Printing.com

Author: Andrea Golindano

  • Sustainable Retail Signage: How to Display Your Commitment to Sustainability

    Sustainable Retail Signage: How to Display Your Commitment to Sustainability

    One trend in retail merchandising that is picking up speed in 2023 is sustainability. Shoppers are demanding that merchants and manufacturers adopt sustainable practices to reduce production and packaging waste and diminish their carbon footprint. An international study of 20,000 customers by the grocery brand leader Unilever identified one in three (33%) people were choosing to buy from brands they believe are doing environmentally good. Retailers have responded by making sustainability a major focus in their visual merchandising, and are making their commitment a component of branding and building customer trust.

    This includes the signage, promotional posters, and displays their customers see and come into contact with at their retail locations. That’s why it’s important that retailers work with printers and marketing agencies that share their commitment for sustainable signage creation and use eco-friendly materials when creating signage. Here are three issues retailers should consider when adopting sustainable signage strategies.

    What materials are used for sustainable signage?

    The first place many businesses begin their commitment for green and eco-friendly sustainable signage is with their choice of the material of their sign. They turn to resources made from recycled materials that can withstand the weather and change of seasons (if outdoor signage is required) or tolerate repeated handling if used for indoor displays. The most favored materials include:

    Bamboo – Favored as a sustainable hardwood, bamboo requires no pesticides, consumes carbon dioxide, and grows almost as fast as it can be harvested and put to use. Although sturdy and durable, it can be pressed and shaped for a variety of uses and can withstand outdoor exposure.

    Synthetic Paper – It may seem counterintuitive to list a product with ‘synthetic’ in its name as a sustainable, eco-friendly material. Manufactured from polypropylene means no cancer-causing or dangerous chemicals are used in its production and it is 100% recyclable. Synthetic paper resists moisture, doesn’t tear, and is UV resistant, making it a solution for both indoor and outdoor promotions.

    Corrugated Paper– Lightweight and easy to display, signage made with corrugated papers is 100% eco-friendly when constructed from PCW, or Post-Consumer Waste, that is recyclable and cost-effective. It is best suited for indoor displays and is lightweight, durable, and an ideal surface to show off sharp colors and designs.

    Aluminum – Aluminum is particularly effective for outdoor advertising and signage. It’s lightweight, pliable, and extremely durable. Most importantly, in terms of sustainable signage, aluminum is one of the most recyclable materials used in signage, and can be repeatedly recycled and maintain its quality.

    What are substrates in signage?

    Substrates are the base materials that images are printed upon, and to be eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable they must be biodegradable, recyclable, or made from recycled products. They must able to hold ink properly, cut without damaging the ink, and able to accurately match desired print colors. Many new substrates provide better quality than less-sustainable alternatives, making them budget-friendly as well.

    Here are a few substrates being used for retail signage:

    Rigid Paper Board – an excellent alternative for PVC foam signs, the board surface is moisture-resistant. While technically foam board can recycled, in many states it’s difficult to find recycling centers that can process foam boards. Rigid paper board is finding uses for eco-friendly retailers.

    Paper-based Styrene Alternative – an excellent alternative for styrene signs, this material is a smooth, static-free substrate that is 100% paper-based and recyclable. It’s high levels of ink absorption and faster cut times makes it highly effective and efficient. Plus, the material does not capture oils from fingerprints.

    Foamless Foamcore – a sustainable alternative to foam board signs, foamless foamcore uses multiple layers of recycled paperboard with a smooth surface and embossed paper core, typically white clay-coated paper or brown kraft paper. Its common use is to mount photos and displays as a backing material.

    Paper-based Backlit Film – commonly used for light box displays of restaurant menu boards, movie posters, and to catch attention at trade shows, backlight film paper is an environmentally friendly material that is water-resistant and can be laminated. The material is 100% recyclable and is an excellent alternative to harmful plastics used to create backlit signs.

    Post-Consumer Waste Cardstock – as the name implies, this cardstock is composed entirely of cardboard and paper that is left over from manufacturing processes or waste material that has been recycled directly from recycling bins and not sent to landfills. It is ideal for retail indoor posters and displays.

    How can signage be more sustainable?

    Another way that retailers are making their signage more sustainable is to rethink exactly what role their signage plays in their retail marketing and how to use technology to go green. For instance, lighting plays an important role in deploying signs that attract eyeballs and create memorable impressions. Replacing traditional neon and fluorescent lighting systems with energy-efficient SEG frames and lightboxes allows retailers to continue to illuminate signage and save money and energy. Retailers are also discovering that less is more and using transparent signage in store windows that allows passing shoppers to see what’s inside the store and still be attracted by sales promotions and other messaging. Perhaps the most intriguing and evolving form of retail signage is virtual retail signage. Integrating interactive print on signage gives retailers the ability to connect with shoppers through their smart phones and deliver 3D modeling, interactive video content, and AR content. While the printed signage remains the same, the content can easily be kept relevant through content management systems, saving retailers costs and reducing signage waste.

    Retailers are presented with a wide variety of materials, substrates, and innovations in technology to demonstrate their commitment to preserving the planet and precious resources with sustainable signage. Marketing.com works with retailers to develop signage results that are good for the environment and business. We help them create innovative packaging, efficient fulfillment and cost-effective shipping solutions from production to distribution.

    Talk to a Marketing.com sustainable signage expert today to discover how you can incorporate your commitment to environmental responsibility into all your retail signage.

  • 5 Ways to Boost Direct Mail Conversions For Your Business

    5 Ways to Boost Direct Mail Conversions For Your Business

    Direct mail works. The evidence is clear.

    67% of people say physical mail is more personal than digital messages. (USPS)

    All age groups are interested in direct mail, and 92% of millennials have been influenced to make a purchasing decision by direct mail (National Mortgage Professional Magazine)

    39% of customers say they try a business for the first time because of direct-mail advertising. (DMR)

    That makes the question: How do I make direct mail work for my business? 

    A number of variables come into play that impact your direct mailing campaign. However, your business can greatly improve opportunities for success by incorporating these best direct mail practices into every campaign.

    1. Embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Direct Mail Automation – There’s no denying that AI provides significant benefits for direct mail, especially when integrated into a multichannel marketing platform that can manage every facet of a direct mail campaign. AI and automation can support campaign content creation and management, target audiences with pinpoint data segmentation, manage multiple campaigns, and accurately and effectively analyze campaign data in real-time. That’s why, according to BusinessWire, 81% of marketers who use a software platform like Marketing.com’s for direct mail, agree it delivers the best response rate of all channels their company use today.

      AI can transform direct mail campaigns by providing actionable insights that lead to better decision-making capabilities. Managing direct mail campaigns through a single dashboard gives your staff access to all of your marketing resources and the ability track performance in one place.  AI automates and performs many direct mail tasks at more amazing speeds than previously possible and provides accuracies in reporting that can improve conversion rates and also save your company money on print and postage costs and reduce waste through improved efficiencies. 

    2. Optimize Mailing Lists – You can expect better direct mail conversion rates by fine tuning your house and prospect mailing lists to target your ideal customer and then give them something of value through your company’s direct mail campaign. Mailing lists have become much more that a collection of names and addresses, and today can be created from insights into consumer behavior to build exact customer profiles that increase engagement and response rates. As a result, your direct mail gets seen by the people you want to see it. A recent survey by the Data and Marketing Association (DMA) found that house lists with direct mail leads pulled an impressive 9% average response rate. More astounding, the study found that prospect lists enjoy a 4.9% response rate, nearly double what you can expect from an average email marketing campaign.

      Relevancy matters to the audience you’re reaching out to with direct mail, and segmenting your lists makes your company’s messaging more personalized and meaningful. There is valuable data at your fingertips, and a channel marketing platform can help you energize it into intelligence, empowering you to effortlessly launch engaging direct mail campaigns.

    3. Include a Strong Call to Action – Increasing direct mail conversion rates can simply be a matter of including a clear, direct, and easy to follow call to action in your company’s direct mail material. Focus the purpose of your piece around the one step you want your customer to take, whether it’s redeeming a coupon, scheduling an appointment, or visiting a website or landing page to place an order. Households trust direct mail. Another DMA study shows that nearly 60% of Americans consider mail a good thing.

      The visual element of direct mail presents a wide variety of ways to capture attention and make the CTA stand out when people sort through their direct mail. Effective CTAs create a sense of urgency with deadlines and motivate the recipient with both a sense of excitement and a fear of missing out on something special.

      The growing acceptance of CTAs embedded in direct mail as QR codes or Personal URLs (PURLs) to engage with customers across multiple channels has the added advantage that these innovations allow you to better track customer interactions.  Print marketing statistics show that more than 60% of recipients either scanned a QR code or typed in a website’s URL from a piece of direct mail.

    4. Make It Personal – Use the data you have on hand about your customers to add personalized content into practically any part of your direct mailing piece and make each piece unique. Customers are willing to give you information if you can make your relationship feel genuine. When your company reaches out, they expect that it’s to their advantage to respond. According to NerdWallet, more than half of consumers want direct mail from brands they’re interested in.

      Innovative print technologies, like variable data printing and software that handprints addresses, greetings, and signatures, allow for highly personalized messaging that creates emotional connections that lead to even greater conversions. Running direct mail campaigns through a channel marketing platform like Dot allows for API integrations that provide tools to help your mailer get noticed. Personalized direct mail is even effective for reviving relationships with dormant customers. According to a recent ANA study, 70% of customers surveyed have re-started a relationship because of direct mail.

    5. Make It Part Of Multichannel Marketing – Direct mail on its own delivers great results, but when it’s added to a multichannel marketing mix, conversions skyrocket. That’s because consumers today don’t rely on only one marketing channel to get their information. Direct mail is the most trusted, but every way you market your business can add value to the customer journey. According to the USPS, marketers saw their ROI increase by 60% when combining direct mail with digital channels. 

    It’s not only digital channels that can improve direct mail conversion rates. Direct mail reinforces commercial signage, which makes it a powerful way to market businesses in local markets. Consistency across all channels is what matters, so that everywhere your customer looks, the message is the same. Automation can build customer trust effortlessly. Direct mail can be triggered after a customer’s first purchase, a visit to your company’s website, or even be a nudge to bring shoppers back to abandoned online shopping carts with added incentives to complete the purchase. Studies have shown that by adding just one extra marketing channel to your direct mail campaign, according to industry research, you stand to boost your company’s revenue by close to 40%.

    Direct mail offers significant benefits by reaching into the households of your prospective and loyal customers where it can stand out and grab their attention on a personal level. Targeting audiences with segmented behavior and demographic data analysis increases direct mail’s effectiveness, and its impact can be further greatened when deployed as part of a multichannel marketing campaign. Innovative and intuitive channel marketing platforms give businesses of all sizes scalable solutions to boost direct mail conversion rates.

    Contact a Marketing.com direct mail marketing expert today to learn more about Dot™, our comprehensive, technology-centered, people-powered platform that seamlessly connects the dots across all your marketing channels.

  • Five Retail Trends in 2023 That Shouldn’t Be Ignored

    Five Retail Trends in 2023 That Shouldn’t Be Ignored

    There is little argument among retailers that things will never quite be the same since the 2020 pandemic. How it will change is still a matter of uncertainty. Retailers are only beginning to adapt marketing and visual merchandising strategies to adjust to the shift in power between relationships with customers. Shoppers are demanding greater interactivity, personalization, and convenience, and they show little patience for retailers who don’t deliver.

    In 2023, five trends in retail merchandising are emerging that retailers of all sizes should consider including in their plans to attract shoppers and keep them as loyal customers.

    1. Shopping has gone social

    Social ecommerce is a retail shopping experience that is predicted to forever change the way people shop and who they shop with. In 2021, $37 billion in goods and services were purchased through social-commerce channels in the US. By 2025, that figure is expected to swell to nearly $80 billion, or 5 percent of total US ecommerce. Social commerce removes barriers and adds intimacy between shoppers and retailers in ways that only social media platforms allow. What makes it effective is innovative and convenient payment and efficient, reliable fulfillment services. The greatest obstacle retailers face is gaining the trust of their customers, and successful social commerce retailers realize the importance and opportunity to establish consumer loyalty and long-term value at every stage of a buyer’s journey.

    Social media platforms become channels for retailers and brands to form deep connections through social commerce features like livestreaming, live chat, virtual shops, and augmented reality (AR). Social commerce marketing strategies should be customer-centric, using hashtags and SEO tactics, and built so it’s easy to be found. Retailers who understand their customers and the social platforms they use are turning to companies like Marketing.com to help them build robust social ad strategies and establish easy and efficient ways to fulfill orders by driven by this high-growth channel.

    2. Sustainability is Driving Consumer Decisions

    Consumers are expecting the businesses they buy products from to operate in an environmentally responsible way. Therefore, if a retailer hasn’t adopted sustainable practices, they should make it a priority, especially if they want to attract Millennials and customers from Generation Z. Roughly two-thirds of shoppers in those groups prefer to buy from sustainable brands, according to a FirstInsight report.

    However, shoppers across all generations increasingly care about whether the retailers they support sell clothing or merchandise made from and packaged using recycled and naturally grown and harvested materials. They want to know about supply chains and whether sustainable manufacturing and efficient shipping practices are followed. More than half of Generation Z is likely to return a gift that is not sustainable, followed by roughly 45% of Millennials, 30% of Generation X and 20% of Baby Boomers.

    Shoppers also want businesses to conduct sustainable practices in their print marketing and advertising signage. According to a Printed United survey. 42% of respondents think manufacturers should prioritize making all their printed materials recyclable. Retailers are listening, and as a result they turning to sustainable substrates and eco-friendly inks to create signs and product displays. They can also use QR codes or embedded coding with interactive print strategies that extend the life of a printed piece through digital content management platforms.

    3. Pop Up Retail Stores Not a Temporary Trend

    The retail pop-up phenomena began as a post-Covid solution to empty storefronts and the strained financial resources of retailers. Existing structures were leased temporarily and transformed into vibrant shopping experiences and used to spread brand awareness either as a step toward a permanent brick-and-mortar store or as part of a coordinated omnichannel marketing campaign.

    From that origin, pop up retail has grown to mean mobile, agile, and revenue-generating stores that extend a retailers reach and expand its brand. They can set up shop where their customers are and move on to the next venue without leaving a footprint.

    However, it also means that the retailer needs mobile marketing solutions and omnichannel strategies to help them get found when, and wherever, they set up shop. One effective strategy is location-based marketing that triggers messaging and alerts to customer smartphones when the shopper is near the retail popup.  

    Their greatest value comes when deployment is integrated into an omnichannel marketing campaign that combines the traditional selling experience with digital, print, and social media. Even in an ecommerce world, consumers like to see and touch products up close. Three out of four in the US are shopping both online and in store.

    Retailers are only beginning to realize the impact pop ups can make to elevate brand awareness and increase business and profits. With a relatively small investment, retailers can bring unique shopping experiences to their customers.

    4. Hyper-personalization Builds Deeper Value

    As its name implies, hyper-personalization takes the ability of retailers to create special, unique, and responsive shopping experiences structured around customer data to an entirely new level. It optimizes the impact of customer data by using AI technology to analyze customer behavior and shared preferences at amazing speeds to provide actionable recommendations.

    Personalization already matters to shoppers. According to a McKinsey survey, 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized engagements throughout the shopping journey and even more shoppers, 76 percent, get frustrated when it doesn’t occur. Where hyper-personalization differs from mere personalization, and the reason it’s changing the way retailers treat customers, is by using customer data to not only respond to, but also predict what they want from the relationship.

    The benefits of hyper-personalization are far reaching for retailers. McKinsey research also found that companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from those activities than slower growing companies. Hyper-personalization allows retailers to stand apart from their competition by using AI based analytic solutions to create detailed customer profiles and focus on experiences that lead to greater and long-term value across print, digital, and social channels. Shoppers have more choices than ever. The companies that master hyper-personalization can also increase revenue through reduced cart abandonment and reclaimed sales with abandoned cart emails and social ad-retargeting. According to Wix, open rates for these emails are roughly 41% and half of the shoppers who receive them go on to complete the purchase.

    5. Frictionless Shopping Streamlines the Experience

    Frictionless shopping is blurring the line between the immediacy and sense of trust in product offered when buying something off the shelf at a brick-and-mortar store and the convenience and shopping ease of ecommerce. It uses AI innovation called computer vision to identify items, and it would not be possible without the ability of AI to quickly process millions of images in real time to identify an item with 99% accuracy. As a customer shops, items are added and totaled for checkout.

    It’s evolved and accelerated from online ordering and pickup during the pandemic and is driven by customer demand and expectations. Frictionless shopping moves the shopper seamlessly through ordering for pickup or filling a cart in-store to payment without wasting time in checkout lines. According to  PwC, 43% of shoppers would pay more for greater convenience.

    With all the changes occurring in retail marketing, two things remains constant. One is that retailers that place the customer experience first and foremost, and see every engagement and interaction as a means to developer deeper loyalty are the ones that will succeed. The other is that Marketing.com supports retailers with traditional and digital marketing services that keep businesses growing and relevant with their customers. We can help you connect the dots so your brand and message stays consistent across the always evolving omnichannel marketing landscape and find ways to make all your commercial and promotional print products and signage appealing and sustainable.

  • How to Grow Your Retail Revenue with Social Commerce

    How to Grow Your Retail Revenue with Social Commerce

    One way to understand social commerce is to imagine the traditional, time-honored informercial or home shopping channel. Picture those ads on social media; now your marketing is on overdrive. Add efficient and established payment ready website and fulfillment services into the mix, and you have a retail shopping experience that is predicted to revolutionize the way people shop and who they shop with. In 2021, $37 billion in goods and services were purchased through social-commerce channels in the US. By 2025, that figure is expected to swell to nearly $80 billion, or five percent of total US ecommerce. 

    Social commerce allows for an interactive and dynamic form of shopping that creates an engaging journey created to remove barriers between seller and shopper. Social media platforms become channels for retailers and brands to form deep connections through social commerce features like livestreaming, live chat, virtual shops, and augmented reality (AR).

    For many retailers, two methods for attracting and growing a customer base have proven most effective: creating compelling experiences that draw interest and promoting brands through influencers – both of which can be accomplished through social commerce.

    How important is social commerce for retailers today?

    Fortunately for many retailers, having a strong social commerce presence adoption has been slower than predicted due to data security concerns, lack of trust in the retailer, and lack of faith in the customer service provided by unfamiliar ecommerce sites.

    Tomorrow? There’s no denying social commerce will be a game changer, especially for retailers who already place a prime importance on gaining the trust of their customer and creating an experience that puts the shopper in control. There’s too much money to be made, too many easy avenues for anyone – from entrepreneur to megabrand – to achieve spectacular results, and too many shoppers who, over the next few years, will not buy products any other way. A 2022 McKinsey survey of US consumers who have participated in a social commerce event found that 75 percent want to attend more live-shopping shows in the future.

    Social commerce gives small and medium brands the same opportunities to sell their products through the same platforms used by the big brands. Size is not a determining factor in giving today’s shoppers the control when deciding who they want to follow and where they want to buy. It’s up to the ecommerce retailer to devise ways to develop or transition existing SEO and ecommerce practices to optimize keywords, hashtags, alt-text, and location tags to get found and create accessible content.

    Shoppers today are using social networks to search for information, recommendations, verifications and personalized suggestions throughout their purchasing journey. In China, where social commerce retail has taken control, brands have achieved conversion rates of almost 30 percent on social platforms, a result up to ten times higher than conversion in conventional ecommerce. Social commerce retailers have developed marketing strategies to make it easy for audiences to find them through SEO searches on the social commerce platform they prefer. Data still plays a large role, but the relationship is centered around the customer, engaging them in the moment, and building trust that the brand will deliver what it promises.

    What is the future of social commerce

    If the experts are to be believed, and the data backs them up, social commerce will be a major driver for all retail sales in the future. The information technology company, Accenture, projects that social ecommerce will grow into a $1.2 trillion retail channel by 2025.

    In many respects social commerce is radically different than other mortar-and-brick retail and ecommerce, but it’s not an entirely new world. SEO, video, and AR will still have impact, only now it can also be integrated social commerce content strategies.

    Social media rewards creativity and intelligent brand positioning. Influencers will play an important role, and the enthusiasm of their followers can be every bit as important as their numbers, especially for brands with small budgets. Micro-influencers, those with fewer than 5,000 followers and affordable for most brands, consistently have the highest engagement rates. They are viewed as more authentic by audiences and have devoted and dependable followers. In 2020, micro-influencers achieved a five percent engagement rate compared with just 1.6% for those with a million or more followers.

    Trust will continue to be a determining factor in relationships. Shoppers want the confidence that what they see is what they get. When AR is included in the experience, and customers can virtually ‘try on’ cosmetics and merchandise or see 3D models of goods, their satisfaction increases.  According to an EclipseGroup study, 71 percent of respondents said they would shop more often if they could use AR.

    3 Steps for Growing Social Commerce Revenue

    Brands should seek out marketing partners that understand the evolving social commerce marketplace and can help them seize opportunities to tie in the development of a comprehensive social ad strategy to attract new followers to the brand and social commerce site. With the proper strategies in place, and the most effective social SEO and social ad deployment, Reputation matters and your audience’s opinion begins the moment they can into contact with your brand so it’s important you make a good one from the start. Here are a few tips.

    1) Put trust and customer first

    It can be so easy to start generating income with social commerce that many enterprises take shortcuts when it comes to customer satisfaction. That is a big mistake. The complete user experience, especially in areas where the relationship continues after the sale has been made, is what matters to your customer. Reliable and efficient order fulfillment makes a difference. Prompt customer service and return policies build trust. Screw-ups happen, but if you’re prepared to quickly respond you’ll increase the chances that your shopper returns.  

    2) Make the experience easy

    Use effective search strategies that make sure your social commerce site is found. Focus on keyword search terms and follow best practices like hashtags and SEO. Once you have your customer engaged, it should also be simple for shoppers to add items to their carts through intuitive buying features. From a business standpoint, a seamless purchasing and efficient fulfillment partner saves social commerce businesses time, worry, and helps control costs.

    3) Make every experience memorable

    The social ecommerce experience is where the retail playing field gets leveled. Two of China’s top live-streamers, Li Jiaqi and Viya, sold $3 billion worth of products in only one day. It’s even more remarkable that their one-day total was more than three times the behemoth Amazon’s average daily sales. Shoppers crave the excitement of participating in live events, chats, augmented reality and other immersive and interactive social commerce engagements. According to Khoros, 73 percent of consumers say they are willing to pay more for a product if they love the brand.

    Now is the time for retailers to seize the opportunities offered by social commerce if they are avoid risking irrelevance and letting other, innovative competitors take the lead. Those that understand their customers and can create a community of loyal shoppers established on trust will prosper in a future when social retail commerce drives sales.