KC-AprilNewsletter

T H E O F F I C I A L K E S S L E R C R E AT I V E N E W S L E T T E R

@kesslercreative

APRIL 2023

VOLUME 17

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Tips from our Award- Winning Designers

Icemen Highlight

Avoid 3

Direct Mail Mistakes to

Direct Mail: Trash or Treasure

in this issue

AN INSIDE SCOOP by Dina Kessler

As we kick off the month of April, I want to take a moment to extend a warm welcome to our new subscribers and thank our loyal customers for their continued support! This month, we’re excited to tell you about our new Icemen partnership, how to boost ROI through copywriting and design, and mistakes to avoid as you craft your next show-stopping direct marketing campaign! From hot marketing tips to exciting news and updates, we have something for everyone in our 17th issue of Hot off the Press. Enjoy!

A Message from The President

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HOT OFF THE PRESS

Direct Mail Mistakes to avoid

Did you know that direct mail has a response rate up to 30 times higher than email? That’s right — a good direct mail campaign can massively boost business and help get your brand in front of the right people. However, it’s not as simple as throwing together a quick postcard and hoping for the best. It’s easy to waste a lot of money by making a few simple mistakes when sending direct mail. Here are a few key mistakes to avoid: Direct Mail Mistake #1: Not mailing to the right audience If your marketing piece is being delivered to a random selection of people, they are most likely tossing it in the recycling bin. By using a targeted mailing list, you’re ensuring that your mail piece will only be sent to the demographic that may be interested in your services or product. Direct Mail Mistake #2: The “send it and forget it” approach. While you may see results from your first mailing, results improve with each additional mailing. Get the most for your money with repeat mailings! A good rule of thumb, according to the American Marketing Association, is to deliver mail drops every 21 days. This pacing is enough to prevent mail overload while still keeping your prospective and existing customers aware of new promotions and offerings from your business. Direct Mail Mistake #3: Not using appropriate designs and materials Nothing turns off a reader faster than a long, solid, block of text. Be sure to separate your text into bite-sized paragraphs that make for easy reading. With postcards, you’ll want the design to promote your goal. What you include on your card, as well as what is emphasized by placement, size, or color, should vary with what you are trying to achieve. A postcard intended to show your local expertise will be different from one intended to establish good will.

APRIL 2023

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Tips from our Award-Winning Designers

It’s time to tap into your creative genius! When crafting a direct mail campaign, an eye-catching design is critical to your response rate and return on investment. To help you design your perfect mail piece, we asked our designers to compile the following tips:

1. Choose the right size: Every successful mail campaign starts with choosing the perfect size mail piece. You can’t develop eye-catching design without knowing your exact dimensions and how much space you have for your design. To determine the right size, you should weigh several factors, including content, appearance, visibility, timing, space, and cost-effectiveness.

2. Keep Copy Concise To maintain balance on your mail piece and ensure that your recipients understand your message, we recommend keeping your copy concise – after all, you don’t have too much space to work with! If a single paragraph contains more than seven lines, break it into multiple paragraphs to make it easier on your readers. 3.

Ensure Offer & Call to Action Are Clear A large portion of your campaign’s success lies in how powerful your offer is. Make sure that you bold your offer and call to action to draw attention to it immediately. Keep the offer short, clear, and to the point. If you’re offering a discount code, for example, make sure that your audience knows how to apply the code at check out.

4. Proof Your Work It’s tempting to want to send your work straight to print as soon as you’ve developed your splendid design, but try to refrain from doing so. Proofing your design guarantees that it arrives in mailboxes mistake-free. Review things like spelling, links, QR codes, and phone numbers. Before you send it off, go through a check list of these elements. Our team will double check your mail piece as well!

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HOT OFF THE PRESS

Icemen Highlight

Kessler Creative recently partnered up with the Jacksonville Icemen as their Preferred Print Partner! As part of that partnership, we are playing a role in the renovations of the Community First Igloo, right here in Jacksonville, Florida! The renovations include brand-new signage in locker rooms, doorways, and along the ice rink for patrons to enjoy. Much bigger projects are down the road, and we can’t wait to share them with you! In the meantime, check out the work we’ve done so far!

This mural measures in at a staggering 120 feet long and 14 feet tall, taking a total of 39 boards to complete! Every element of the mural has been expertly crafted to create a truly immersive experience for skaters.

Our team installed high-quality signage in three separate locker rooms! The use of high-quality materials and attention to detail in the installation process has resulted in a professional and polished look that complements the overall atmosphere of the locker room.

The Igloo recently opened the Icebreakers Bar & Grill, a sports themed bar and restaurant. Our talented in-house production team printed these eye-catching menus!

These window wraps are sure to impress clients and guests alike. The materials used in installation are durable, long- lasting, and easy to maintain.

Once completed, the facility will include two NHL/ECHL regulation-size ice rinks, a sports bar, a pro shop for hockey equipment and Icemen merchandise, an E-center sports arena, meeting rooms for corporate and private use, and the Jacksonville Sports Hall of Fame. The sports bar will have floor-to-ceiling windows to enable guests to eat and drink while viewing the rinks.

APRIL 2023

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Copywriting is the backbone of all marketing efforts that aim to drive the actions of the buyer decision process toward achieving your goals. Whether those goals are to get more leads, schedule more sales calls, convince someone to buy your products or services, or introduce new solutions into a new market, knowing how to properly write copy can be the make or break of a potential deal. What is Copywriting? Copywriting is the combination of written or spoken words used by marketers and other professionals that attempt to sway people towards taking a desired action. Copywriting acts as a grand call-to-action for your brand across all content and marketing collateral. There are instances where a writer can have plenty of room to write their desired copy, but often copywriting leaves room for few words to make a case. While no one is going to become a copywriting expert overnight, there are some tips that you can pick up rather quickly to boost your messages’ impact on your target audiences. Boost Your ROI With These Copywriting Tips

4 Tips for Effective Copywriting Visualize Your Words Using descriptive words that form a clear picture of your offer to help your audience visualize what you are saying will increase the effectiveness of your copy. People are always visualizing when deciding whether to make a purchase or not, if they can’t visualize your product or service, they simply won’t consider buying it. Especially if your ability to use photos is limited, descriptive words can have a similar persuasive effect as a picture would. Bring your words to life! Relate to Your Audience If you can sympathize with your audiences’ problem at hand, you will have a much better chance of securing their attention and business. You only have one chance at a first impression, so stating the problem you are going to solve first in your copy is vital to getting a reader to review all your content. Relating to your audience is a form of personalization, which leads to higher response and conversion rates over non-personalized content. Support What Your Saying Words can have endless meaning or no meaning at all depending on the substance behind them. Tying your words into concrete examples and evidence will create a deeper connection and validation for a potential customer to buy from your brand. Examples quickly show your expertise and the impact your products and services have on real situations. Give Readers a Reason to Respond Think about the reason you’re writing what you are. Do you want people to simply read your content or follow the path you have placed in front of them? If your goal is to get responses that lead to conversions, you need to emphasize why someone should respond. People care about how your product or service will benefit them and how it will solve a current problem they are facing. Most of the time, this means how it will get them more money, make them happier, free them from worry, or feel a sense of belonging.

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HOT OFF THE PRESS

Is Direct mail just something else to spend money on, or is it the piece that’s missing from your strategy to take you over the top? Direct mail marketing offers many benefits to companies in any industry, even in the digital world we live in today. Email, display ads, and social media marketing have become the norm for businesses to advertise their brand to the masses, but that doesn’t always render the best results. With technologically advanced printing and marketing techniques readily available, direct mail could be the key to unlocking a treasure trove of new customers and instilling excitement within your current customer base. Why Direct Mail Still Produces Results Direct Mail: Trash or Treasure

It may come as a surprise to some, but according to the Data & Marketing Association, direct mail recipients engaged with mail at a rate of 96%. The same report also pointed out that response rates for direct mail marketing can rise as high as 9%, more than 9x higher than email. The best part about direct mail is that you can combine it with what you’re already doing digitally. Multichannel approaches produce the best results and with 72% of consumers saying they’d prefer to connect with brands through multiple channels, it’s a no-brainer. Next time you are considering a marketing campaign, consider all the treasures direct mail can bring your company as listed below:

Treasure #1: Mail Sticks Around Advertising direct mail stays in households for 17 days on average, which holds value because consumers continue to see your brand during daily activities. You have likely placed a postcard on your fridge at some point to remind yourself about an upcoming

deal and many others do the same. Treasure #2: Mail Motivates Action

According to a report from True Impact, direct mail is far more persuasive than digital media. Motivation rates showed a 20% higher rate for direct mail compared to digital content, and 62% of consumers said that direct mail motivated them to take action in the end. Treasure #3: Mail Has Less Competition Direct mail has an open rate of 90%. Compare that with email marketing open rates of 23%. Your chances of being seen in the physical mailbox are much greater, which is vital for creating a first impression with a potential customer. If you aren’t seen, you aren’t considered later down the line. Direct mail acts as an antidote creating higher awareness for your brand. Treasure #4: Mail Appeals to Multiple Demographics It’s easy to assume older generations such as the baby boomers would be the main demographic interested in receiving marketing mail, but that is not true. Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z all enjoy receiving mail because it offers tangibility and personalization that most digital channels struggle to match. Consider that 65% of surveyed millennials made a purchase after receiving direct mail, 70% of Gen X-ers look forward to what the mail brings each day, and 72% of Gen Z consumers said they not only get excited about mail, but that they would be disappointed if they stopped receiving it.

APRIL 2023

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Employee spotlight Kessler Core Value: Partnership This month, Kessler is featuring employees who embody partnership by showing an open and honest collaboration with all members and owning the final impact on all organizations involved. Much appreciation to: Erika Benzaquen: Erika

12276 San Jose Blvd, Ste 111 Jacksonville, FL 32223

partners with the Sales team to meet with clients and share products. She also takes care of other client needs and helps with any department that needs her. Alex Colombo: Alex works with other departments to plan out her clients’ jobs and to ensure that we are exceeding customer expectations. Alex Cochran: This all-star helps out with all sorts of production jobs while learning quickly, working extremely well with others, and producing excellent results.

Kessler Kulture

The Kessler team brought the heat to our annual Chili Cook-Off! We had 7 delicious chilis for our judges to sample. Here is who came out on top!

First Place: Fatima Gulamali

Second Place: Kat Jones

Third Place: Sam Karlo

A big congratulations to our winners! If you’re interested in being a judge for our next chili cook-off, don’t be shy - let us know!