When your small business outgrows your garage or home office, you’ll be faced with the task of buying office furniture. But before you order top-of-the-line desks and and uber-modern waiting room furniture, stop to think about what suits the needs of your growing company.

First, you should consider the type of workspace that would function best for you and your employees. There are four main categories of workspace; and depending on your business, you might find that you need a combination of these spaces.

1. Private offices: If the type of work you and your employees do requires privacy, room for meeting with clients, or a lot of concentration, then traditional private offices with four walls and a door are ideal.

Drawbacks: Less communication and spontaneous brainstorming between co-workers, feelings of isolation, reduced ability for managers to monitor what employees are doing. Private offices also tend to be more expensive because they take up more space.

2. Cubicles: The most popular compromise between private offices and open offices, cubicles give employees some private workspace while still offering opportunities for collaboration and interaction with co-workers, and efficiently using valuable office real estate. Depending on the needs of your business or a specific department within your business, you can find cubicles with varying wall heights:

• Low (42″ high) allow employees to interact with each other from a seated position. They’re great for teamwork and collaborative efforts, but don’t offer much quiet time or privacy.
• Medium (53″ high) allow employees to see and interact with each other when they are standing, while still offering some privacy and quiet workspace.
• High (66″ high) give employees plenty of privacy and quiet workspace, but could lead to feelings of isolation or disconnection from the rest of the organization.

In addition to considering how much privacy or quiet workspace your employees need, it’s important to consider how much natural light they’ll get. Exposure to natural light and views of the outdoors have been shown to improve employees’ health, attitude and productivity – and choosing cubicles with lower walls gives employees more access to windows.

Drawbacks: Employees could feel like they’re stuck in a box. Depending on the height of the walls, they could have trouble doing work that requires a lot concentration.

3. Open office: This type of office is becoming increasingly popular as it allows for more collaboration and teamwork, while using expensive office space more efficiently. Open offices consist of desks or tables with low barriers or no barriers, depending on the needs of the business. Small conference rooms can be used for private meetings or for more concentrated work. Open offices offer the most flexibility for growing businesses — allowing for multiple workspace configurations — and tend to be the least expensive option.

Drawbacks: There is very little privacy and employees might feel like they have trouble concentrating on more involved tasks with increased noise.

4. Mobile office: Depending on your line of business, you might not even need to lease and furnish a traditional office for your small business. With laptops, cell phones and other mobile devices, it might make more sense to allow your employees to work from home. If necessary, you could lease a small office for meetings with clients and employees — furnishing it with a conference room table and chairs.

Drawbacks: Little to no opportunity for face-to-face collaboration and team efforts. Employees might feel more disconnected from work and management.

After determining which type of office space is best suited for your business, you’ll need to determine the style of office furniture you want to purchase. Office furniture manufacturers offer a broad range of material to fit just about any type of business, whether you want traditional design or a more modern look.

For a classic, more formal office, look for desks, work surfaces, tables and cabinets in darker wood or laminates. High-tech or design-oriented businesses tend to favor a more modern look, using bolder colors, metal detailing and glass.

If you are purchasing your furniture new from a manufacturer, you’ll have the opportunity to choose the materials and finishes for each piece of office furniture. And the design possibilities are endless. Here’s a broad look at the different types of furniture you’ll need to consider purchasing and what options you’ll have:

Desks, tables, filing and storage: Generally made from some combination of wood, veneer, metal and/or laminate.

Desk chairs, conference room chairs, and waiting room chairs and couches: Leather, cloth, synthetic materials with metal, wood or plastic frames

Cubicle walls and desk dividers: Upholstery, wood, veneers and glass.

Before shopping for your office furniture, be sure to answer the following questions:

• How much space do I have and what’s the layout of the office? This will help you determine what size furniture you should purchase and the possible layouts for workstations to most efficiently use that space.
• What is my budget? There are many price points for office furniture. Before you decide that you want all solid wood and leather pieces, it’s best to evaluate how much you can afford to spend. Keep in mind that you can also buy used and/or refurbished furniture if you like higher-quality pieces but can’t afford to buy them new.
• What kind of meeting space will I have? If you plan to hold larger group meetings, then a conference table would be a wise investment; otherwise, you might be able to use smaller tables for more informal meetings with co-workers, contractors or clients.
• Will I have a reception area? If you expect a lot of clients, visitors or contractors walking into your office, think about purchasing a reception desk and waiting room furniture.
• How much storage do I need? If you’re going for a paperless office, then chances are your employees won’t need huge filing cabinets or extra storage space at their desks.
• How easy is it to move and/or rearrange the furniture as your small business grows? Desking systems tend to be easier to rearrange than modular workspaces (cubicles) if you expect your business to expand. Before purchasing your furniture, find out how easy it is to to rearrange. Some systems might require professional assistance, while others are easier to move on your own.
• What type of image do I want to project (Traditional? Modern? Youthful/fun? High-tech?) Especially if you plan to host clients, investors, contractors and others, you should be conscious of the image you’re projecting with your furniture. If nothing else, you want to make sure that it’s clean and not worn out (especially if you’re buying used).

Learn more about buying office furniture for your small business at Business.com.

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Tchotchkes. Schwag. Toys. Trinkets. Promotional items come in so many different forms. Sometimes these branded, functional baubles are put to good use after you give them away at expo halls and trade shows, and sometimes they’re simply fun, uplifting desk distractions for employees or prospective customers. Are you in the market for a unique way to differentiate your small business? Surely you can do better than water bottles, thumb drives, and pens with your logo on them.

We put together some of the most fun and interesting promotional items that you might consider using to market your small business:

• Golf Divot Repair Tool. Appeal to the corporate crowd by providing them with a little something that will help their game on the golf course. These items are used to repair the dent your ball makes after it lands on the green so that the putting surface remains uniform.
• Coasters. If your small business can be translated into something visual and beautiful, use it to your advantage by printing corresponding images on top of coasters, with your logo and contact information on the other side. This kind of idea isn’t just for photographers or graphic designers – a candy shop owner might make sets dedicated to customers’ favorite goodies, or a social media marketing agency could use word clouds that represent their business and the type of services they offer.
• Playing Cards. Solitaire in the airport or Crazy 8’s with your family, everyone can always use a deck of playing cards. You might consider adding your logo to both the box and the individual cards as the image. If your budget supports it, it’d be fun to assign the Joker, Jack, Queen, and King cards as company executives or other important or public-facing customer representatives.
• Hand Sanitizer. This is a perfect item for trade show or conference because of the close proximity of attendants and general concept of networking and shaking hands. Pair this with a pack of gum, and yours will be promotional items that very few people would toss away.
• Virtual Goodies. If you do a lot of business online, it could be interesting to put together a variety of virtual promotional items to give away. Hand out a small card or other item with a unique URL on it that points folks toward your collection of promotional items that they can download – these can be MP3 playlists that your staff has put together, a branded image they can set as their desktop background, discount codes for products or services, or free chapters of your new book.
• Industry-specific items. For instance, a sports PR firm might put their agency’s logo and contact information on a foam football. Think of all the brainstorming that can happen during a game of catch over your coworkers’ cubicles. Or, an up-and-coming craft beer brewer might etch their logo into a tasting glass or bottle opener.

What are some of the more clever or convenient promotional items you’ve received or have given away?

Image sources: amazon.com, flaghouse.com

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In the digital age, many small business owners may instinctively seek out a way to minimize the amount of paperwork they handle on a day-to-day basis. If you’ve ever heard of the term “paperless office” — in which the use of paper is minimal or even entirely eliminated — document management software is the kind of system you should buy to get a handle on your reliance on paper. Going paperless helps to digitize your communications, keeps you organized, saves valuable office space, and makes sharing information easier.

What is Document Management Software?

Document management software systems are exactly what they sound like – software programs that are designed to help you deal with your various paperwork and documents. From tracking and storing files to sharing and collaborating with coworkers or clients, document management software allows you to minimize the amount of physical paper you handle on a day-to-day basis.

How Document Management Software Helps

• Storage – Since many document management systems are cloud-based, you’re able to save an incredible amount of desktop or server space by saving files on the web. Just as you access a spreadsheet or presentation on your computer’s memory, cloud-based software makes it incredibly easy to access your files with the click of a mouse.
• Management and Operations – Properly managing your documents can have positive effects on critical business functions. By having your documents in one place, you’re improving customer service by reducing the time it takes to access information, you’re promoting productivity by allowing disparate teams or employees to collaborate together in one space, and you’re streamlining other important business functions.
• Access – Cloud-based document management solutions allow you to access your documents from anywhere. Whether you’re on your laptop in the office or on your tablet in the airport, you’re not restricted to one device in order to access your business’ important information.
• Sharing – document management software makes sharing files — both internally with your staff and externally with clients — a breeze. What’s more, you can save valuable space in your email by not having to send large files (you know, the ones that get bounced back due to size) through your email service provider.

Minimize Risk with Document Management Software

A great built-in feature of today’s document management systems is the layer of security you’re adding by archiving your files on the web. Imagine your laptop gets stolen and you hadn’t recently backed up your server. Or, your office is part of a large fire and your filing cabinet isn’t fireproof. Consider the many tweets and daily forum posts of folks looking for help after they lost all of their files after their computer crashed.

No matter the reason behind lost or damaged business information, the fact is that your hard work would be lost or sensitive data could find itself in the wrong hands. By using proper virtual document management software, you’re safeguarding yourself against losses of productive time and effort and potentially important confidential business information.

Save with Document Management Software

Sure, document management software costs more up front. But just as with legal contracts and insurance, if something awful happens, you’ll be very glad you made the investment. Otherwise, your business could be in serious financial jeopardy dealing with lost productivity, poorly organized collaboration, and risk lost information.

Learn more about document management software at Business.com.

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The challenge of streamlining health information and patients’ care through digital medical records is gaining momentum. With technological advances that help manage and automate the process of handling medical records, it’s no wonder why employment for health information technicians has soared, with projections estimating an increase of 18% over the next four years.

Medical billing software, used to increase collections and simplify the process of organizing patient billing data, isn’t just reserved for large hospitals and medical offices. Small organizations — such as private practices and outsourced collections businesses — benefit from the effectiveness of these systems, as they help to reduce the time spent fetching after late payments, having to manually track medical procedures, and applying the proper insurance codes for billing, following up on incomplete claims, and manually billing for services provided.

Medical billing software helps to minimize repetitive tasks that are often prone to errors or outdated information. Medical office administrators with this software have all the up-to-date information they need when looking to verify patient coverage, communicate bills and insurance records electronically, apply payments, and run reports for third-party collections companies.

There are a number of bonuses for small medical practices that wish to implement this kind of software. In addition to on-demand reporting, tracking payments, and assisting with coding, medical billing software offers a number of perks. These include:

Remote Access
Medical billing professionals should be able to work virtually from their home office or anywhere they wish to, since an internet connection is typically all you need to get to work. Many of these systems are web-based, allowing administrators to bill patients electronically, follow up with health insurance companies, and attend to Medicaid and Medicare claims through any device that is connected.

Integrated and Streamlined Office Procedures
Medical billing software typically makes it seamless to integrate office scheduling into the billing system. This helps to streamline the process from patient check-in all the way to billable services. When it comes time for medical record audits or to answer patient inquiries, medical staff are able to rely on one cohesive system for all the information they need.

Electronic Health Records
It’s surprising, but many small medical offices still rely on rows and rows of paper medical files to record patient information and keep track of services and procedures that patients have undergone. Electronic health records help to keep errors to a minimum and fill in the gaps that are typically had by paper systems. What if a code is incorrectly interpreted based on someone’s handwriting, or a patient was seen for one procedure but another is inputted into the system? Having a comprehensive electronic record reduces errors, increases productivity, and saves the patient from the hoop-jumping that results from frustrating insurance confrontations.

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As you can see from some of the bookmarklets above, they are not all related to social sharing. Bookmarklets are really there to help make your Internet experiences easier and faster whether that be through social sharing or through emailing or browsing.

What Bookmarklets Mean for Your Company

Bookmarklets obviously mean that your company can work faster and easier. There are many social scheduling tools available, but the vast majority of these only focus on the major social networks. Utilizing bookmarklets will make it easier for your team to promote your content on every network possible, as well as go back and make any edits to any articles or respond to any emails.

Although there are hundreds of Bookmarklets to choose from, some companies still find that they need to make their own to really get where they want. Anybody can make it happen, but bookmarklets are technically little pieces of JavaScript, so the job might be best suited for an IT professional. You can read more about how to create your own bookmarklet here.

What is your favorite bookmarklet? How have bookmarklets helped your business? Let us know in the comments below!

Adam Heitzman is the founder of Higher Visibility, an SEO firm that offers online marketing services to a wide range of companies across the country.  With over 10 years of experience in online marketing, Adam offers small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice.

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If your small business’ computer system is lacking in proper protection, or you’re concerned about the vulnerability of your company’s financial accounts, now’s the time to beef up your security plan: Hackers are targeting small businesses more and more because they’re equipped with weaker business security systems – frankly, small business computer systems are easy targets, and they carry enough financial bounty to make hacking worthwhile.

How can you put into place a proper business security system? Start with your passwords. Sometimes, it’s the only thing you’ll need to do to deter hackers from making attempts on your system.

There are challenges, however, to the handling your business’ many passwords. The Washington Post breaks it down:

“…the biggest problem with passwords is that there are far too many of them. Think about the things in your life that are now password protected: Work-related files, mobile phones, home computers, tablets, bank cards and online banking sites, social networks – the list goes on.”

So how do you set up a strong password security system?

Step 1: Setting Your Passwords
The first, and perhaps most obvious, way to guard against password theft or fraud is to use a complicated password. This means avoiding words you can find in the dictionary, and keep from using any personal information within your password. With so much of our lives exposed online, it’s easy to find personally identifiable information, such as birthdates, anniversaries, street addresses, and kids’ or pets’ names – details that are often used in passwords.

There are plenty of ways to select passwords that no one could “guess.” For example, think of a sentence you can easily remember and use the first letter of each word to make up the password. So, for example, if the sentence is “The Cubs last won the World Series in 1908,” your password would be “TClwtWSi1908.”

Step 2: Managing Your Passwords
You also shouldn’t use one password for every account you use. Keep track of these various passwords with an online password management software. It’s essentially an online repository that tracks and organizes your various passwords that you use for many sites or servers. Depending on the software, you may even be able to utilize it to log into accounts without having to type your username and password. All you have to do is remember the main master password to get into that database, and all of your account login information is categorized for easy access.

Step 3: Sharing Your Passwords
When you set up a password security system, be diligent about who you share passwords with internally in your business. You may want only one trustworthy employee to have access to the password management software in case you ever need a second person to access these important accounts. Or, you may even take it a step further by trusting your legal counsel with this confidential information.

Step 4: Protecting Your Passwords
If you feel your small business is vulnerable to hacking, take any step possible to safeguard your information while you stop for a more robust business security system. Everything you can do to make it that much more difficult for an outside to gain access to your information will help you stay off the target list down the line.

In addition, reconsider the kind of account confirmation questions you utilize as a backup for retrieving lost passwords. A common one is, “What is your mother’s maiden name?” or “What is the mascot of your high school?” This information can be easily found online, so be sure to select a question that is highly personal, such as the name of your favorite teacher, or who your best friend was in grade school.

Learn more about protecting your — and your customers’ data — at Business.com.

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The proliferation of high-speed broadband and digital technologies means any business start-up, whatever their industry, will gain value from having an online presence. Social media is providing new and exciting ways for companies to interact, communicate and learn from their customers. Obviously the nature of your business will dictate which social networks are the most appropriate to get involved with, for example if your organisation doesn’t have any video content and won’t in the foreseeable future then there is little point in creating a YouTube channel for your business. Identifying the most appropriate platforms for your business is the first important port of call.

LinkedIn

The quintessential social network for professionals LinkedIn is more for individuals rather than a whole business but if your employees have profiles on here it makes your company feel human and approachable. Often customers and prospective clients will feel more comfortable when they know who they are communicating with so this can be a huge advantage and add a great level of authenticity to your brand’s online presence.

Facebook

Facebook is so huge with over 800 million active users it’s like a mini-net unto itself. And because the majority its users are active, i.e. on their account daily, updating their statuses, uploading their photos and interacting with their friends, they’re more likely to engage with business brand pages too, making Facebook a fantastic platform on which to handle customer services as well as promote new products and services. The introduction of the ‘Like’ system in 2010 made it easier than ever for users to connect with companies and organisations they were fans of and so Facebook has been the defacto online platform for every company.

Foursquare

This location based social network is an integral inclusion in any businesses online presence where locality is a key factor. Forward thinking bars, clubs and pubs are utilising Foursquare to reward regular customers. If you visit a certain establishment often and sign in on Foursquare registering where you are, after a while you offered badges such as Mayor. The establishment then offers Mayors discounts and other rewards for their frequent visits. Although this social network is limited to geographically focused businesses it is a highly useful tool with wide ranging capabilities.

Twitter 

Everyone from Stephen fry to my mum seems to be on Twitter these days, and there’s little wonder. The super simple microblogging service is a great way to update your followers on the latest developments in your business. After Facebook it’s the go-to network for customer relations and due to the fact that each message can only be 140 characters it keeps praise or grievances short and succinct which then makes dealing with them easier.

YouTube

As with all these social media sites, YouTube is only worth signing up to if you’re going to commit to it and post content on your channel regularly. It is also worth seriously deliberating whether the video content you’ve got is worth posting, is it going to be useful/interesting to your potential viewers. It’s best not to create a company channel just because you’ve got the odd video edit lying around your PC’s desktop. The quality of YouTube videos is rising all the time, and decent video content is easy to create which makes YouTube one of the social networks that require a lot of time and dedication so it’s really important you analyse whether it’s right for your organisation and are you going to make the most out of it.

Social media is exciting and affordable new technology for businesses and it’s revolutionising the departments of customer relations, marketing and human resources. For any company no matter what their size, the key bit of advice to take away from this is, don’t spread yourself too thinly. Research the different social networks, decide which are going to be the most appropriate and beneficial for your organisation and commit to just two or three of them to make sure you get the most out of their opportunities.

Zac Colbert has been working with social media for over five years, managing the online identities of small and large businesses across a range of industries from chat sites to health and fitness brands.

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As a small business owner, you’ll be faced with the question of whether you should  build your own website using off-the-shelf website design services or hire a design firm to create a site for you.

Building a site yourself can be daunting and going with an off-the-shelf service has several pros and cons.

Pros:

• Sites claim to be as easy to use as Microsoft Word, provide industry-specific templates so that all you have to do is edit the wording to make it specific to your business, and add photos, maps or video with “just a few clicks.”
• Sites are customizable, to a degree.
• If you’re a new business, you can save money on the site early on by building it yourself. Depending on the service you choose, you can build and maintain your site for as little as $5 a month (costs go up when you add features and extra services).
• If you build your own site, you’ll understand the software and will have an easier time updating it and troubleshooting problems.
• Depending on which service you choose, you can easily get business cards, brochures, letterhead and other printed products that match the design of your site.

• Hundreds of templates (often industry-specific templates) so that you can start off your design process without needing knowledge of HTML (those with more design experience can have complete control of HTML and CSS)
• Easy to customize — you can change color and wording and drop in your own images and logos
• Access to a stock image library – some sites offer a set number of free images and then charge you for access to their archives
• Troubleshooting web staff via e-mail, live chat or phone, as well as access to training videos and user forums
• Web-hosting services
• Access to site statistics and activity reports to track visitors by page views, location, search engines and referring sites. Some sites include Google Analytics as well.
• Domain name
• E-mail addresses
• E-commerce – Build an online store or product catalog to take orders via the website, phone or on Facebook
• The ability to house Flash video
• Social media widgets
• Contact form
• Google or MapQuest maps to help people easily find you
• A visitor counter
• RSS feeds
• Anywhere from five free pages to unlimited pages included in your monthly fee
• Search engine submissions – the host will submit your site to top search sites
• Search listing tools – find out where your site is listed and where it should be listed
• Music player
• Bandwidth of 5 to 20 GB
• Disk space – the amount of storage the service provides for you – 25 to 500 MB
• Site backed up locally and remotely in case of a disaster
• Compatibility with iPad, iPhones and other mobile devices
• Search functionality for visitors
• Printable coupons to be used in stores or on the website
• Event calendars
• Testimonial manager

When to hire a professional:
On a blog post for DesignSponge.com, Stephanie Peterson, the founder of Fairground Media, recently offered the following situations in which it might be a good idea to hire a professional web designer:

• If your business is growing and you think it has staying power
• If you want more functionality than the built-in templates on an off-the-shelf website builder offer
• If you’re ready to take your business to the next level. At this point you need a strong strategy for your site and unique design and user experience that goes beyond what you’ll  find on any template.

Some of off-the-shelf service providers offer design services and will build the site for you, which includes a consultation about what you want and need on your site, a set number of revision rounds, and training  on how to maintain the site after it’s been built.

If you’re thinking of using a professional web design firm, an article on practicalecommerce.com offered some questions to ask before hiring:

• Whether you’re hiring an outside firm, or bringing a designer on staff, make sure to look at other websites the designer has created, to see if their claims are backed up by their work.
• Find out how long they’ve been in business. The longer the firm has been around, the more likely they have satisfied customers.
• Check references. Make sure to ask about how the designers interacted with the company. Did they just take orders or did they offer suggestions for how to improve the site?
• Be wary of designers that have a pre-set prices for sites – that indicates that they don’t have full understanding of your needs.
• Make sure you have clear and consistent communication with the designer – especially if they live out of town.
• Create deadlines and milestones for the project to help ensure the developer will complete the work in a reasonable amount of time.
• Make sure it’s someone you can have a long-term relationship with, because chances are you’ll need help tweaking the site and tech support.

Learn more about building a website for your small business on business.com.

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Plenty of people turn to all-in-one printers for their home offices – and why, not?  The fax machine might only be used to send in a last-minute field trip permission slip every once and a while and the copier might only be responsible for duplicating tax documents every year. In a home-setting, a multifunction machine is handy to have around and won’t take up too much room.

And you’re likely to find more of them than even regular inkjet printers. On OfficeDepot.com there are nine ink-jet printer choices for sale compared with 47 all-in-one options.

But is an all-in-one machine enough to run your small business? There are so many expenses associated with starting a new business and equipment costs can add up quickly, so purchasing a budget-friendly three-in-one option can be tempting and has plenty of advantages including:

Saving money - Buying one multifunction machine offers significant savings over buying three or four different ones. Separately, a printer, copier, fax machine and scanner can cost anywhere from $50-$200 a piece for more basic models. All-in-one printers cost anywhere from $70-$300 for inkjet models and upwards of $4,000 for a laser model.

Less space needed - If you’re running a small business that has a small amount of office space, then you won’t want to have to give up valuable real estate to accommodate a bulky printer and a bulky fax machine and a bulky copy machine. Having just one machine that can multitask means you need just one spot reserved office equipment.

Less maintenance – if something goes wrong with your equipment, there’s only one number and one manual you’ll have to keep on hand to repair it. Not having to dig through a stack of manuals or track down contact information for different repairmen will allow you to focus on more important things — like running your business. Also, you won’t have to stock up on and keep track of three different kinds of ink cartridges and toner for your fax, copier and printer, which will save you money and headaches.

Of course, there are also disadvantages to using one piece of equipment for all of your document needs. Some of the cons include:

No more multitasking – Chances are, your multifunction printer, copier and fax machine won’t be able to handle more than one job at a time. So you won’t be able to send a fax at the same time you’re making copies. And you won’t be able to print one document at the same time you’re copying another.

Quality – Depending on what type of machine you buy, you might have to sacrifice print quality. Several reviews of multifunction printers on techradar.com said that photo printing could have been better (something that might not be a big concern for businesses that just need a printer to handle day-to-day tasks rather than presentation-worthy printouts).

Lost functionality – If the all-in-one machine breaks down, then you’re losing the ability to do multiple things — print, fax, scan and copy documents. Purchasing the machines separately ensures that if one breaks down, you’ll still be able to get other jobs done.

Keep in mind, too, that the fax function of an all-in-one machine is quickly becoming obsolete. Now there are electronic faxing services which allow you to send and receive faxes via the internet. The faxes that used to arrive painstakingly slow on your fax can now pop up instantly in you inbox — saving you paper and ink.

Of course, you’ll probably still encounter a few holdouts that aren’t interested in giving electronic faxing a whirl, and those customers and clients will appreciate your ability to send and receive traditional faxes.

Overall, if you need a workhorse to perform some basic office tasks for you, an all-in-one copy is a good option.

Learn more about researching and selecting office equipment for your startup on Business.com.

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With so many of the us depending on the internet to stay tuned into what’s going on in our lives and in the world, it’s no wonder that direct mail, or “direct classic” as the industry sometimes refers to it, has become an afterthought for small business marketing strategies. Postage is getting more and more expensive. Plus, email delivery and online communications are near immediate compared to the time it takes to go through the production, proofing, printing, and mailing process.

Still, many marketers have high hopes for printed direct mail, with intentions to use it in the coming years. Direct mail spending grew 4.6% in 2011 according to the Direct Marketers Association, and forecasts suggest that mail sales will continue to rise at a rate of 2.3% in the next two years.

Benefits of Direct Mail Marketing

Much of this increase can be attributed to the ability to couple physical mail pieces with mobile and online marketing efforts, resulting in a sound multichannel marketing program. Think of how many pieces of mail you’ve seen recently sporting QR codes, URLs to social media sites, and SMS short codes. Mail affords marketers greater reach, allows more information to be communicated than most online advertising efforts, and gives buyers the opportunity to respond to a call to action in the way that they want, on their own time.

Further, today’s consumer is connected 24/7 and attention spans are divided across multiple mediums – web, email, mobile apps, texts, TV, radio, etc. Direct mail pieces received directly to homes or businesses break through marketing silos and require a dedicated pause to consider compared to the many thousands of on-screen messages we receive any given hour. Consider how unaffected you are as a consumer when you receive spam emails – it’s a quick click to delete without a second thought. But we’re receiving less physical mail than before, and are therefore less likely to dismiss mail as quickly as we used to.

Research studies have found that 85% of consumers sort through and read selected pieces of mail every day, according to Mail Print. Consumers’ increased usage of coupons over the past few years has driven much of this attentive behavior.

Cost of Direct Mail vs. Email

Let’s compare 10,000 direct mailings vs. one email sent to a list of 10,000 people.

Design & Production

Direct Mail Design / Production: This is usually the cost of a designer’s time (let’s say a freelancer at $100/hour) and the software necessary to create the piece (around $525).

Cost: $925 (assuming 4 hours of work and revisions)

Email Design / Production: Again, this would involve a designer’s time (let’s say a freelancer at $100/hour) and the email marketing software necessary to create the piece (around $100 for a month).

Cost: $300 (assumes 2 hours of work and revisions; most email marketing software have templates you can use as a jumping off point in the design).

Printing & Addressing

Direct Mail Printing and Addressing: Depending on which printer – online or local – that you work with, costs will vary. There are also other variables that will impact cost, including size of your direct mail piece, as will your use of color vs. black & white, type of paper used, whether your marketing list will need to be cleaned up, and other caveats.

Cost: We found quotes online for roughly $600 for a standard postcard with color on one side; you’ll likely spend more working with a local printer. This price does not including any variable processing costs

Email Printing and Addressing: The most you might do is print one copy for proofing, but in general, there’s no cost for printing. “Addressing” in email terms might mean acquiring a targeted email list of 10,000 email addresses. This price can be much lower if you’ve built your own list of 10,000 prospects over time.

Cost: $60-1,000 (which will depend on whether you’re sending to consumers or businesses and in which state or location).

Mailing

Direct Mail Mailing: This price usually includes postage which, for a postcard, would cost $0.32, and perhaps a handling fee if you’re getting a third party printer to ship it out for you.

Cost: $3,200 (without a handling fee)

Email Mailing: This is generally included in the email marketing software pricing, which was quoted above. Many small business email marketing companies price their software based on number of subscribers you have in your list. A threshold of 10,000 is usually in the middle of their pricing range.

Cost: $100

There are certainly more arrows pointing toward email than direct mail in terms of cost effectiveness, but depending on your goals and the type of information you want to communicate to prospects, it’s worth doing the math to estimate your potential return.

Best Industries for Direct Mail Marketing

Non-profits would do well to continue their use of direct mail marketing to reach donors, volunteers, and other important constituencies. A 2010 study by Dunham+Company found that 14% of online donors were prompted to give an online gift through a direct mail piece versus only 6% who acted in response to an email.

Grocery retailers are another business type that see incredible returns on direct mail pieces. According to a recent study done by Valassis, 90% of grocery retailers cite weekly circulars as their primary way of promoting products, and believe it’s the most measurable form of marketing.

Direct mail, in general, remains relevant for local businesses of any kind – home improvement, financial services, and retailers looking to drive sales are competitive when they use direct mail to offer discounts and other generous benefits for new customers.

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