Despite speculation, print is either dead or dying. However, if you want your brand to stand out from the crowd, print is still the way to achieve this. Digital marketing trends have not eliminated print as some would have you believe. They have in fact instead nestled nicely alongside print marketing methods, spawning a highly effective approach to marketing that makes the best of both print and digital.
With recent data protection regulations and the overload of email communications, direct mail is expected to make a comeback. This is great news for marketers as a study by TrueImpact reveals that 75% of people can recall a brand following a direct mail promotion compared to 44% following an online promotion. What’s more, Enthusem reports that 51% of prospective customers prefer a company to use a combination of mail and email.
It’s the envelope that counts!
It’s usually considered that it’s what’s inside the envelope that matters, but in reality, this is the reason why important communications, sales and marketing collateral and other valuable content can be overlooked – the envelope that houses it simply doesn’t stand out and capture enough attention for the recipient to open it and it often ends up un-opened in the recycling bin. With an average of four direct mail items delivered through each household letterbox daily, standing out matters.
If you want to ensure what’s inside the envelope truly makes an impact, you need to consider what kind of impression the envelope itself will have on the recipient. There’s little excitement to be found in a pile of mail delivered in white and manila envelopes, but insert a vibrant colour or intricate design into the mix and suddenly you’ve got a piece of mail that stands out and entices the recipient to open it before the others.
The power of colour
Colour has a powerful influence on the mind. Different colours convey different emotions. Red can provoke passion. Orange can convey energy. Yellow can elicit happiness. Blue can relate to trust. Marketers and designers have long understood the power of colour as one of their greatest tools. Single colour envelopes aren’t exactly anything new. To really stand out, businesses need to think about creating more unique designs that use more than one colour.
Thoughts may then come down to costs and timelines. Adding colour and intricate designs means larger print volumes, higher costs and longer turnaround times. However, that is no longer the case. By investing in an envelope printer that can print colour-on-colour, print shops, small print houses and even print rooms within businesses, can run cost-effective direct mail campaigns, with a real competitive advantage. Even more of an asset is a printer that can provide five colour printing on demand – a break from the norm of typical envelope printers.
Pushing the boundaries of creativity
OKI’s Pro9000 Series Envelope Print System provides the unique benefit of adding white toner to traditional four colour printing, using OKI’s innovative digital LED printing technology. The five colour (CMYK+W) device will push the limits of creativity to make your direct mail stand out with stunning white on colour as well as colour-on-colour output, producing brilliant, eye-catching full-colour images.
This is especially impactful on dark-coloured envelope media. Traditionally printing on colour or in white involves lengthy and costly print processes often making it prohibitive for print shops and small print houses to offer this service to customers. Now with a minimum volume of just a single personalised envelope, printing highly targeted direct mail pieces on demand is a viable option, enabling print houses to extend the range of services they can offer customers.
Supporting standard and custom envelope sizes and different media types, the Pro9000 Series Envelope Print System opens up a diverse range of different formats and finishes. It’s not all about the envelopes. The extended capabilities of the Pro9000 Series Envelope Print System supports various substrates from plain paper to synthetic media, magnetic media, polyester, transparent film, heavier card stock (up to 360 gsm) and beyond.
Short run card production, for greeting cards, for example, has never traditionally been cost-effective in businesses or print shops but the Pro9000 Series Envelope Printers finally makes this feasible, enabling affordable, on-demand short run printing that easily supports personalisation. Compact, affordable and easy to manage the Pro9000 Series Envelope Printers provides businesses and print shops with diverse and vibrant possibilities to create direct mail campaigns with impact.
