While most people associate QR codes with younger consumers, older consumers should not be overlooked. Smartphone users in the 35–54-year-old bracket represent the largest percentage of QR code use, but those in the 55+-year-old bracket are the fastest growing demographic of users.

Among those tracking the demographics of QR code use is Mobio Identity Systems, a mobile payments processing company. Drawing data from its servers, it found in Q1 2011 that QR code usage was highest in the 35–54-year-old bracket—49%. But it also found something surprising. Thirteen percent of QR code scanners were 55 years old or older. This is up from 11% in the second half of 2010.

ScanBuy, which offers a platform for creating and scanning 1D and 2D barcodes, reports nearly identical numbers. In Q3 2011, it found that 13% of 2D barcode users were in the 55+-year-old bracket, up from 8% in Q2 2011. That’s a lift of 62%! In Q1, only 1% of QR codes scanned through its system came from consumers in this bracket. Kind of gives you whiplash, doesn’t it?

What does this mean for you? If you’re looking to take customers and prospects online, age doesn’t need to be a barrier to the use of QR codes.

The benefits of QR codes are significant:

~They allow a direct connection from print to the Web.

~They make accessing URLs easier by taking viewers directly to the site without having to type in URLs manually.

~They allow consumers to respond to your message at the very instant their interest is piqued.

People are scanning QR codes regardless of their age. Even if many of your target customers and prospects are 55+, don’t be afraid to use QR codes. Just make sure you provide alternative response mechanisms for those not yet smartphone-inclined.

Need help? Talk to us about how and when to use QR codes in your next marketing campaign.

In a study of 466 marketers (“Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity,” 2010), InfoTrends found that only 40% of marketers’ campaigns fit into the category of “one to many.” Forty percent fit into the category of segmented marketing (“one to
few”). More than one in five (21.0%) fit into the category of full personalization (one to one), whether print or electronic media.

Let’s think about that for a moment. One in five campaigns is fully personalized. So what does that mean for you? Well, it means that if you are sending static mail pieces,  you’re competing with marketers who are speaking (potentially to the same customers and prospects as you) on a personalized level.

If your competitors are personalizing and you are not, who do you think is going to get the most mind share? Even if your competitors aren’t personalizing today, they may be
tomorrow. You are going to want to get there and establish a relationship with those customers or prospects before they do.

Personalization doesn’t have to be difficult. Even with a simple basic customer list, there are steps you can take:

1. Personalize by name.

Don’t just personalize the message. Use the recipient’s name creatively. You can integrate it into the design in an interesting, eye-catching way.

2. Target by a single, simple variable.

Will it help to target the mailing by gender? How about by ZIP code? Would it help to add a map? (This works great for new businesses or new branches or locations.) These are data you already have. Use them!

3. Append the database.

Still think you don’t have any variables you can use? Do what’s called a database “append” in which you purchase simple variables like home ownership or household income for the names you already have. Appends are not expensive and can boost your marketing
effectiveness exponentially.

Talk to us about how you can put it to use to create a more personal relationship with your customers. You probably already have more information than you think!

Entrepreneurial spirit – Being great is about breaking the mold, creativity, and the willingness to take risks. Technology is changing, we need to change too. Consumers’ buying habits and communications preferences are changing, so let’s evolve with them. Great agencies are willing to strike out and try something fresh.

In the world of 1:1, this might mean appending your database with a new set of variables, adding household income or interests to help you better target your customers. Follow customers’ changing buying habits by sending certain target audiences to a Facebook fan page instead your website.

Flexibility  - “This is how we have always done it” is a thing of the past. Award-winning agencies are willing to try new things, even change mid-stream if necessary. Top marketers strive to be dexterous enough to respond to changes in the marketplace on a dime.

Before you respond to the marketplace, however, you need to know the marketplace. Add control groups to your mailings to test different messages and approaches. Uncover what your customers think and want, then act proactively on what you learn.

 Using data-driven Intelligence – Call it “marketing science.” Online marketers are gathering data from every aspect of consumers’ online behavior, from Internet searches to Facebook “likes,” and combining it with demographic, geographic, and other data, then using sophisticated statistical modeling to understand, predict, and ultimately influence how they behave.

What is the lesson for you? The more top agencies and their big brand customers drive this hyper-personal approach to online marketing, the more consumers will expect it in print too. Why not give them what they are expecting?  If you’re already using 1:1 marketing, really focus on building and enriching your database. If you aren’t using 1:1 marketing, then it’s time to start.

Need ideas for breaking out of the mold? Talk to us about putting these award-winning approaches to work for your next 1:1 marketing campaign.

What does this mean for you? Well, personalization can get you in the door because it grabs attention. The recipient sees the piece as interesting or relevant to them, but there are many things that can occur between the time the mailer catches someone’s eye and the time that person responds.

If you look through a series of case studies on 1:1 print marketing, whether using personalized URLs (PURLs) or other forms of personalization, marketers with the highest response rates tend not to rely on variable fields alone to motivate recipients to action. There is always some other element present that synergizes with the variable information to make it happen.

Common Response Boosters

Let’s look at some of the most common, industry-wide techniques that marketers combine with personalization to maximize response rates.

Targeted audience. High response rates are most often the result of having a highly targeted audience that, by virtue of demographics or psychographics, is more likely than average to respond. A home furnishings company, for example, might target first-time homeowners. A lawn care company might send specials on lawn care kits to existing customers who recently purchased a high volume of grass seed.

Use of unusual design elements. Personalization can have a powerful impact, but only if people see it. To attract recipients’ attention in the first place, marketers often start with unusual design elements, such as oversized postcards, clear envelopes or pull tab envelopes.

Utilization of multiple media. Effective campaigns use multiple media to reinforce the message and remind people to respond. The use of personalized follow-up e-mails is a common technique.

High value incentive. This technique is common in applications using PURL campaigns, especially campaigns for lead generation or information gathering, such as customer feedback or prospect surveys. To motivate recipients to respond, marketers might offer a gift or monetary incentive, such as a restaurant gift card or entry into a sweepstakes.

Pick Your Team

Personalization is a powerful tool, but it’s not a magic wand. Just as we don’t expect athletes to carry their team to glory all by themselves, you shouldn’t expect personalization to carry the load alone, either. Like all marketing elements, personalization works best when it is part of a collective effort.

One “active travel” company does this extremely well. When you go to its website, it engages you immediately, asking a variety of questions about the type of travel experience you are looking for. For those interested in family vacations, for example, it asks the following questions:

How old are your children?

• Teens
• Almost teens
• Youngsters
• Mixed

When do you want to go?

• Spring break
• Summer break
• Christmas vacation
• Winter break

How active do you want to be?

• Very active
• Less active
• Mix it up

What are you looking to explore on the trip?

• Nature
• Culture

Based on the visitor’s answers, the website automatically recommends specific trips based on these preferences.

The results? After the program had been in place for six months, 60% of those who went through the advice experience finished watching the company’s trip recommendation videos. The average time spent on the site was three minutes and 40 seconds, way above industry average. Forty percent of those who watched the videos clicked on the call to action page. Conversion rates were double those of visitors to the site who did not watch the videos.

Not every marketer can create such a sophisticated system, of course. But you can do something similar with simple 1:1 printing.

Send out a 1:1 (personalized) postcard inviting people to answer questions on a form on your website. Send a personalized letter that includes a tear-out survey or an invitation to respond to a survey by personalized URL. Set up fields in your database to hold the information you are collecting, then use that information to create laser-targeted marketing pitches based on the known needs and preferences of your customers.

Just imagine what this might do to your conversion rate!

Things to consider for creating a Print Ready PDF.

Embedded Fonts

Embedding fonts into the PDF is necessary for the fonts to render correctly for print. If the fonts are not embedded within the PDF, they may appear correct on the designer’s machine as they will be present on that system but when viewed on a computer without the necessary fonts, substitutions are often made and missing fonts are usually replaced with the nearest font available.

1/4” Bleed For Bleeding Jobs

Bleed is crucial to any design in which the pictures and/or color run to the edge of the page. A press ready PDF will include at least ¼” bleed on each side of the document which will make the final PDF 1/4” bigger in size, both in height and width. The bleed is trimmed away when finishing.

Non-bleeding jobs should be to size, no bleeds.

No Printer Marks

Outside information for printing purposes is not desired. Some examples are crop marks, folding marks and registration marks.

Correct Colors

A press ready PDF will contain the correct colors for print. Usually CMYK, spot colors. For consistent color matching PDF’s should not mix between color settings (I.e. CMYK, spot or RGB).

Quality Images

Images in a press ready PDF need to be at least 300dpi at the size they will be printed.

No Data Outside Print or Bleed

Information in the PDF that is not to be printed should not be included in the Print Ready PDF. (I.e. A colored bar inside a PDF that extends beyond the printable area and/or bleed area.

Overprinting

Check all overprinting carefully and make sure that overprint preview is switched on in Acrobat. This will give a guide as to which colors will overprint and which will remain unchanged. If this is not turned on, the file may not print as it appears on screen. Therefore, all overprinting must be correct in a print ready PDF. This is something that is very important for the designer to check as it is not always obvious to the printer, especially in larger files with many pages.

Page Layout

We would like to see blank pages in the document if they are needed. If the document is perfect bound, we would expect bleed on all edges and a saddle stitched book with bleed on at least all three outside edges. We prefer not to have imposed files. A complete document of single pages running from the front cover through to the back cover is our preferred format for PDF page layout.

Correct folding

If the document is to be folded, the Panels should accommodate bleed for the folding edge for wraparound. (I.e. A Tri-Folds outside panel should be the largest panel while the inside panel should be the smallest.)

1/8” Quiet area.

The quiet area is the area close to the edge of the page. This applies to borders, text, images and in fact any element that sits too close to the edge. This is not to be confused with bleed. As there is often movement when trimming large quantities of printed material, elements that are within this quiet area are in danger of being trimmed into. As a rule, it is best to avoid this area when designing a document as the safest way of ensuring that this doesn’t happen.

PDF Security

Make sure security is turned off. No restrictions or passwords.

Every day, we all see different types of envelopes in our mail boxes, and every now and again there will be one that catches our attention. This piece typically will have an interesting image, a lot of color, or heavy coverage, and just might have been printed using ultra violet (or UV) ink. What is UV ink, you ask? Well, they are specially formulated inks that dry immediately when they are exposed to ultraviolet light.

How do you know if you should use this type of ink or not?

• If your envelope bleeds or has heavy coverage say the size of a quarter or larger, you may want to consider using UV ink as conventional ink may offset onto the backs of the envelopes

• If you have a remittance envelope that needs to be folded and in a hurry, UV ink would allow the envelopes to be folded as soon as they were finished printing, whereas traditional inks typically need to dry overnight to avoid smudging during folding.

• If you are using a super smooth stock, you may want to consider using UV ink to prevent smudging or offsetting as smooth stocks do not absorb the inks as quickly as a vellum or typical white wove. UV ink actually cures on top of the substrate.

Not all heavy coverage or smooth stock jobs will need to run UV, but it is nice to know that there are options available. Lighter inks may not offset like a dark red or black would, so you could probably get away without UV inks. Some clients may not be as particular about a little offsetting, but for others offsetting could mean that a job is unacceptable. It is important to talk with a print Account Executive about any concerns that you might have with your envelope project during the initial quoting stage. UV ink will add to the cost of your project, but in many cases the value is portrayed in your beautiful finished product.

In the digital print world, a 4-1/4 x 6 postcard is the best value as they can be printed 8-up on a sheet before trimming and the postage is lower at just $.32 per piece for First Class. With a great full color design, this small piece could potentially bring big returns! All smaller postcards ranging from 3-1/2 x 5-1/2 up to 4-1/4 x 6, mail First Class at just $0.32 each. The largest mailable postcard is 11-1/2 x 6-1/8, but the most common sizes are 5 x 7, 6 x 9, or 6 x 11. All of these larger sizes range in price per piece, but the postage remains the same at just $.45 per piece First Class.

Postcards are a great way to introduce a new product or offer as the message is easily accessible to the recipient, it is literally in the palm of their hand as they carry the mail into the house. Now, add a great design and enticing offer, and you have yourself a new potential customer. This type of direct mailing can have a 2-4% return rate which is slightly higher than the traditional mailing return rate at 1-2% .

Many stock options are available for postcards including glossy, matte, or uncoated, and if a UV coating is what you desire, well that is an option too! Be sure to talk with a digital Account Executive when planning your postcard mailing as you will want to make sure that you are following all postal guidelines.