We’re at the point where technology has drastically changed how we communicate with people. Using an email client, a social media site, or even a smartphone, we can exchange messages to other people in just seconds. For companies, however, the success in which the recipient will respond to your inquiries may vary, even if you manage to obtain their email address via lead generation. (more…)

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We used to call it “scratch-n-sniff” back in the day. It was probably back in the 1970s when I first discovered magazine ads that, when scratched, would release the aroma of perfume. (more…)

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com

I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to get my fill of email advertising. Since the onset of Covid, my daily allotment of email has risen from about 100 per day to close to 160 emails. Through this miasma, I have to search for relevant emails from clients as well as educational emails referencing commercial printing. (more…)

By mid-morning I have upwards of sixty emails to read. In contrast, when I go out to my physical mailbox, I only find a few, well-designed mail pieces. In the first case, I do whatever I can to delete the emails without missing anything important. In the second case, I find it relaxing to look through the physical mail. (more…)

I received two pieces of direct mail this week that piqued my interest. In fact, I decided to keep them, and not just for this article. I wanted to think about why I found them unique. (more…)

When I receive bids for a print job, the pricing from the various custom printing suppliers usually falls within a narrow range. Some prices are lower, and some are higher, but it is unusual for one book printer to be twenty or thirty percent higher than all the others. If this happens, it is usually because of a miscommunication of some sort. (more…)

One of my print brokering clients is a designer. Last year she made one of her clients very happy with two self-mailers. I wrote about them last summer, and this year her client wants to update the two jobs without changing their format. (more…)

I have to be honest. I want print media to prosper, so I’m pleased when I read about the success of ink or toner on paper.

I recently read a synopsis of a study by Millward Brown, in collaboration with the Centre for Experimental Consumer Psychology at Bangor University, regarding the use of brain scans to judge the effect of physical print media in direct marketing. The article is “Using Neuroscience to Understand the Role of Direct Mail.” It’s not new. In fact, the study is more than three years old. (more…)