We help you deliver the right message, to the right audience, at the right address – every time.

Colortrend has become a Los Angles direct mail leader by concentrating on our core areas of expertise: direct mail production. Our customer service team is thoroughly versed in postal regulations. We keep you informed on every detail of your project as it goes through our production process.

Colortrend maintains a full digital print center guaranteeing your toughest deadlines. We offer print on demand services for a wide selection of color and black and white materials. We want you to help you achieve your direct mail objectives in every way possible.

As a Los Angeles direct mail service, we naturally focuses on direct mail itself as the primary marketing vehicle. But new technologies provide terrific opportunities to leverage those direct mail dollars. Ordinary direct mailers can now become full-on marketing campaigns.

Colortrend’s direct mail  services now include a number of internet marketing products vital to establishing a complete connection. Whether you use the internet or not, here are 5 goals to always keep in mind:

5 direct mail goals

Find new leads
Maintain current clients
Introduce new products/services
Generate feedback
Improve customer relations

Top mailers we’ve seen in 20 years

 Colortrend has produced many different kinds of direct mail over the past 20 years. We’ve  identified certain mailers that deliver the best results at excellent price points.

The packages can be ordered from Colortrend as is, or modified to your specific needs.

• 4 piece letter mailers
• Brochure self-mailers
• Invitation mailers
• Postcards

Before using a direct mail package, or embarking on any direct mail campaign, always have a plan.

Clarify goals

The key to planning a successful direct marketing campaign is to clearly indentify your objectives. Here are a few key starting objectives:

• Increase sales from existing clients
• Generate new clients
• Client retention
• Client reactivation
• Enhancing client experience
• Strengthening loyalty

Knowing what you hope to accomplish is step one. Here is another important step.

 Target your audience

Targeting a specific group, or a group within a group, takes time and effort, but the pay-off can be big. With so much media everywhere, people pay much closer attention to what speaks directly to their interests and needs.  Think about how many emails, news flashes, twits, and more you look at every day.

A big advantage of direct mail is that you can target relatively easily. The cost of the materials is higher, but the total outlay for a targeted direct mail campaign may actually be less that for a traditional ‘broad brush approach’.

If you have your own list you probably have marketing data on your recipients, and targeting is even more effective.

Feel free to contact Colortrend for more information and ideas on how our Los Angles direct mail targeting services can work for you.

We have more options
There are plenty of great new ways to market and fund raise, of which direct mail is only one. We feel it’s still the essential component, largely because by nature it is ‘different’ than digital media, and it can’t be beat for ‘putting the message’ into someone’s hands.

The new marketing approaches, particularly social media, and to a lesser extent email, are extremely effective, but also require a fairly high level of effort. Data accumulation, or an understanding of what is relevant and of interest to your audience, is essential, and no small task.

One thing direct mail has going is that’s it’s easy. Not true for ‘new media’.

Whatever your direct mail needs are, we are your source!

Prospect list:

1) Unqualified, random list, with a weak, or un-untargeted message: Low probability of success.
2) At least two of the above criteria resolved: a chance to break even.
3) All of the above: A good chance for a positive return.

In-house list:

1) No matter what you do, if you spell the names correctly, you should do ok
2) Ramp up your game, send out something newsworthy, give something away: a winner
3) Spend a little money, look at your data, do a PURL: You can (no guarantee) – hit a home-run.

Case studies: If you want to see how others in your industry have used direct mail to their advantage, call or contact us. We have free resources that may help.

Here is an informative link as well.

Sub-groups: no problem:
One big advantage of today’s ‘new direct mail’ is the ability to focus in on prime prospects with targeted mailings. Choose a subset of your list and mail to them, and only to them.

You may be thinking that’s great if I have a large enough subset to make a decent mailing possible, but if my smaller group is really small – like 100 or so, what can I do?

The answer fortunately, is exactly what you would do if that group was 10,000. Send them a high quality, proven mailer package that we make affordable in any quantity you need.

Thanks to digital technology it’s possible. Take advantage of relevant messaging to targeted groups. It works.

If you are using a mailer that can be personalized at no additional cost, or a small additional cost, then of course you should. An example of this is a letter mailer which is personalized in one field (salutation), and can be personalized in others for a small up-charge.

If you are using a product that takes advantage of efficiencies of scale like a large run of post cards, it’s a harder call. Studies show time and again that mailers with personal messages way out perform generic versions. But personalized mailers are printed digitally at a higher cost. Does the return exceed the additional cost?  Difficult to know.

A suggestion is take a segment of your list – maybe 15% – and send them a personalized version, while the balance get the generic one.  A sample of 250 random chosen from your list is statistically valid. Compare the two mailings and see which gives a better RIO.

What is personalized mail?

In essence you are creating a  unique marketing piece for each of your recipients. The piece uses personal data such as name and address. Marketers can go a lot further by highlighting previous behavior, including purchases, amount spent, and so on.

Personalized mail has been around a while, and more recently joined by personal websites (PURLs). A PURL is essentially a response vehicle in the form of a landing page. Each recipient gets their own web address; for example:

colortrend.net/johnsmith

John will be ‘prompted’ to logon to his PURL in the mailer with a special offer of some kind. When John logs-on he will see a personal greeting, a message that reinforces the mailer he’s received, and usually a few questions. (more information on PURLs)

As mentioned personalized mailing pieces require digital printing rather then offset, which is more expensive. However, less can be mailed, and if your list is good and your message relevant, you may get a much higher response than from a broader, less directed piece.

Colortrend provides personalization services and can help with the complete project, or a certain part that is needed.

We would be happy to discuss our experiences and observations. Please contact us for more information.

Marketingprofs.com
Great article on tips for direct mail in today’s economy, and more.

PODI
A great resource for information on combining direct mail and internet products.

Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
DMA advocates industry standards for responsible marketing. They promote relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers.

American Marketing Association (AMA) 
The AMA is a professional association for individuals and organizations involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing worldwide.

Business Marketing Association (BMA)
BMA represents a lifetime of expertise in business-to-business marketing and communications.

https://www.usps.com/business/send-mail-for-business.htm

Direct Marketing Association (DMA) 
DMA advocates industry standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the entiredirect mail advertising process.

American Marketing Association (AMA) 
The AMA is a professional association for individuals and organizations involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing worldwide. It is also the source that marketers turn to every day for information/resources, education/training and professional networking. AMA members are connected to a network of experienced marketers nearly 40,000 strong and include leading marketing academics, researchers and practitioners from every industry.

Business Marketing Association (BMA)
BMA represents a lifetime of expertise in business-to-business marketing and communications. They are committed to the information and networking needs of business-to-business marketers and mailing list brokers by connecting their members with the kind of knowledge, people and programs that make achieving their companies’ objectives more efficient and effective.

American Business Media (ABM)
American Business Media is the association of business information providers, delivering business intelligence to industry, Madison Avenue, Wall Street and the Beltway. Their mission is to enhance the knowledge and best practices of leading media companies that provide quality information for business and professional markets worldwide

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