Dwight’s Blogg
Yes, you’re not seeing things. Welcome to “Dwight’s Blogg” —from the desk of Dwight Stagg, who adds an extra “g” for GREAT! in everything he does— where you’ll find industry insights and actionable ideas.
The latest from Creative Printing Services
Does Your Data Answer the Right Questions?
Whether through direct mail or email, in-store signage, or highway billboards, the most effective marketing is tailored to your target audience. Recently, HubSpot compiled a list of questions to help you target your messaging with laser focus. Let’s look at seven of them.
Do You Know Who Your Best Customers Really Are?
You have a tight marketing budget and want to focus that budget on your best customers. How do you decide which customers are worth the most significant investment? You might think that the answer is obvious—the ones who spend the most money with you. But which metric do you use to determine that?
7 Tips for Big Results on a Small Budget
A successful marketing campaign doesn’t require a big budget. It just requires creativity and strategy. Let’s look at seven smart ways to stretch your marketing dollars and get the biggest bang for your buck.
Ditch the Guesswork: How Data Can Transform Your Marketing Game
Nearly two-thirds (62%) of customers say their favorite brands treat them as individuals (Marigold, 2024). When you create experiences that resonate with your customers, you win their loyalty. That requires more than experience and gut instinct. It requires data.
The Right Way to Use Bullet Points
When you look at any printed material, what catches your attention first? Often, it’s the bullet points. These concise and impactful lists naturally draw the eye, making them a key element in any layout.
How Positive Messaging Can Elevate Your Brand
In a world flooded with uncertainty and unrest, consider something radical: Embracing positivity! Themes centered around kindness, compassion, and optimism resonate with today’s consumers. Here are five strategies to infuse positivity into your print and digital designs.
The Power of White Space: Enhancing Design, Improving Communication
White space, often called negative space, is the space between and around design elements. While it may seem counterintuitive to leave parts of a design blank, white space is crucial in making a design visually appealing and effective. Here are five ways that white space does just that.
Still Hesitating on Personalization?
While personalization is all around us, not every marketer takes advantage of its benefits. A study from NAPCO Research found that if you aren’t personalizing your direct mail, you’re at a competitive disadvantage.
5 Ways to Use Direct Mail for Customer Retention
Direct mail is a powerful tool for retaining customers and building loyalty. It can remind customers about your brand, offer exclusive discounts or promotions, and provide enticing content that keeps your consumers coming back. Let’s look at five ways to incorporate direct mail into your customer retention efforts.
Benefits of Adding Lifetime Customer Value (LCV) to Your Marketing Metrics
Lifetime Customer Value (LCV), also known as Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), is a metric that helps you, as a marketer, to understand the total worth of a customer to your business. By focusing on LCV, you can make better-informed decisions on allocating resources effectively, enhancing customer relationships, and driving long-term profitability.
Crafting Copy that Converts: Details Matter
When selling a product or service, the words you choose matter. It is not just what you say but how you say it. Whether you’re fine-tuning a direct mail headline or crafting the subject line for an email, making subtle tweaks can make a huge difference.
Should You Add Color to Your Envelopes?
If there are two envelopes on the counter, one in color and one in plain white, which one will you look at first? The one in color, of course. There are many statistics on the value of color in marketing, including mailing envelopes. But our own experience is often the most powerful evidence of all. We know what a powerful motivator color can be.
Gear Up Your Marketing Strategy for Summer Success
As the temperatures rise and the days grow longer, it’s time to embrace the season of sun, sand, and strategic thinking. While your competitors may be taking a marketing breather during the laid-back days of summer, you don’t have to. Use this time to gain a competitive edge. While your competitors are cooling their heels in the sand, you can revamp your strategies for the months ahead.
Embracing Print as a Sustainable Marketing Strategy
In today’s digital age, where we are used to hearing, “Go paperless! Go green,” print unfairly gets a bad reputation. However, print is a sustainable choice for businesses looking to minimize their environmental impact. Let’s look at some compelling data points that highlight the sustainability of paper.
Five Key Areas of the Direct Mail Envelope to Captivate Your Audience
Pay close attention to the envelope to maximize the impact of your direct mail campaigns. The envelope is your mail’s first impression, and optimizing its design can significantly boost your response rates.
Want to Be More Sustainable? Embrace Circular Design
In recent years, circular design has gained traction in many industries, including printing and packaging. Circular design aims to minimize waste and maximize the lifespan of products by following the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Not only can embracing circular design lead to significant environmental benefits, but it can result in operational efficiencies, too.
Want to Keep Your Customers Loyal? Do This!
Did you know that loyal customers purchase more frequently, have larger basket sizes, and are more receptive to upsells? It’s no wonder two-thirds of most businesses’ sales come from existing customers.[1] Once you win those customers, you want to keep them!
Got Value? Find It, Market It, Reap the Profits
A well-defined business value proposition is crucial for attracting and retaining customers. This proposition communicates a company’s unique benefits and value, setting it apart from competitors.
5 Tips for Boosting Your Donor Retention Rate
The average donor retention rate for nonprofits is between 40% and 45%. That means for every 100 donors you have, only 40-45 will donate the following year. But what if you could retain more of them? Imagine the impact on your mission!
5 Surprising Ways to Market with Packaging
Packaging is one of your most essential marketing tools if you sell products on the retail shelf. When buyers decide between two products, labels and packaging can be the deciding factor. When buyers plan to purchase one product, great labels and packaging can entice them to buy another.
Creative Gatefolds That Get Attention
Want to get your customers’ attention? Incorporate creative folds that add dimension and interest. Gatefolds, in particular, are cost-effective tools that add high interest and engagement to your pieces. Whether you are producing marketing collateral, event invitations, or direct mail, these fun, creative folds can repeatedly engage your audience with your marketing content.
What’s Drip Marketing and Why Should You Care?
Harness the power of drip marketing to transform shopper behavior with strategically timed, multi-channel communications. Propel prospects through the sales funnel with a tailored blend of emails, direct mail, mobile messages, and newsletters, designed to influence at every stage.
Email: The Perfect Direct Mail Add-On
Want to increase the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns? Add a branded email with the same design components as the direct mail piece so that they are part of an integrated campaign. Adding branded email as a secondary touch doubles the customer.
5 Ways to Maximize Direct Mail for Nonprofits
If you’re a nonprofit, you know how critical direct mail is to your fundraising. Here are five tips to maximize your efforts.
For True Personalization, Look Beyond Demographics
As marketers, we have more data at our fingertips than ever. However, having more data doesn’t, by itself, generate success. What’s the secret?
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