Custom Fit

When considering a new delivery vehicle for an insert marketing campaign, don't think one size fits all. Customizing the piece to suit a particular format can lead to cost efficiencies and better ROI.

“Because of increased paper and postage costs many brokers have jumped on the bandwagon, encouraging clients that have only done direct mail to try insert media,” says Jim Zuckermandel, president of direct mail advertising agency Zed Marketing Group.

Mailers and their brokers should be aware of all the costs and factors involved, and why it may be more valuable in the end for a client to redesign a piece that's a better fit for the medium in question — be it an insert for a statement, catalog, package or something else.

“Sure, there are up-front costs to redesigning and printing a new piece,” notes Zuckermandel. “But ultimately your CPM and insertion costs may be better if you go through that preparation.”

Say you want to place an insert created for another medium in a catalog. One problem mailers will encounter is that many printers and binderies charge more for catalog inserts if they're out of spec in any way — and that could mean anything other than a 3.5-inch by 5.5-inch business reply card. “Sometimes mailers don't always understand that every additional ounce costs a cataloger extra money,” Zuckermandel says. “And costs could be higher if the bindery [imposes] a surcharge because the insert slows down the assembly line.”

Zuckermandel recalls one client that wanted to create a mini-catalog to promote its product. The client wanted to drop the piece into some 20 different catalogs. “They came to us and said, ‘Can you get us all the specs and tell us what would be the most common denominator that would get us into 80% of these catalogs?' We did a huge spreadsheet and sent samples to all the different binderies. They did it right. The process was efficient because they did their homework.”

Increased awareness about inserts' cost effectiveness — if they're done right — is causing more brokers to encourage clients to make insert media a budget-line item, he notes.

“Our biggest draw is that we've got huge circulation, if you look at package inserts, billing statements and catalogs,” Zuckermandel says. “If you rent a catalog file, you're maybe going to get 150,000 buyers from the last 12 months. For that same cataloger, I can give you maybe 70 million circ a year in inserts.”

There's been greater interest in catalog and package inserts when mailers can handle the extra weight. “We're seeing some new players get involved, which is good. [There's been] more product sampling from general advertisers, like the General Mills of the world.”

Of course, for a catalog insert in particular there has to be a demographic synergy among the mailers. “Otherwise there isn't a whole lot of sense in doing it,” according to Zuckermandel, who says many general advertisers are using inserts as a way to boost their brand profile.

The appeal of companies like Vonage, Sprint and Cingular is so broad that they can look to insert almost anywhere, he says. Bose also continues to be a big player in the insert world, often using a premium eight-page piece on coated stock that's practically a mini-catalog itself.

In the last six months, more health and pharmaceutical firms have dipped their toes into the waters, as well as more high-ticket companies that use inserts as the first step in the lead-generation process.

“General advertisers can make inserts work,” Zuckermandel insists. “Creativity is the only limitation to what you can do.”