Direct mail can still work!

There’s something about Royal Mail that is a little romantic. There’s still a little anticipation in your heart as you head when the post arrives. You still wonder, "Did I get anything cool in the mail today?".

Even special offers from companies get people excited.

Direct mail is still a powerful tool and here is why:
Reach your target market. Direct mail gets its name because of the likelihood of your message reaching the intended audience. It has far greater odds than the shot gun approach of mass media (also aptly named). Even Millennials (consumers aged 18-24) are into receiving direct mail. BIGresearch reported in 2007 that 26% appreciated and responded to direct mail.

Get one-on-one attention.
Mail is personal. People open the mail on their time, when they’re ready to engage. Pitney Bowes reported in a 2008 Direct Mail Survey that 85% of people will open, sort and read mail; and 75% of those consumers look more closely for special sales.

Spend less.
With a more selective target, your cost per client acquisition is relatively low compared to other marketing channels. For a postcard and a stamp, oftentimes you can reach a prospect for under a dollar each.

Get action.
After your direct mail piece is sent out you will know whether the campaign was successful in a short amount of time. According to the DMA, 33% of consumers will respond to direct mail by going to your website. If your target is going to make a purchase, they will do so shortly after receiving the mailing piece. This is important for tracking your ROI. When cash is tight, it is nice to know how effective your message was so you can adjust.

Make it personal.
OK so you can send out a standard mailer, may be with their name on the envelope and then leave your prospective client disappointed when they see it's a random mailshot. At Minuteman Press our digital press and variable data software can bring your mailings to life through customising them. Why not give one of our team a call on 01225 442000 or email Dave on info@minutemanbath.co.uk tell us what message you want to send and who you want to send it to, and we will help you get a better return on your investment.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Oh my!

If you’ve spent any time online in the last six months you’ve probably stumbled across a social media site or two. Facebook – once a place for college coeds to hook up – has gone mainstream. LinkedIn has taken the art of networking to the next level. And the new kid on the block has many atwitter micro-blogging – or at least signing up for an account and trying to figure out just what to do with Twitter. So as a small business owner why should you care? Here are some reasons why your company should get involved:

Exposure
If you’re looking to grow your business, you can enhance your traditional marketing efforts, such as mentioning your Facebook or Twitter accounts in your direct mail, to gain more prospects and their information. Additionally, having social media pages for your company, especially LinkedIn, oftentimes improves your search engine rankings.

Learn about your target market
Just as important as reaching your target market is learning about them. Social media tools allow you to learn what your customers like and dislike. These are important insights and can help you develop your marketing plan.

Monitor reputation
Along with learning how your target market thinks, it’s important to learn what people think about your business. Through social media you can read what people are saying about your company and can handle possible damaging situations in a timely matter.

Free
Social media is the new press release. Marketing professionals always advised business owners to work with their local media to get some free publicity. Now you can generate your own at no cost. But social media sites take time and can be addictive. So think strategically about how you want to use each of the tools.
Before you jump into social media, think strategy before technology.

So many companies set up a page not knowing exactly what to do and after it hasn’t been touched in a month it reflects poorly on their company. Take a look at what your competition is doing locally. Look at the trends in your industry. Social media is a give and take relationship anyway. You have to participate in the conversation and give people a reason to be interested in you before you can expect to get anything out of social media.

Minuteman Press - follow a successful printer in Bath - thebestof Bath blog

Thanks to Best of Bath for adding a story to their blog about our blog.

James and the team at the Best of Best are great at looking after their members, and we find that the Best of Bath is truly more than just another directory.

The our relationship with the best of Bath we have brought on lots of new clients who have been happy to recommend our services to others.

New customers have welcomed being able to read testimonials from other clients.

Go Green with Minuteman Press

At Minuteman Press Bath we believe in sustainability and do more than just say it.

As a printer we get through a great deal of paper and other waste materials as part of the printing process, so controlling what we use and where it goes is important to us.

All of the paper stocks we buy are either FSC or PEFC certified paper. Further more the toners we use on our Xerox 7000AP Digital Press are recyclable as is the toner that ends up on the paper.


You can find out more about that environmental credentials of the standard Xerox paper we use here.

Xerox printer toner employed in digital printing is manufactured using an embrittling agent with the result that a reduction of 25% - 35% in energy employed per kilogram is made. The toner creates no hazards, exposure issues, toxicological complications and requires no special precautions. Ecotoxicity is zero and no special disposal actions are required.


No inks are used in the digital print process. Xerox toner composition is >60% Resin, <15% Frits, 5 - 10% Polyethylene wax, 3 - 8% Pigment (CMYK), <15% other additives.


100% of toner cartridges and bottles are recyclable. All toner is non-toxic and non-hazardous.


We also send all of our waste paper goes off for recycling through Evergreen for secure shredding and recycling.

Minuteman Press Bath You Tube Channel Launched

We have just launched our new You Tube Channel for Minuteman Press Bath.

At the moment it only shows a short clip of our shop during yesterday morning's snow. We hope to soon show you some interesting projects that we have printed for our clients to give you some food for thought when it comes to coming up with ideas for your own printing.



Find our channel here and if you think there's something useful that you would like us to show you let us know and we will do our best to video it for you and publish it.

New Wide Format Price List Available

We have updated our wide format price list for full colour posters. Minuteman Press has one of the biggest poster printers available in Bath. The HP DesignJet Z6100 poster machine prints using light resistant inks and prints on many stocks including scrim and banner material up to 60" wide.

We love this machine and with all our finishing options such as laminating, mounting and eyeletting, there's not much we can't do. This includes bannerstands and graphics for pop up displays.

Why not ask us for a quote or for a discussion on how our big printer can help you email info@minutemanbath.co.uk.

What a day!

It seems as though people are definitely back to work today.

We have been busy with orders quotes and printing all day, so it seems by the volumes of calls and emails coming in that many of our clients are back to work and catching up on print orders that they would have placed last week.

Back to normal.

The weather is almost behind us and we are expecting business as usual this week. Our paper merchants have caught up with their deliveries to us so we will be catching up with any delayed orders because of this today.

We are printing some stunning mailers today for the Motorexpo, we use a rich black on these to give a great finish and look and we have printed on a nice 280gsm Silk. I know our client will be really happy with the final result.

Phew

Today has seen many of our customers getting back to work and now having to catch up the the printing they would have ordered over the past few days.

Our Xerox 7000AP Production Digital Press has been working flat out (along with Mike our Production Manager) to get everything printed, I cannot praise enough our finishing team for getting through all the booklets that we had to get done today.

A job well done.

Almost all in!

Good morning. We have a almost have a full team in at Minuteman Press Bath today and will be busy printing and designing stationery, booklets and business cards today.

Our designer Ali is working from home thanks again to the wonders of the internet and to a very helpful piece of software from Log Me In so she can access her Mac and do design as if she were working here in the office.

So in short get in contact and we will get printing.

We made it!

Well at times this morning the team here at Minuteman Press did wonder if we were going to make it in today. However most of us did and we have been actively open for business.

Dave walked it from Southdown, Mike strolled in from around the corner and Ali planned the day before and stayed in Bath last night rather than trek out to be stranded in Devizes. Wayne got in on the train from Chippenham and Jan made it in from Oldfield Park. Good show!

David (The Boss) is working from home today.

So in short we have been busy printing, copying and designing for all our customers.

Lets just hope that we can make it home again later.

Three for the price of Two on printed Stationery!

So the snow got us thinking what could we do to cheer people up who have missed out on time at work or have been struggling through the snow to get there?

Well here it is.

Order 3 different items of your company stationery and we will give you the cheapest item completely free of charge*.

So if you order letterheads, business cards and compliment slips the cheapest item in that will probably be the compliment slips, which you will not pay for.

It's snow joke, we must be losing it.

Free stationery? Yep!

We are running this until 28th February 2010 and applies to full colour stationery, the letterheads and compliment slips on 100gsm Executive and the business cards on the 400gsm Luxury Artboard.

Email us at info@minutemanbath.co.uk for a quote!

*Needless to say that maximum order quantities will apply - just to make it fair.