcare Marketing Discovers Life In The Mail Box

By Mike in Marketing, Profitability

Healthcare marketers face one insurmountable reality: that timing is everything.

Deliver the right ad on the wrong day and your potential patient simply hits delete or turns the page.

Thankfully, there’s a solution to this problem.

large-healthcare-postcard

Postcard magnet mailers.

The postcards have all the informative benefits of traditional direct mail, but it’s the attached magnets that are the real game changer. Why? Because magnets stick around. And unlike traditional direct mail, magnets have a practical purpose beyond their offer.

When an orthopedic surgeon sends out postcard magnets and someone without any back pain receives one, they’ll still have a use for it. They’ll use the magnet to pin their grocery list to their fridge or filing cabinet. And a few weeks later, when they throw their back out because they tried carrying too many shopping bags at once, guess who they’re probably going to call?

if you’re involved with healthcare, you should be involved with postcard magnets.

Doctors and healthcare providers are beginning to realize the power and potential of postcard magnets.  Here are some ways healthcare marketers are using them:

  • Primary care doctors are announcing the grand-opening of their practices
  • Dentists are sending out annual updates and cleaning reminders
  • Sports physicians are promoting pre-season physicals

And while these healthcare professionals’ specialties and approaches may vary, they’re all experiencing similar results – an increased awareness among their local communities, fuller waiting rooms and big booms in business.

Still need convincing? Here are 3 more reasons why postcard magnets are great for healthcare marketing:

scope

1. Scope

As far as advertising mediums go, you’d  be hard-pressed to find one that’s as flexible as postcard magnet mailers. You can send out 250 to one particular neighborhood, or you can send 1,000,000 across the country. The dosage is entirely up to you.

 

focus

2. Focus

Because postcard magnets utilize mailing lists, you can be incredibly targeted with your approach. Sure, you can blanket an entire area – and sometimes that makes perfect sense. But you can also pay a little extra to hone in on specific segments. For example, if you’re a pediatrician, you can target households with children. If you’re a plastic surgeon, it might benefit you to reach out to more affluent individuals with higher incomes.

Regardless of who you want to focus on, the important thing is that you’re able to. It’s this quality over quantity approach that usually pays off big. Other forms of advertising might be able to get you and your message in front of more people for less money, but if those people aren’t interested or in need of what you’re offering… what’s the point?

 

reach

3. Reach

While digital methods are new and exciting, the fact is most organizations can reach only 40-50% of their potential customers via e-mail. A lot of people still prefer the personal connection and tangibility that comes from receiving physical mail.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying postcard magnets are the be-all end-all solution to marketing. In fact, they can work best when used in tandem with other media. If you have billboards or online ads, postcard magnets can further cement your place in the minds of potential patients.

The more ways they’re exposed to you and your services, the more likely they are to visit. Exposure is everything.

—

But it in the end, it’s all about results.

If your healthcare magnet is positioned on somebody’s refrigerator, who are they most likely to contact when a need arises?

Six months after your postcards are mailed, new patients will still be walking in your door.

And you can relax, having solved that ‘insurmountable’ healthcare marketing problem.  You, and a one powerful little magnet.

 

For more information on postcard magnets for your healthcare organization, please call us at 800-233-6690.  Or visit us at magnetbyMail.com .

 

Foldup: Direct Mail Goes Big

By admin in Design, Marketing
Photo by Jereme Peabody

The Next Big Idea in Direct Marketing

Late last year we asked potential customers looking at our products what they wished for.

They said, as much as they liked the idea of our postcard magnets, what they really wished for was more room to express themselves.

You see, we’ve always had our basic postcard magnets — these are jumbo postcards and custom printed magnets, one glued to the other and mailed via directmail.

But the Venti, our largest postcard magnet at 5-1/2″ x 10-1/2″ just wasn’t enough.  Some marketers want more than the Venti’s 115 square inches.

foldup postcard magnet directmail idea

So in January, we introduced our Foldup Magnet Mailer.  This a very big, 8-1/2″ x 11″ postcard, folded in half, a magnet attached to the inside, and sealed shut with easy-peel glue.  Marketers now can have over 200 square inches of printing area.

The fold provides lots of benefits.  The standard postcard format has two sides or ‘facings.’  But the Foldup Magnet Mailer has three facings: the front, the back, and the inside.  This gives marketers more space and flexibility to develop their message.

Another benefit of the Foldup is, because the folded piece is thicker than our regular magnet mailer, and the magnet is held securely inside, we don’t need to use poly laminate to keep the mailer as rigid for mailing purposes.

Saving poly laminate saves time and reduces costs. (We still provide a UV coating for shine and protection.)

Our customers can receive a Foldup Magnet Mailer for about the same price as our smaller postcard magnet.

A final benefit is that we can enclose custom shaped magnets with the Foldup.  (Our standard postcard magnets could use only rectangle shapes, mostly.)

Foldup Magnet Mailers make sense for any marketer who wants all the benefits of delivering a magnet to a home or office, but who needs lots of space to convey their message.

One thing we should mention for designers: the positioning of the Foldup’s magnet is more restrictive than for our regular postcard magnets. The magnet needs to be attached on the ‘inside’ of the folded postcard, and ‘behind’ the area where the mailing address is to printed.

But if your design can work with that location, the Foldup Magnet Mailer may be the perfect way to deliver your message. You can deliver it with a 200 square inch format, and provide a custom magnet to help keep your message in full view for weeks or months.

 

Another innovative marketing device from your friends at magnetbyMail.com, your source for magnet mailers and other ingenious communications tools.

 

How to Grow a Church

By admin in Marketing

Church Marketing Ideas

 

The time for church marketing is now.   We see two big reasons for this:

First — many people are having financial troubles or family problems. Or they just feel adrift and are looking for some guidance and community.

Church postcard ideasChurches, finding themselves smaller in recent decades, have an opportunity to demonstrate their purpose and attract new members to their flock.

But what many churches are discovering — the relevation — is this: the things that work to grow a business also work to grow a church.

Church marketing today includes: setting up a table at the county fair, writing columns in the local paper, speaking at the Rotary Club, building a website and hosting a page on Facebook.

But the best way to reach everyone in the community is this: (drum-roll, please) a mailing.

church outreach mailers

It used to be that direct mail was ineffective, and highly expensive.

But new technology has made printing and lists both better and cheaper.  A gorgeous full-color promotion and a mailing address costing $3 each a decade ago, can now be less than 50 cents.

And what is the most effective type of mailing? Call us biased, but we think it’s postcard magnets.

These are jumbo, laminated postcards and custom printed full-color refrigerator magnets. One is glued to the other, and mailed to a list that you provide.

When recipients receive your church’s postcard magnet mailers, they’ll see your message immediately. With the right art and message, they’ll decide to keep your magnet on their fridge where it could promote your church for weeks or even months.

Until now, no other form of advertising has ever been able to promote your church’s message for so long, for so little.

And that, is the second reason we think the time is right for church marketing.

—

Another inspired idea about postcard magnets from magnetbyMail.com . Because when it comes to effective marketing, we’re all on the same mission.

Stuckup: Pizza Marketing Idea

By admin in Marketing

Ok, maybe you don’t run a pizza shop. You still could benefit from a marketing idea that helps deliver pizza sales from coast to coast.

Pizza Takeout Menu Postcard MagnetIt’s our Stuckup Mailer. We can print a takeout menu on one side of the postcard. On the other side we attach a magnet and inkjet a mailing address you supply.

We prepare all the Stuckup mailers for bulk mail, so you get a sizable postage discount, and drop them in the mail for you.

If you need a low cost way to reach an entire neighborhood, we can provide a saturation mailing list, and you could reach your entire community for pennies.

With an enticing offer or artwork, the card makes a quick trip from your recipients’ mailboxes to their refrigerator doors.

At 3-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ and UV coated on front, it’s just right for a small takeout menu (which is why pizza restaurants love it).

But it’s also a great size for advertisers and organizations who need to distribute lists of phone numbers, key contacts or web addresses. Or useful procedures, recipes, emergency preparedness checklists, key tips, calendars, schedules or campaign bios. Or maps, inspiring quotes, artwork or colorful travel vistas.

With a good Stuckup Mailer, you’ll discover that the refrigerator door is the most valuable spot in the whole house.   And you’ll be making the most of this space.

Best of all, your promotional message could be there for months or more.

Makes you want to order take out, doesn’t it?

 

Another marketing tip from magnetbyMail.com, your source for magnet mailers and other innovative marketing ideas.

How to Change Government

By admin in Marketing

OK, you’re fed up.   You’ve had enough with ‘politics as usual’ and you think that it’s time for the bickering to stop and for your views to be heard.

Maybe you want to re-focus the dialog onto an important issue.   Maybe you have a good solution or insight. Maybe you want to change the Constitution.

But you need to convince many, perhaps millions of your fellow citizens.

The problem is that, no matter what you want, there is a buzz and banter that you need to break through for your message to be heard.   From cable TV to the blogosphere, the buzz and banter is at full volume.

How do you get your message in front of the people who will make a difference?

Basically, you need to change the channels.

political action direct mail

Rather than sending your message through the Internet, print media, or cable TV, send it via a way that gets maximum impact.   Send it via a Postcard Magnet Mailing.

A Postcard Magnet Mailer is two parts: a custom-printed, laminated jumbo postcard with a refrigerator magnet attached, sent together through the US Mail with bulkrate postage.   The postcard is the carrier, and the magnet becomes the billboard.

Recipients open their mailboxes and instantly see your message.  If they like it, they’ll use the magnet on their refrigerator or file cabinet.

They’ll start thinking of your ideas, start visiting your website, and start helping change the political dialog.

All this for much less cost than a cup of coffee.

If you’d like to make sure your message makes an impact, check our Postcard Magnets at magnetbyMail.com .

And start making a difference!