Special Report: Fundraising 101 Direct Mail

That’s good news for direct mailers, but campaigns managers still need to watch costs.

• Try substituting the new brighter, whiter, uncoated offset stocks for opaque paper. They offer the same brightness as the “old” shades of opaque but are less expensive.

• To utilize as much of the paper as possible, ask your printer about “gang-running” several of your printed pieces together on one sheet. For example, if you’re printing a reply card, can you fit a postcard on the sheet to use with another mailing? Such preplanned combos are a great use of leftover space on a press sheet.

• Find out if your printer offers house stocks that incorporate special pricing from paper suppliers. And do consider these when comparing house and premium papers and prices for your upcoming print campaign.

• Investigate a print-on-demand application (sometimes called “just in time” printing). This system allows marketers to upload print collateral templates to a site and order pieces “as needed” instead of ordering in bulk. Companies that use this application for “just in time delivery” save paper, warehouse and distribution costs.

• Talk to your print vendor about how to achieve a “textured” paper look through printing. For example, if you like a stock that has a leather or grainy look, you can always achieve a similar look by adding an artistic design to the background of your printed piece.

2. Match medium to message
NewPage, a leading producer of coated paper in North America, continued its Response Project research at the 2008 DMA convention in Las Vegas. NewPage confirmed that, yes, even with this sophisticated audience, paper influences purchase choice. Sixty-seven percent of respondents were influenced by the heaviest paper stocks, despite other basic components like graphics, colors, photos and text remaining the same.