Gary Dahl. Advertising for Dummies
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She had a local copy shop print her brochure on heavy stock because her
own printer couldn’t handle that weight of paper. The copy shop also scored
and folded her mailing piece, printed her logo on envelopes, and printed her
labels (which can sometimes be tricky because they’re sticky and can ruin
your toner cartridge if they get stuck).
Finally, she stuffed all the envelopes and labels and applied all the postage
herself. This mailing was a small, though, going out to only about 300 people.
If you’re mailing to thousands, you probably need help; fortunately, you can
outsource all these tasks (check out the section “Handing Off the Dirty Work:
Direct-Mail Houses”) — or you may find it more cost effective to invest in a
color printer and color toner as these costs continue to become more
affordable.
A collateral piece, whatever form it takes, is a reflection on you and on the
quality of your business. It’s worth some time and effort. I’ve always hired
professional talent to do the jobs that I’m either incapable of doing or don’t
have the time to do right, and I think that’s good advice for you to heed as
well. In the following sections, I cover the various ways you can create a qual-
ity collateral piece. The process involves much more than just typing infor-
mation on paper.
Using design software you may already own
You have access to some excellent collateral-material design templates on
various software programs, and you may already have them on your com-
puter. For example, Microsoft Publisher has a huge variety of templates for
brochures, mailers, postcards, greeting cards, letterheads, and so on.
Software programs also include step-by-step tutorials that are supposed to
transform the design klutz into the design pro. Even if you have no experi-
ence in design, software can be of enormous value. Think of software as sort
of a high-tech paint-by-numbers set. You’re given multiple choices at every
step along the way (cover art, photos, backgrounds, colors, layouts, type
fonts, folds), and you end up with a mailer, brochure, or other item of busi-
ness collateral. You can also use these design programs to help you create
print advertisements and signage.
One caution here: By using these built-in computer design programs, you run
the risk of creating something that may have been done by another company,
perhaps even one of your competitors. The choices on these programs may
look endless, but they have a similar look and feel, and, for the most part,
they’re not very original.
When you’re finished designing the ad, save your final draft to a disk in the
specific file program requested by your printer. Then hand the disk to your
printer, tell him how many copies you want, and take the rest of the day off.
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Hiring a pro to do the design work for you
The best way to get the best possible design is, in most cases, to hire a profes-
sional graphic artist to handle these chores for you. A professional designer
can help you with the creation of the piece and also assist you in making the
many printing decisions required — all in all, a good investment. Graphic
designers cost money, but not nearly as much money as a few thousand
poorly conceived, badly designed mailing pieces that no one bothers to read.
Your printer can likely recommend talented graphic designers in your area,
and you can also look in your good old Yellow Pages under “Graphic
Designers.” In my local Bay Area phone book, this list is seven pages long!
Call one or more of your local designers, invite them to your business, and
ask each of them to bring their book (a collection of the designer’s work sam-
ples). A quick scan of the designer’s work can help you choose the right
person for your particular job.
Ask for a copy of the terms and conditions from your designer. Make certain
you have a complete understanding of ownership and what is financially
expected of you in order to receive your final artwork and your final printed
pieces. Some designers expect to be paid again if their artwork is used to
create more than one piece, or if you reuse their artwork to print the piece
again at a later date. Negotiating and agreeing upon a flat buy out (where you
own all rights to the finished artwork) is best. That way, should you choose
to reuse the artwork at a later date, you won’t incur additional charges.
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Some cautions on buying art and printing
If you’re working with a graphic designer, she
can quite likely have a good idea of the look and
feel of your finished printed piece, and she also
has some definite thoughts as to which printer
she wants you to use. Ask your designer to pro-
vide you with an official Request for Estimate
form, including all the specifications of your
printing job. Important information includes:
Quantity: The number of pieces to be
printed
Flat size: The size before folding
Finished size: The size after folding
Stock: What quality and color paper the job
is to be printed on
Ink colors: Which colors will be used
Screens: The degrees of color
Half-tones or color separations: The number
of photos
After your designer gives you this completed
form, you can then send it to a few reputable
printers via fax or e-mail. With all the job’s specs
clearly defined on the form, and after determin-
ing the number of pieces you need, you can ask
for printing quotes. Then you can further nego-
tiate with the printers after you receive back all
the quotes. Some printers may substitute a par-
ticular paper your artist has called for with a
house stock (papers they keep on hand) in order
to offer you the lowest price possible. Confer
with your artist regarding any variances found
on the estimate forms.
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Handing Off the Dirty Work:
Direct-Mail Houses
Though it certainly isn’t the only method of getting collateral ads to your cus-
tomers, direct mail is the most-common means. The appeal is easy to under-
stand: With the proliferation of copy shops in the last decade, it’s easier than
ever to have someone else handle all the details for your direct-mail cam-
paign, such as envelope stuffing, folding, sorting, postage, and so on.
In addition to a traditional mailing house, Staples, Office Depot, FedEx
Kinko’s, and most local copy shops now offer this service (onsite and online).
You simply take your finished printing to them, or have your printer deliver it
to them directly, and they take care of the rest. They also furnish you with
the mailing list you require, print the labels, affix the labels to your mailing
pieces, add the postage, sort the pieces by zip code, box them up, and
deliver them to the post office. It sure beats licking envelopes yourself —
though you should weigh the cost of paying someone versus the cost of your
own time if you do some of these tasks yourself.
You might also consider combining your collateral ads with your e-mail or
Web advertising efforts (see Chapter 6 for details). Keep in mind, though, that
you should only contact those customers by e-mail who have expressed
interest in receiving e-mail from you, so that you don’t get banned for spam-
ming people. And if you’re attaching collateral materials — either a postcard
or a brochure or a newsletter — to your e-mails, make sure the format you’re
using in your collateral is something that can be easily opened and read by
your customers. Sending an attachment that doesn’t open or takes forever to
open will only frustrate your customers and make a bad impression — which
is not the way you want to advertise your business!
Asking the direct-mail provider
some important questions
If you use a graphic artist to design your ad, then she probably knows of a
good mailing house, but just in case she doesn’t, you can locate one using the
Yellow Pages. The only difference from one mailing house to the next is the
quality of their mailing lists. A well-qualified, up-to-date mailing list is the
most-important part of the direct-mail equation. For this reason, ask the mail-
ing house the following questions:
When was the list last updated? You don’t want to spend your hard-
earned money sending out the direct mail only to have them returned by
the post office as undeliverable. Look for a house that updates its lists
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monthly, quarterly at the very outside. On average, most reputable
direct-mail houses update their lists every six weeks.
Is the data on the mailing list presorted by carrier routes or 9- or
11-digit zip codes and certified for accuracy of address information?
You want your lists to be at least presorted by zip codes so that you
receive postage discounts. And the more extensively a mailing list is
detailed (zip code digits, carrier routes, carrier route sequence), the
larger your postage discounts are. And certification of accuracy is
important so that you’re sure you’re getting what you paid for.
Will a summary report that breaks out the counts by zip code and
other information be made available to me? The summary report gives
the list buyer (that’s you) a snapshot of the list capabilities and detail
(income level, gender, education, and so on) before you make a list pur-
chase decision. The mailing house offers this report free of charge in
most cases.
Is there a minimum charge? When you decide to buy a mailing list, the
summary report may inform you that a total of 2,200 names are available
on this particular list, and that the cost is $75 per 1,000 names but with a
minimum charge of $250. List companies set a minimum charge on all
lists. What you want to look for when buying a list are minimum charges
buried in the small print.
Is the list charge for one-time or multiple usage? Typically, a multiple-
use list costs you about three times the cost of a one-time-only use. The
multiple-use list isn’t updated prior to each use, so, if you’re uncertain
about using the list more than once, or if your second or third use of the
list will be at a much later date, buy it for one time only.
What is the charge for output? Your mailing house shows you a price
list for the various forms of mailing labels. In simple terms, a continuous
form (also referred to as chesire) is the typical (old-fashioned) computer
paper with slotted tracks on either side that comes in boxes and is used
on dot-matrix printers. A computer program prints multiple addresses
on this paper, and a machine at the direct-mail house cuts and glues the
labels to the mailing pieces. Chesire is the cheapest label form. Sticky
labels need to be affixed by hand and may be more expensive. However
you choose to get the job done, the list company either mails you a com-
puter disk or sends the list to you or your direct-mail house electroni-
cally (via e-mail).
What are my label printing options (laser, inkjet, dot matrix, and so
on)? You can use either traditional sticky labels, or you may decide to
have the addresses printed directly on the mail piece, as many direct
mailers now do, making the mail appear to be more personal so your
readers are less likely to perceive it as “junk mail.”
Can I include a secondary message on my labels (for example, “pre-
ferred customer”)? These secondary messages, generally with a double-
or triple-spaced separation, go above the recipient’s name and address.
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Will I receive a verification of mailing from either the post office or
the mailing house? This verification is either the official United States
Postal Service Form USPS 3602 or a form created by the mailing house,
which the USPS then stamps and signs to verify that the mailing was
delivered as ordered.
Form 3602-EZ is a simplified postage statement designed specifically for
small business mailers who are mailing standard mail cards, letters, and
flats and paying via permit imprint. Keep in mind, though, that if your
mail pieces weigh more than 3.3 ounces each (which means that you pay
a piece rate for each piece in the mailing, plus a pound rate for the total
weight of the mailing), then you can’t use this form.
You can easily purchase mailing lists online through various Web sites such
as www.infousa.com or www.salesgenie.com (both of which claim to
own proprietary databases of 210 million U.S. consumers and 14 million U.S.
businesses). Another Web site, www.polk.com, specializes in automotive-ori-
ented lists. You can also type “mailing lists” into an Internet search engine to
find what you’re looking for. These companies provide you excellent, in-depth
research capabilities — before you even purchase a list.
I receive direct-mail pieces that are so far off base that I wonder how in the
heck my name ever found its way to that particular list. Case in point: I
receive mail each month from a singles club inviting me to parties and other
social events where I can meet and mingle with other singles and have a high
old time. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. Of course, the fact that I’ve been mar-
ried for a thousand years would seem to indicate that my address on this list
is a gigantic waste of the advertiser’s money.
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Mailing lists: Something for everyone
Mailing lists are increasingly more sophisti-
cated and informative. Mailing houses have
these lists broken down by demographics (age,
race, and so on), geography (zip codes, ethnic
neighborhoods), income, buying habits, home
value, swimming-pool ownership, the works.
Name your requirements, and chances are a
mailing house has the list you’re looking for.
Added to the incredible mix of information is the
term
psychographics,
which can pinpoint cer-
tain people (for example, “condo-dwelling,
SUV-driving, techie”). You can probably find
more information in the form of mailing lists than
you want or need to know.
Remember:
Any direct-mail house can stuff
envelopes. It’s the
quality
and
timeliness
of their
lists that you should be most interested in.
Because people move from one place to
another, change their marital status, modify
their buying habits, increase or decrease their
income, and change all sorts of things, mailing
lists must be purged and updated often — every
six weeks is optimum. If you want to send a
mailer to households earning $100,000 and up,
you can find a list that can get the job done.
How up-to-date the list is, however, makes the
difference between all your mailers hitting the
correct homes and a whole bunch of them
being returned.
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A good result from a direct mailing is a return of 2 to 3 percent. That’s not
much. If you send 1,000 mailers, that means you may get responses from only
20 or 30 people, and converted responses (sales) from even fewer. But if a few
of those 20 or 30 people spend a lot of money with you, and if their added
business pays for your printing and mailing costs, those 20 or 30 people may
be enough — especially if they become return customers. But the fact that a
good direct-mail campaign brings you only a maximum 3 percent return puts
that much more meaning into the validity of the list to which you’re mailing.
You can never be 100 percent certain that the list you’re buying is completely
current. But you can pressure the direct-mail house to give you assurances
that the list is as valid as it can make it.
Planning your postage
Your good credit allows you to be billed for the design work, printing, mailing
list, and mailing services, but you have to pay for the postage upfront. The
cost of postage is the one item for which the direct-mail house requires you
to pay in advance or, as we say in the agency business, CIA (short for cash in
advance). The direct-mail house must pay for the postage when it delivers
the material to the post office, or it will have had to pay upfront to load
postage into its postage meter. One way or another, the company wants your
check before your mailing moves out its door.
After going through all the trouble and expense of sending out direct mail,
you may be stunned at the number of direct-mail missives that are returned
to you stamped “non-deliverable as addressed.” No matter how good the list,
some of your mail is destined to make a quick roundtrip. You never know
how many people actually read your direct mail, but you sure as heck know
how many people never received it in the first place. Direct mail is likely one
of the more-measurable media, because the returned items just sit there, in
an ever-increasing pile, mocking you. For this reason, most direct-mail houses
use their own return addresses rather than the clients’. That way, you don’t
have to see how many items get returned.
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Chapter 11
Opting for Outdoor Ads: Billboards,
Posters, Ads on Buses, and
Other Signage
In This Chapter
Putting the different forms of outdoor advertising to work for you
Signs of the times: The influence of technology on this ad medium
Analyzing and using the key elements of an effective outdoor ad
Selecting from the many forms of outdoor advertising
O
utdoor advertising is likely the earliest form of advertising. Before the
billboard became a freestanding structure, advertisers plastered their
snake-oil logos and slogans on rural barns and on the sides of downtown
buildings. And long before that, in an age when most of the population was
illiterate, stores and businesses displayed signs that were pictorial (often
carved) representations of what they were selling — a mortar and pestle for a
drugstore, a tankard of beer for a tavern, a big bloody tooth for a dentist, a
hammer and anvil for a blacksmith, the scales of justice for an attorney, and
so on.
Outdoor advertising (also known as out-of-home advertising), which includes
billboards, bus shelters, subway posters, street furniture (bus benches), sta-
dium displays, mall and airport signs, bus cards, taxi tops, shopping carts,
and a multitude of other forms, has high visibility. Of the hundreds of mes-
sages advertisers expose daily to consumers, I’d guess the majority of them
are outdoors.
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Outdoor advertising is relatively small on the advertising food chain, behind
direct mail, television, radio, newspaper, magazine, Internet, and even Yellow
Pages advertising. Still, it’s not insignificant: According to the Outdoor
Advertising Association of America (OAAA), in 2005, advertisers spent $6.3
billion on outdoor advertising, which was 8 percent more than the previous
year. And it can be a highly effective (and affordable) medium when the basic
rules of good advertising are applied — namely, an eye-catching design and
clear, concise copy.
In this chapter, I clue you in to whether outdoor ads are right for your busi-
ness; what your options are in terms of all the different formats and place-
ments; and how you can design the most effective outdoor ad, given the large
size of this medium but also the fact that it doesn’t really support a lot of
copy. In the sections that follow, I’ll show you how and when to THINK BIG
and still get your message across.
Recognizing the Advantages
of Outdoor Advertising
Outdoor advertising is on display 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a
year. It isn’t surrounded by editorial content and competing advertisements
the way newspaper ads are; it doesn’t compete with programming and other
commercials the way radio and TV ads do; it doesn’t interfere with what
someone is doing when browsing the Web, the way online ads pop up; and
you can target it to reach very specific audiences by board location and
neighborhood. Outdoor is exceptionally effective at reaching various ethnic
groups, because you can choose which neighborhoods you want to advertise
in — if you want to reach a Hispanic audience, you can place your ads on
boards in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods, and so forth.
Outdoor advertising is ideally suited for
Building recognition of your name, logo, package, or other icons associ-
ated with your brand
Targeting an audience geographically
Assisting prospects and customers with directional information
You can’t throw outdoor advertising out with the trash, reach over and turn it
off, close it out as an electronic intrusion on a computer, or use it to line the
bottom of a bird cage. It sits up there — big, bold, and impressive — to be
read over and over again by passing motorists and everyone who lives in
the neighborhood. It gives you continual exposure, like a 30-day-long
commercial — and that’s just what you want.
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Outdoor advertising includes billboards, posters, airport ads, bus signs, mall
posters, bus shelter ads, stadium signs, bench advertising, shopping cart and
gas pump advertising, blimps, banners towed by airplanes — the list is endless.
Who uses outdoor advertising? Here are just a few businesses that do outdoor
ads:
Radio stations are among the largest buyers of outdoor ads, because the
people viewing the boards are in their cars and are quite likely listening
to the radio — and that’s a great time to remind them of your station.
Cell phone companies are one of the fastest-growing buyers of outdoor
advertising.
Fast-food outlets use billboards to attract hungry motorists to specific
locations at highway exits.
Automobile manufacturers and local dealers use outdoor ads to reach
consumers who are, when they see the ads, sitting in their cars and
trucks.
The top 10 industries that use outdoor ads, according to the OAAA, include
the following:
1. Local services and amusements
2. Media and advertising
3. Retail
4. Insurance and real estate
5. Public transportation, hotels, and resorts
6. Financial
7. Restaurants
8. Communications
9. Automotive: Dealers and services
10. Automotive: Auto access and equipment
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H&R Block hits a nerve
H&R Block developed a very effective outdoor
campaign a few years back. Capitalizing on the
utter confusion of a tax form, one of the com-
pany’s billboards read: “Subtract line 64 from
line 56 if more than line 56 . . . or call us.”
Although this board used more words than I
believe is optimal, the board worked because it
was humorous and struck a nerve. People
remembered the ad, even though it was long,
because it was so creative.
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