Nahan by digital

the magazine something different

Volume 1

TABLE OF e. azin g a an M his h a f N ent t lly for o e su o pres cifica ting , s i s r l ade ura cited t ed spe naviga e g R u a r x n rs gn Dea ur i I am e , desi arkete o e to ahan, latform mail m m o N , p c t tion ights. Wel EO of voking d direc a s r o s C n ve As ght-pr MOs a ustry. con nable in , we e t d u ula actio over pective tho - the C lving in m c i t r o ou vide o s ers you ever-ev e: t nd pro nt on resh p l p a a im our s s tions, d eleph t’ - a f i n o c e issi conne -strip ifferen d m r a t an usly n i Ou er real e zebr thing D r t e of p eticulo r fos like th r ‘Som e m ow t . e le p rafted Jus o deliv rketing b i g c n t a e ta page, aim rect m h t y i r o man on d nt t t in eve am. u e h m ns. se ply mit eviden tive te o e i m e t d o c c the is rea , a conne o y t t i Our t mail ative c g l nt lic v c imp of rea stame arketin s dire ur inno n e i m e t lieve portanc s as a r your e by o b e , we the im e serv rce fo n a h n a ou zi nd At N ach, a is maga ble res a o . appr ope th n invalu rney ating u o h j a e We s and his and cr t n e o valu rts. us ections g n i o join l conn nces! eff r o u f ing rea experie o y ak g nk Tha ’s to m arketin m e Her rkable a rem ds, egar R t Bes l Erte n e k Mi , Naha CEO

CONTENTS 04 06

DIRECT MARKETING TRENDS

TRIGGER MAILING

INFORMED CREATIVE

DIGITAL PRINTING

BEHAVORIAL TARGETING

CATALOG PRINTING

DIRECT MAIL TESTING

PERSONALIZATION MATTERS

NAHAN WHITE PAPERS

STRATEGY IN A STORMY ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

Direct Marketing

Trends

In an advertising-saturated society with technology at the fingertips of nearly every consumer, knowing how to stand out to the right consumer at the right time, is a necessary skill for differentiation. Below, we’ve rounded up five direct marketing trends for you to ponder as you plan your marketing strategies.

When it Comes to Words, Less is More

Want your mail piece to catch your consumer’s attention? Don’t overload or crowd it. You have a limited amount of time to entice the consumer to act. If the consumer perceives that it will take too long to read the piece, you may have just lost your chance to deliver your call to action. Provide enough to get your point across, but don’t leave the consumer drowning in words.

Combining Digital and Print

While both digital and print advertising have their own advantages, together, they make the ultimate power team, especially in the wake of phasing out third-party cookies. Whether it’s using QR codes or pre-in-home-date digital ads, the addition of digital to print will become more popular as marketers get creative to increase ROI. Nahan’s solution to this is Direct Mail Companion,™ used to create a seamless message before, during, and after your direct mail or catalog in-home date, leading to greater response and higher ROI.

Augmented Reality

Marketers can harness the power of Augmented Reality (AR) to layer computer-generated dimensions onto a real-world setting. Consumers can use their hand-held technology to view direct mail and catalogs with AR to see how certain products would look in a space. Utilizing this technology gives consumers a memorable and enriching experience that is hands-on.

Targeting by Challenge, Not Just Demographic

What prompts consumers to pursue a service or product? Most often, it is a need that they want to fulfill and they believe that a specific service or product will do just that. Instead of targeting your consumer only by age or geographic region, also segmenting by unique challenges and/or behavior may make messaging feel more personal , and improve overall response.

Use of Informed Delivery

When consumers use Informed Delivery from the USPS, they are able to see ahead of time the mail pieces they are receiving each day. Not only are they aware of what is coming, but they are also able to interact with the mail pieces by clicking on the images and viewing offers from the business’s websites. According to the USPS, as of September 2021, nearly 55 million users had registered for Informed Delivery and that number is expected to grow throughout 2023.

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It’s hard to avoid reading about inflation and predictions of a recession in the news. Supply chain snarls and labor shortages have all contributed to the highest inflation rates in more than 40 years. It’s no secret that during an economic downturn, marketing is often one of the first budgets that companies cut. Less-than-excellent economic conditions mixed with tight labor and difficult supply chains create the landscape marketers are facing. It’s gloomy but business goes on during challenging times. Marketers can stay a step ahead by evolving their strategy, tactics, and process. The knee-jerk reaction might be to start slashing, but that often causes more harm than good in the long term. If you’re not thoughtful about the cuts, you’ll often find programs worsening in performance, ultimately leading to further cuts, and thus creating a downward spiral. Instead, you’ll want to review your most effective programs to make sure they align with your current goals. It’s also a good opportunity to review your vendors to see if there are possibilities for improved efficiency.

Important Vendor questions to consider: Has your data vendor fully optimized your mailing list with predictive analytics and refined targeting strategies? Do you have a regular testing program aimed at creative and data? Has your production and mailing partner discussed how to optimize your campaigns for production efficiency and postal savings? Are your partners helping you take advantage of USPS promotions and discounts?

With the right partners in place and the rights questions asked, you can make sure your optimizing for improved ROI. 06

a n i y g e t a Str c i m o n o c E Y M R O ST t n e m n o r i Env

Mail Smarter: Find the Opportunities. There are always opportunities for greater efficiency and effectiveness in the direct mail channel, no matter the economic climate. It’s time to start mailing smarter!

Keep Testing

Effective direct marketing is the convergence of data, creative, strategy, and testing. Whether the economy is humming along or in a recession, testing and optimizing will always be critically important.

Implement Predictive Modeling

Predictive modeling using sophisticated analytics will help predict the likelihood of a response or conversion from your mailing. Utilizing your current customer base and promotional history to help you target the best prospects and customers. This will allow you to be more selective in who you mail to, which will reduce spend and improve ROI.

Creative Testing

Optimize existing control packages to improve production efficiencies and test alternative stocks to improve package costs. Look to introduce new format configurations into your control rotation to reduce fatigue and improve overall ROI. Finding the right message and offer is a constant challenge in direct mail. Continue to revise your messaging to acknowledge existing economic challenges that consumers are facing. We’re confident if you do this, you’ll come out on the other side with a much more effective direct mail program.

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informed creative

informed creative informed creative

Informed Creative

informed creative

y m k a e Sp ! e g a u g lan

Ultimately, the goal of any direct mail piece is to pique a consumer’s interest, but also leave them wanting more. This is where informed creative comes into play. When a piece of mail is in a consumer’s mailbox, there are two key steps to achieve the desired outcome. First, it must grab the attention of the consumer and get opened. Once it’s opened, it needs to convince the consumer to take action, whether that’s a phone call, typing in a unique URL, or scanning a QR code. Getting the consumer to the point of taking action requires thoughtful strategy behind the design and copy of the piece – allowing the data to influence the creative strategy. Knowing your audience means being able to resonate with them better. But the only way to do that is to know your data.

Subtle Changes Can Make Big Differences Every target demographic is different, so why wouldn’t your direct mail reflect that? Writing for different target audiences require a good amount of nuance. This is when having a strong copywriter who knows how to apply subtle changes can make all the difference. Let’s say you’re an insurance company and you want to reach those of retiring age as well as those who are just starting their families—that’s people in two wildly different life stages. While the entire structure and copy doesn’t need to change, reordering the bulleted benefits to speak to the priorities of the recipient is a way to capture attention. The retired couple might not be looking for the same elements of a health insurance plan as a young family with three children. The same goes for imagery. You don’t need hundreds of image options, but having a few that reflect who you’re speaking to is helpful. They’re more likely to open something that looks like them.

Understand Your Consumer’s Barriers Another important aspect to know about your audience is what might stop them from taking action. Identifying potential barriers is key. Once identified, address it in the copy right away. Going back to the insurance example, some people might not want to switch providers because they think it will be too complicated, so you may lose them before they even read the offer. By stating that the insurance company will eliminate all the pain of switching, you remove a barrier and, possibly, any hesitations.

Move the Needle Ultimately, figuring out what will move the needle for your consumer is what’s most important. And you guessed it, infusing data into your creative strategy provides you with the best opportunity for success. At Nahan, our designers work seamlessly with our Data and Strategy teams to develop informed creative that gets the job done.

Behavioral Targeting

Demographic Targeting versus Behavioral Targeting If you’ve been in the direct marketing industry for any period of time, you’ve undoubtedly heard that highly targeted data is a key driver of results. But this may leave marketers with the question: What kind of data should I use? The answer largely depends on your direct mail campaign history. Have you mailed campaigns before, and do you have customer response data? If the answer is no, the first step is to begin with demographic targeting to be able to later use behavioral targeting for improved results in subsequent campaigns. So what’s the difference between demographic targeting and behavioral targeting and how do you use them to increase your direct mail ROI? Demographic targeting uses information such as age, gender, geographic location, income, and vocation to target an audience. While there are hundreds of additional data points available for use, the first time a brand mails, these are often the only data points available, since there is no previous response data. Demographic data is frequently used to create a predictive Look-alike (or Profile) Model as a first step to predict those most likely to respond. It is not ideal, as it is simply not as powerful as analytic tools that utilize past behavior. After enough initial responders are gathered, strategists and analysts use this information to learn which people have an affinity for the product and are likely to respond via direct mail. If creative tests were done, we gain insight into which type of creative copy and formats appeal to responders. The response data is used to build a more sophisticated response model, which utilizes both demographic and behavioral data. It is based on the principle that past behavior indicates and is predictive of future behavior. We then implement behavioral targeting in the next campaign and beyond. Behavioral targeting and analytics use a brand’s own data, usually in the form of direct mail response and corresponding purchase data for better acquisition results. Marketers must consider how they will capture and measure response so that information can be used to inform future decisions, making behavioral targeting more successful. Examples of this include using custom QR codes, a personal URL only for that campaign, a 1-800 number, or promotional codes unique to each campaign file.

“ By utilizing data across sources, we can identify highly predictive data elements—leading to greater response and conversion results.” – A lan Sherman, VP Marketing Strategy

Benefit #1: Advertise to Consumers Likely to Engage When you target behaviorally, you are analyzing the behavior of past responders and using that behavior to find more consumers like them. Targeting likely responders means better results.

Benefit #2: Print Less, Spend Less

Benefit #3: Greater Marketing ROI

Using behavioral targeting is more cost-effective when the data is available. The more targeted your audience becomes, the smaller it gets. With rising paper and postage costs, a smaller, but more responsive, audience becomes more efficient to reach, from both financial and environmental perspectives.

While your audience is smaller, it is also more responsive. No longer is money spent on people who have less interest in what you are selling. The combination of spending less on materials and having a more responsive pool equals a greater ROI.

TESTING We can make testing work for you. Testing is both art and science – Nahan offers both.

Some might apply the old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to direct mail testing. I would argue if it ain’t broke yet, it will be some day – your greatest risk in NOT testing. Every creative package’s performance declines over time, and if you wait until that happens you could find yourself many months away from a new, high-performing package. The same applies to data. Doing nothing is short-term thinking that, over time, delivers inferior results. Regular testing is an investment that puts the long-term odds in your favor. Every test is an opportunity to learn and improve.

How Frequent Should Testing Be Done? Testing must be a regular, ongoing process. Ideally, that means part of every campaign or at least testing quarterly. The aim is to develop a stable of high-performing creative packages and a precisely optimized audience by testing new data sources and predictive models to continually improve results.

The Risk in NOT Testing Your Direct Mail A Fear of Testing Why the reluctance to test? Some marketers simply don’t know how. Others may not want to risk the company’s budget on a test that may not out-perform the control. Sometimes it’s a combination of the two – “I don’t know how – so why take the chance?”

What About Data Testing?

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I hear less about this than creative testing. Why is there so little data testing? Data can be tougher to test – nowadays it would be less likely for us to test an entire list. With the cost of postage, we must be as precise as possible. Segments or model groups within an audience are not always easily explained or understood. Many lists should not be mailed without the use of effective predictive models to rank prospects. It feels riskier than changing a creative headline, or maybe data is managed by another group in the organization. Maybe the data testing setup and measurement can feel daunting. We can hold and touch creative – it feels more “real” than data. Many of us like to think we intuitively know what works in creative when it’s sometimes best left to the direct mail creative experts. And yet data has a larger impact on response than creative.

Trigger

Mailing

Trigger mailings are “triggered” by consumer behaviors; they’re the most effective type of direct mail campaign. Behaviors include credit inquiries, purchases, life events, click on a website, and more. The best trigger programs get consumers to react quickly with personalized offers while interest levels are high.

How do you build an effective trigger program?

Combine fresh, targeted trigger data with an efficient production process. Fast, Fresh, Accurate Data

40-70%

Nahan provides targeted triggered data via our credit data agent partners or other processes capturing behavior. Real-time, deduped, cleansed data is delivered for production within 24 hours— resulting in fresh data and superior results.

increased response over traditional mail campaigns

By using all three bureaus, we obtain up to 30% more net data than by using one bureau.

improvement on conversion rate

Data can also be ranked and prioritized in real-time through sophisticated, predictive models.

Turnkey Production

At Nahan, we convert a complex process into a simple, turnkey program. We offer programmatic, “always on,” ROI-positive trigger campaigns in both online and offline media channels. From receiving data to first mail drop, our 48hour turn time is truly speed-to-market. A highly personalized direct mail piece or digital message (based on behavior) arrives in home just 5 to 7 days after the triggering event.

12x

ROI Increase

Unmatched Results

Market research indicates that it is crucial to reach recipients 7 to 10 days after an event. This is when consumers are in market for goods or a service. Our triggers average 5 to 7 days from event to in home (using First-Class postage). After that, response drops off—speed is crucial. When prospects express a need, it’s important to react fast and be relevant. For quality data, superior production, and speed to market, think Nahan.

when the

Dominos begin to fall

Face

changing the of direct mail

G7 Certified Being G7 Master Printer qualified doesn’t just mean we’re highly credible. It means we’re committed to providing only the most accurate color management, processing, and quality control – guaranteed. In addition to the company certification, Nahan’s team includes two employees who received G7 Experts individual certifications, which only a small number of skilled printers have received worldwide.

Direct Mail Does It All We streamline the entire direct mail process for efficiency and affordability. From strategy to creative development to printing and mailing, we’re there at every stage. We offer an agile production platform, personalized workflow solutions that can scale to meet any need, and a nimble team dedicated to enhancing ROI through performance and cost optimization. Our mailing team guides specs, postal requirements, and design to ensure 360° coverage and overall economy. State-of-the-Art and Direct Mail. Together At Last. Whatever the size, shape, or cut. However many colors or folds. Personalized or mass printed. We know your direct mail needs are as varied and unique as your customers. Nahan delivers the manpower, the machine power, and the mind power. We can produce everything from postcards to letter packages to bound catalogs containing hundreds of pages. We have top-of-the-line equipment, certifications, and processes to execute a broad range of direct mail demands, including trigger, acquisition, and engagement campaigns. Nahan offers personalization across all components of your mailing to greatly enhance the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. By incorporating personalization throughout all components of your mailings, you can create a more relevant and engaging experience for your recipients, leading to increased response rates and customer satisfaction.

digital

catalog printing pros

Catalogs

We lead the way using the latest color printing technology. The results are consistently unparalleled. We produce marketing materials driven by long-term campaign strategy. We create eye-catching and award-winning pieces that get noticed. We’re G7-certified and masters of accuracy. We guarantee the highest quality print for every job—no matter the size. With Nahan behind the printing, you’ll quickly see the difference.

Highly Personalized Print We utilize the latest in digital printing capabilities, enabling you to personalize messages and target by specific demographics and a variety of other data points, even on your catalog covers. We tap the power of variable data to customize your direct mail campaigns at a 1:1 level, while guaranteeing the same quality and consistency as offset printing. We truly believe that digital defines the day.

End-to-End In-House Resources. Outstanding Results. Our in-house creative, pre-press, photo studio, and ink lab provide customers with quality and convenience under one roof. It’s another example of how Nahan adds value. Our team is prepared to work around the clock to make project modifications and mix custom blends. If changes are needed, we eliminate press downtime and deliver a solution.

Achieve More With Less Using a self-mailer can be an effective way to supplement catalog mailings. Send as a follow-up to direct recipients to your website or physical store or leverage personalization to provide additional information about products that recipients have shown interest in. Nahan has multiple self-mailer size options to enhance your marketing efforts.

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Personalization Matters

Designers of all mediums have best practices they follow when creating effective marketing materials and direct response designers are no different. One of the most important practices in direct response design is using personalization well. Personalization has come a long way from just using the recipient’s name and address. Digital print technology and highly targeted data have allowed marketers to personalize designs in creative ways. Personalization is proven to drive better response rates and who doesn’t want that?!

1:1 personalized packages open up possibilities There are many ways to get personal in your direct response campaign. Images, offers, geo-targeted messages and more can all be personalized. Images can be personalized based on segmentation data, business type, location, and more. Visuals the recipient can relate to can be very powerful. Targeting offers to a recipient’s consumer history or specific needs are more likely to get response from your direct mail. Response rates can increase up to 50% or more when targeting consumers on a 1:1 level. One of the easiest ways to personalize and get impact is the use of maps and locations within the direct mail design and copy. This is also information that is part of the basic data—it can simply be pulled from the address block. The words and images you use can be personalized in so many ways. Simply using the recipient’s name, address, consumer history, business type, etc. in thoughtful ways within the copy can entice the reader and increase response.

“ Research by consulting firm McKinsey finds that personalization delivers five to eight times the ROI on marketing spend and can lift sales 10% or more” – Napco Research, 2021

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Nahan White Papers The challenge for many marketers is that they are unfamiliar with how to structure a best practice testing program. That’s why we created Nahan’s Guide to Direct Mail Testing! In this white paper, we provide an insider’s guide to effective direct mail testing for programs of all sizes and across industries. It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started with testing or a seasoned pro, our guide will provide you with actionable insights you can implement today.

OVER 85% of consumers regularly read direct mail immediately, the same day, or at a later time.

Learn how the four phases of the testing process work together to drive optimization.

62%

say a direct mail piece inspired action.

– Research

DIRECT MAIL WORKS. BUT CAN WE IMPROVE RESULTS?

– Pre-Testing – Testing – Post-Campaign Assessment

YES – BY TESTING. 2

A Guide to Direct Mail Testing Today

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