• The basics are in your mailbox.
  When you need inspiration, just go to your own personal direct mail idea vault... your mailbox! You probably receive tons of good direct mail each year. Set aside packages that catch your eye. The companies mailing these have spent thousands of dollars researching the best methods. Why not learn from their research?
  
  
• Always try to beat your previous response rate.
  Play around with the design before sending the mailing out again. See if minor changes make a significant difference in the response rate. Send out different versions of your design to similar groups in your database, and test to see which one results in the most responses. Whatever you do, test it, and then test it again!
  
  
• Use words that grab the reader’s attention.
  Here is a recent list of “Words that Grab Attention,” produced by Starch INRA Hooper Research Worldwide:
  

  Announcing / Discover / Easy / Exclusive / Free / Guarantee / Health / Help / Immediately / Introducing / Know / Learn / Love / Money / New / Now / Powerful / Profits / Protect / Proven / Results / Safe / Save / Secret(s) / Today / Trust / Understand / You

While a new product may become lost amidst advertisements or shelves of similar items, it can easily stand alone once people see and experience it firsthand. By enabling customers and prospects the opportunity to experience product benefits in person, they are able to create stronger opinions and make faster buying decisions. Here are a few ways that promoting with product events can increase sales and product knowledge:

• Seeing is believing. Product events enable a personal connection between your customer and the product. Many prospects and customers prefer learning about new products and services by experiencing them firsthand rather than reading about them in promotional materials.


• Provide customers and prospects the opportunity to see new products firsthand at tradeshows, exhibits, grand openings, etc. Send promotional materials and invitations for customers to come in and learn more about it at your site of business as well.


• Invite a prestigious customer to present your product and highlight its features from her point of view, which will build additional confidence in your product.


• By viewing live customer responses, you can easily highlight your product features and track buying trends and opinions.


• Smaller events allow you to get closer to your customers and maximize interaction, yet a group atmosphere is less intimidating than one-on-one presentations.


• By interacting with your target audience personally, you can learn more about their needs and build a stronger customer relationship.


• Offer a Q&A session if appropriate. Prepare a list of frequently asked questions, and accept new questions as well.


• Excited customers who benefited from the experience will generate buzz and extend your marketing effort via word of mouth, increasing sales for your business.

Logging in and out of websites can be a frustrating ordeal, especially if you receive error messages or your computer slows down or freezes up. While many of these tips may be common sense, here are a few reminder tips to help ease your online frustrations:

• Use your mouse cursor to move from field to field instead of the Tab key to ensure you’re filling in the correct box.


• Ensure your CAPS lock key is not activated, since login information is often (but not always) case-sensitive.


• Be patient after you hit enter or the log in button – clicking it again and again will not make it process faster, and may instead cause the website to stop responding.


• Don’t jump screens or attempt to open other programs while waiting to log on.


• Double check your entry information in case you did something as simple as accidently typing a comma instead of a period in your username. Also beware of extraneous spaces in your login information. While they are invisible to human eyes, they are recognized by web sites and may cause login errors.


• Use a drop box whenever possible that automatically enters your username, eliminating typing errors. However, don’t allow public computers to save your username and password.


• Don’t shuffle your mouse around the page impatiently while waiting for a page to load, or it could interfere with your connection.

Give us a call if you’d like other ideas to save you time and frustration. You can rest assured you’ll never receive an error message when you trust us with your important printing.