The United States Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) that will increase postage effective August 29, 2021. Price increases for the various services as they apply to your mailings as mandated by this adjustment range from the following:

• First Class Commercial Mailing – 7% - 20%
• Marketing Mail (Standard Class) – 4% - 12%

We understand the struggles of managing expenses and know how important marketing is in growing your business and are doing our best to hold prices where possible. Postage is a fixed cost that is established by the USPS and DBM Group has no control over. We ran analytics on the 2021 postage update to ensure client rates were only increased by the minimum applicable. Due to these mandated postal increases, a change in pricing was necessary for mailings scheduled to mail after the August 29th postal increase.

This price adjustment will be reflected in our portal starting August 30th 2021. For specific details on how this effects the programs you currently use, please reach out to our customer service representative at 800-898-0723.

Thank you for your business and continued support,

— DBM Group

Let's face it, if you don't track your marketing efforts, how do you know what's working?

There are an endless number of factors that can affect your sales - construction, weather, local events, competitor promotions, type(s) of offers, seasonality, etc.

So when you are evaluating your marketing, it's crucial to be able to say "this initiative brought in X customers for me."

In order to do that, you HAVE to track your marketing carefully.

When evaluating your marketing campaigns, ask yourself the following questions:

• How am I going to track my results?
• How many consumers am I going to reach?
• How can I determine how many people the campaign brought in?
• What was my return on investment?
• Did I notify all employees/managers about the campaign?

Reach out to Berkeley Wolford at 714-727-0865 or bwolford@dbmgroup.com to discuss the importance of tracking your marketing.

— SubLSM Team

In all marketing efforts, the goal is to drive business. You want consumers to visit and experience what you have to offer while becoming a loyal customer.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to incentivize them with an appealing offer to make it easy for them to try your products.

Here are some things to keep in mind when selecting offers:

1. The goal is to incentivize consumers - Welcome new customers by lowering the barrier to entry.
2. Select offers that have wide appeal to the new consumers you're trying to acquire - This means using inclusive words like "All Products," "Any Sandwich"...etc.
3. Offers should be impactful - Ensure your customers understand the value of your offer and visiting your restaurant.
4. Produce a sense of urgency - Time is limited, so include a 30 day expiration date on all offers.

Reach out to Berkeley Wolford at 714-727-0865 or bwolford@dbmgroup.com if you would like to learn more about the recommended offers for your location.

— SubLSM Team

It is undeniable that the competition in your area affects your revenue.

Are you interested in beating your competitors?

What are you doing to acquire THEIR customers, and retain your own?

Here are a few tips on constructing a marketing strategy to crush the competition . . .

• Analyze The Geography - Focus on the customers between your location and your competitors’. Target anyone who is conveniently located near you both... the Competitive Battleground.
• Understand Your Goal - Reach as many of their customers as possible, both at home and at work. You're trying to target the customers that have a direct impact on your competitors’ business.
• Utilize Broad & Aggressive Offers - Incentivize these consumers to choose you over the competition. Your offers should be strong enough to make the choice easy and broad enough that anyone can use them.
• Focus on Competitive Differentiators - Why should customers pick you instead of your competitor? Highlight these differentiators in your marketing efforts to show the customers why you are #1.

Reach out to Berkeley Wolford at 714-727-0865 or bwolford@dbmgroup.com for more details on developing a strategy to deal with the competition in your area.

— SubLSM Team

As a business owner you have an endless list of tasks to take care of. . .

Many of them need daily attention, but you can get a year's worth of marketing set up all at once.

How is this accomplished? Pre-scheduled marketing.

Benefits of Pre-scheduled Marketing:

• No Contracts - Sign up for multiple mail dates, but change, pause, or stop at any time with no penalties!
• Volume Discount - Pay a rate based on your overall mailing quantity vs. paying the higher piece rate of mailing one drop at a time. Plus, you only pay for each mailing when it actually mails (not upfront).
• Convenience - In about 10 minutes, schedule an entire year of marketing - one less thing to worry about.
• Flexibility - Still have the ability to change offers, location information, and mail dates in between your scheduled drops.
• Cadence - Quarterly mailings are regular enough to stay top of mind, but without creating discount-dependent customers.

Reach out to Berkeley Wolford at 714-727-0865 or bwolford@dbmgroup.com for more details on taking advantage of pre-scheduled mailings in your area.

— SubLSM Team

Congratulations to our Quarter 2 Survey Winner Clay Bowman. Clay operates locations out of the Colorado market and has been mailing with us for over 4 years!

We're always looking to improve our programs, and your opinion is what matters most. Once your SubLSM direct mail offers have expired, take our 2-3 minute email survey to give us your feedback!

The best part? You'll be entered to win $300!

You can also email bwolford@dbmgroup.com with feedback about your experience for another opportunity at a discount.

We look forward to working with you in the future, and we thank you for your time and business!

— SubLSM Team

With 25+ years of marketing experience we understand how important it is to reach the RIGHT audience.

Marketing is most effective when you can successfully identify and reach a consumer group that needs your products and services.

Tips for identifying your ideal segment:

1. Start by identifying consumers within your ideal mailing geography
2. Target consumers where they are - It is important to reach consumers at a time when they are ready to make purchase decisions. If your goal is to increase daytime/weekday traffic, understand that your regular customers are at work during the day.
3. Think about your industry - If you run a restaurant, you shouldn't market to other restaurants. Sounds like common sense...but confirming that your marketing partner is aligned with these goals ensures you are maximizing your budget and getting the best results.

If you are interested in receiving information about the ideal segments in your area, reach out to Berkeley Wolford at 714-727-0865 or bwolford@dbmgroup.com for a profile of your territory.

— SubLSM Team

Can you make a similar claim about any of your current marketing efforts?

If not, here are tips to keep in mind when setting up your marketing area:

• Keep within a close distance of your location
• This ensures consumers are conveniently located. In high traffic areas drive times become a key component, keep consumer drive times to 5-7 minutes when possible.
• Avoid natural barriers (Freeways/Highways, Rivers, Large Parks, etc.)
• These may act as a deterrent for consumers based on their drive patterns.
• Don't market around other Subway locations
• Consumers may end up visiting the wrong location if it's closer to them. Then you just paid for someone else's marketing!

By taking these best practices into consideration you can ensure that you are efficiently marketing to potential customers.

Reach out to Berkeley Wolford at 714-727-0865 or bwolford@dbmgroup.com to see what a Best Practice Geography looks like for your stores.

Look out for Marketing Masters Vol. 2, where we will be talking about consumer segments!

— SubLSM Team

We're always looking to improve our programs, and your opinion is what matters most. Once your SubLSM direct mail offers have expired, take our 2-3 minute email survey to give us your feedback!

The best part? You'll be entered to win $300!

Or, you can email bwolford@dbmgroup.com with feedback about your experience for another opportunity at a discount.

We look forward to working with you in the future, and we thank you for your time and business!

— SubLSM Team

Postal Increase Note

The Postal Regulatory Commission recently announced many price increases to take effect January 27, 2019. Time to stock up on your Forever stamps! The price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp will increase 5¢ to 55¢.

We understand the struggles of managing expenses and know how important marketing is in growing your business and are doing our best to hold prices where possible. Due to these mandated postal increases, a small change in pricing was necessary in some segments and price breaks for mailings scheduled to mail after the January 27th postal increase.

We are still dedicated to provide every Subway owner:

• Highest level of customer service
• High impact creative that engages the consumer to respond
• Highest quality of data and targeted groups who are your best customer groups

Our mission is to deliver effective, cost-efficient, targeted, direct-marketing solutions that increase profitability for our clients.

Thank you for your business and continued support.