Quarter 3, 2013

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Postcard-to-Landing Page Campaign Designs

Recent years have proven that postcard-to-landing page campaigns are both sales effective and cost efficient. As such, direct mail postcards have become a favorite among marketers seeking to achieve a high return on minimal investment. Pulling off the perfect postcard-to-landing page campaign takes careful planning and hard work, but the campaign design process can be quick and painless when you heed the tips outlined below.

Goals and targeting
Your first step is to list the goals for your campaign. Don’t just say you want to make more sales or increase revenue. Instead, break your goals down into tiers. For example, your first goal could be to get potential customers to look at your postcard and visit your landing page. Your second goal could be to get more email newsletter registrations or sell product. A third goal might be to brand your company or product. And, of course, your ultimate goal is to increase your revenue. You also have to define your target audience: Who are your main customers and why? Create a well-defined mailing list based on these demographics.

Offer
Many excellent articles cover postcard design and landing page graphic design tips, so we won’t review them here (though it is worth mentioning that your designs should be consistent). Instead, we’ll focus on the design elements you have. Once your postcard grabs their attention, it has to persuade customers to take the next step in the purchasing process. The most effective way to do this is with an amazing offer. Consider your offer carefully; you don’t always have to go for the immediate sale. Many postcard-to-landing page direct mail campaigns offer something free in return for an email newsletter registration. Encourage registrations by offering a special industry report or a helpful guide. Then use these registrations to affordably market your products and services using an autoresponder.

Personalization
Use your customers’ names wherever possible. Your postcards can be printed with a customer’s name and a PURL (personalized URL) – a recent trend that has proven to be tremendously successful. Direct each customer to a custom URL (i.e., www.yoursite.com/cindy-mayhew) and use the customer’s name within your sales pitch. Not only does this help customers feel valued, they’ll be curious to see what’s on a landing page that has their name in the URL. Several companies offer automated PURL systems you can deploy on your website.

Tracking and follow-up
Use analytics software to track your campaign responses. Google Analytics is free and allows you to track conversions, number of visitors, time spent on your landing page and geographic location. If you use a PURL system, you can actually tell which individuals visited your landing page in response to your postcard. This invaluable data will help you fine-tune future campaigns. Make sure you follow up with your customers, especially if the immediate goal of your campaign is to collect contact information rather than land a sale. Win more customers by not only continuing your direct mail marketing efforts, but incorporating email blasts, telephone marketing and an autoresponder as well.

Logo Design — Not Just A Pretty Typeface

Perhaps the last thing cost-conscious CEOs focus on when they're looking to jump-start growth is their logo. That’s precisely why it took more than two decades for White Mountain Footwear, a privately held shoe manufacturer based in Lisbon, N.H., to finally give its company logo some serious thought.

An Outdated Logo Compromises Your Business Identity
"A 21-year-old company with an exceptional reputation within the industry, White Mountain had almost no brand recognition with consumers," says David Froment, project leader for White Mountain's logo redesign. "We'd evolved and yet our look didn't say that."

Froment discovered White Mountain’s identity crisis had everything to do with the disparity between what White Mountain actually was (a fashion-forward producer of upscale women's footwear sold under the White Mountain label) and what the company had been (a manufacturer often mistaken for department-store private labels).

Your Logo is Your Brand's Public Face
A company's logo can be a visual ambassador, one that goes on everything from business cards to delivery trucks. When used effectively, it develops an expectation of who you are and what you'll do for the customer.

In pursuit of just such a fix, White Mountain hired a professional logo designer who has revamped the images of many other companies. "The designer made us question everything, our strengths and weaknesses, how we perceive ourselves, our target audience, and what we should just walk away from," Froment says. The designer made it clear to the shoe company that its logo would become a visual representation of all that the business stood for and, if not carefully thought through, all that it did not wish to stand for.

The designer unearthed the image that White Mountain wanted to broadcast: shoes that were fashionable, sexy, and elegant with an emphasis on quality. After five months of preparation and numerous iterations, the new company logo design was introduced: a stylized W that reflects the letter M, like a mountain's mirror image in a lake. The graceful white lettering, backed by a vibrant pastel blue, transformed White Mountain's look from stodgy to sophisticated.

Striving for Universal Appeal
The new logo is uncomplicated, recognizable and original enough to differentiate the company from it's competitors.

In 2000, the first full year after the logo redesign, the company's sales rose 20%. In 2001, when most shoe companies' revenues decreased significantly, White Mountain's sales again shot up 20%. "Now people are deliberately buying the brand," Froment says.

What all the greatest logos have in common is consistency of use (meaning that the company uses the logo on everything related to the business), simplicity, a degree of good taste, and a product that creates a successful aura that fuels the symbol.

6 Secrets for a Great Logo.

1. Be simple.
Some of the best logos are the simplest. One of the oldest is the mark used by Bass Brewery: a red triangle. Target has made a red circle with a red dot in the middle seem the very essence of affordable, hip and practical. Now H&R Block is trying to claim a green square. Simple things are easy to remember.

2. Leave it open.
A logo that raises a question and is open to interpretation is better than one that attempts to provide all the answers.

Blackboard writing that says I will follow rules

3. Be relentlessly consistent.
Companies that have strong graphic identities have built them through years of use. Pick a typeface and color and use them over and over on everything.

4. Don't be embarrassed about logo design.
For great design to work, it needs to be seen as important to the important people.

5. Get good logo design advice.
Common sense will take you far, but sooner or later, you’ll need to hire a professional graphic designer for help.

6. Don't expect miracles.
Make sure your company looks, sounds and feels smart in every way, every time it goes out in public.