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Stretch Your Marketing Budget


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Be smart with your print marketing budget! We present ideas to help you maximize your budget and your campaign's impact. We've organized the list into three sections: Marketing, design, and print.

Reduce Your Marketing Costs

  • Evaluate direct response opportunities. Tough times are a good time to create accountability in your marketing efforts. The more it's measurable, the more you can determine how to apportion those scarce resources.
  • Segmentation. Prospects and customers are always more likely to respond to marketing messages that speak to their interests. Organize your database into smaller, segmented groups based on preferences and past behaviours. Make your messages as relevant as possible to each group.
  • Clean up your list. Regularly run your list through the NCOA database to keep your list up-to-date and ensure that every piece you send is deliverable.
  • Develop strong offers. Don't contact your list unless you have something important to say to them. Failed campaigns progressively weaken the strength of your marketing voice.
  • Build testing into your workflow. Test creative, lists and offers. Even simple A/B testing can deliver dramatic returns..

Reduce Your Design Costs

  • Repurpose images and designs. Re-use creative that was effective at reaching your customers. Extend those old campaigns and make your investment in artwork go further. Many designs can easily be cobbled to fit different sized media. For instance, a magazine advertisement can be made into a postcard and mailed. This type of campaigning also helps reinforce your marketing message by delivering it to your customers multiple times.
  • Search for free fonts.There are numerous, quality foundries on the web that offer fonts free of a software licensing fee (These aren't illegal copies of licensed fonts; these firms actually create original typefaces out of passion for type.)

Reduce Your Print Costs

  • Reduce paper waste. Avoid costly paper waste by working with us to ensure your design fits the sheet. A slight modification early on can drastically reduce the amount of paper required for a given run. Talk to us early and we can help ensure your design is optimized for both paper and press.
  • Paper options. If you can, use our house stock. We buy house papers in bulk because it's more economical than custom-ordered paper. We can suggest several house paper options that will fit within your budget.
  • Mailing automation. Follow Canada Post automation rules to qualify for discounts. A small layout mistake can cost a tremendous amount in extra postage costs.
  • Personalized indicia. Get more attention from your direct mail by using a personalized indicia.
  • Properly size the piece. Visual appeal is obviously paramount, but you need to make sure the item conforms to postal service regulations. An extra 1/4" in width could cost thousands of dollars to mail with little effect on your response.
  • Gang print jobs. Make your press time go further by ganging similar print jobs. This can be a little complicated and does require some forethought when designing your piece. Talk with us early about how to maximize the output while minimizing the printing.
  • Lost savings. Last-minute changes or reprints can quickly offset any savings we've outlined. Make sure all of the constituents who need to review your piece have done so. Get each piece professionally proofread before it leaves your production group.