Who says DIRECT MAIL does not work ? PrintPapa Trade Program – A Success Story !

By: paulnag  |  Posted In: Marketing  |  December 27, 2009

We folks at PrintPapa try to practice what we preach (once in a while anyway). For years we have been promoting direct mail marketing in a big way as one of the most cost effective and cheapest methods of acquiring new business/customers as well as for  introducing new products and services to your existing customer base. However when it came to marketing our own business for whatever reason we somehow never got around to using direct mail as an effective marketing tool. We did dabble in it a couple of times with not so promising results so we never did go all the way.

All that changed however towards the end of 2008, early 2009 timeframe. This is traditionally slow period for our business and this time around it was especially bad because of the economy. Without going into all the gory details, in an attempt to beef up our print volume and utilize all the excess capacity, we decided to do a full scale launch of our Trade or Wholesale Print Program targeted at other Printers, Print Brokers, Copy Shops, Graphic Designers and other Resellers of printed products. The primary mode of getting the word out that PrintPapa was now also involved in the Wholesale Printing business was a direct mail campaign. We purchased a mailing list of apprx. 3500+ prospects from InfoUSA (our preferred vendor for lists) within a 50 mile radius of our location and planned on a 6-9 month campaign consisting of 6 rounds of mailings.

Fast forward to Dec 2009 – as a direct result of our mailing campaign we now can boast of having 200 registered Trade customers of which about 75+ customers place orders on an regular basis. More importantly sales to our Trade customers now account for apprx. 40%+ of total revenue and is the only reason why our company experienced double digit growth in 2009, one of the toughest years for the printing business in recent history, and almost all of that growth came from the trade part of the business. The success of the direct mail campaign (which btw is still ongoing) has prompted us to expand the reach of our Trade marketing program from a regional to a national level thru other channels of advertising. Most importantly the success of the trade pogram has fueled equipment upgrades and expansion programs in this tough economic environment and has positioned PrintPapa as a major player in the Trade Printing business in the Northern California region.

So take my advice and start thinking about how direct mail can help grow your business this coming year. Make it an integral part of your companies marketing budget and execute without hesitation as it is by far the cheapest and most cost effective method of acquiring new business and keeping in touch with existing customers. Pickup the phone and call us at PrintPapa (800-657-7181) or visit www.printpapa.com , we have the expertise to get things rolling for you !!!