Expanding your reach with advertising insert printing is economical and highly effective — if you have a strategy in place to ensure your success. But errors in production and distribution can put your investment in this direct mail strategy at risk. Read on to discover missteps that are all too common — and review our checklist for success.
Don’t Botch Your Branding
When preparing your advertising for insertion into newspapers and magazines, be sure you’re conforming to your brand standards with a design that is consistent with your corporate identity using logos, taglines and by adhering to the look and feel of your other promotions. Failure to do this will confuse your audience and degrade the overall brand experience. Use high-quality product images and choose to work with a design professional who has experience with advertising insert printing. And hire a professional copywriter to engage your audience with benefits and offers to drive sales. Other pre-production planning considerations include:
- Be sure to include coupons and offers for sales and special discounts
- Use pricing information that displays markdowns to appeal to bargain shoppers
- Include high-quality product images and graphics
- Keep your messaging simple—and focused on value
- Communicate urgency with sales or purchase deadlines
Don’t Skimp on Quality
Quality matters in insert advertising — and a poor-quality print job can deliver lower than expected response to your investment. Glossy paper stocks, for example, make images more vibrant and appealing to your reader. Bright, vivid color and crisp, clear printing conveys quality to your audience and helps to ensure that your messaging and images can be seen and enjoyed. Avoid paper stocks that smudge easily or make your graphics look “dull” or faded. Work with an advertising insert printer like Upper Valley Press who can help you determine the right stock, size, and finish options based on your budget and design goals. We offer many choices for advertising insert printing, like web offset insert printing, versioning, and short-run printing on a range of stocks, including newsprint to lightweight coated stocks. Other production/print tips include:
- Print extra copies of your advertising insert for point of sale distribution
- Target your offer/sales message to your audience
- Leverage holidays and seasonal changes for sales opportunities
- Work with your printer to determine the size options best for your budget and needs
- Be selective with your insert advertising stock and finish options to ensure high-quality
Don’t Miss Your Mark
Get your advertising insert into the hands of your best customers with accurate and strategic audience targeting. Be sure to choose a vendor who can help you target your geographic distribution. For example, you wouldn’t want to pay for delivery to areas that your business doesn’t serve. Saturation in the areas closest to your geography can increase foot traffic in retail outlets—even more so if urgency is created using coupons and limited-engagement sales. Choose an advertising insert printing and distribution specialist who provides dependable, on-time delivery of your materials, with bundled services for printing, inserting, and mailing. Not only can this save you time, but you can avoid the extra cost of shipping materials from other vendors. Be sure to follow this sage advice for distribution of your advertising inserts:
- Evaluate current and past clients to identify untapped audience segments
- Research competitor audience and demographic targets
- Identify target markets based on demographics
- Align distribution with geographic target areas
Why Use Upper Valley Press for Advertising Insert Printing?
We provide turnkey services for advertising insert printing with our Target Direct design services and printing on our Heidelberg “mercury” heat set and cold set printer with 21” cut-off that prints with speed, quality, and affordability. Let us work with you to design, compose, produce, print, and insert your advertising with confidence and economy. To get started, follow these steps to success:
- Set your budget
- Obtain high-quality product photos
- Hire a graphic designer/copywriter
- Vet and select your advertising insert printer
- Choose your target geographies and demographics
Contact us to learn more and find out how we can help.