The correct Communication can drive up revenue by up to 35%

Direct marketing is still popular and the most effective tool for driving new and repeat business. Despite the current information overload scenario and the level of information regarded as spam these days – an effective direct mail campaign can generate effective leads that will result in higher sales.

Direct marketing reached a peak in the 1980s and 1990s, but, according to Nolan Sandham, managing director of ACTNET, then started declining as the consumer became more of a discerning buyer. Marketers had to segment their data to communicate a more personalised message to the recipient. Inspire can give direct marketing a “new lease on life” by incorporating customise direct mail shots – right down “to each and every individual”. Now the data and personalise message is segmented on the fly and brochures are developed real-time.

Nolan said ACTNET is distributing Inspire from GMC Software Technologies in Switzerland – an ideal software solution for production printing environments, including for printing companies, direct mail companies and advertising agencies.

By using Inspire users can design the most dynamic communications while controlling the content “ like never before”.

“The solution is ideal for direct marketing because messages can be effortlessly personalised, to boost direct mail response rates by up to 35%,” said Nolan.

The first company in the Eastern Cape to install the Inspire solution is East London-based Harry’s Printers, who recently invested in the top-end software solution valued at over R2 million.

Harry’s Printers, which was established more than 40 years ago and has branches around the country, is the first – and only – South African member of the International Printers Network. (IPN)

A spokesperson for Harry’s Printers said: “The biggest benefit achieved when implementing Inspire was that we now have the ability to integrate complex data streams from a variety of host applications. Combining a CSV file with an XML file would have taken hours to achieve. Now we can achieve the same result within minutes.”

Commenting further, Nolan said he believes there is a “large market” for Inspire in South Africa, adding that sales of the software solution could have a material impact on ACTNET’s overall revenue in the “next two to three years”.