January 29, 2014

Direct Mail Design Tips

Direct Mail Design Tips

5 Design Tips every newbie needs to know & every novice needs to remember.

There is a fine line in direct mail design as too many images or too much text can turn people off. The first thing that gets noticed in direct mail is the design and confusing your audience with it, will not help drive a response. Don’t let your campaign go up in smoke! Here are some tips to keep in mind when designing your next direct mail campaign.

1. Images: Carefully consider your message as you approach design. The images you choose should not conflict with your message or your brand. Make sure to show the images to people outside the organization to see if they make the same associations you do.
2. Text: When using text in direct mail it is important to be concise. Use bullet points and bold the important reader take-a-ways. All the text copy should support the main idea of the direct mail piece.
3. Color: It is important to consider the mood of your message. This mood can be conveyed through the use of color. Warm colors such as yellow, orange and brown will be happy, whereas blue, grey or black are seen as more somber. There are too many color options to discuss here, but you get the general idea. If you would like to see more on color, check out this blog post: click here
4. Size:  Size can be a key factor in getting your piece noticed in the mail box. Larger size pieces stand out. If you are using a folded self-mailer, the max size you can use and still stay in a good postage rate is 6 x 10.5. If you are using a postcard you can go up to 6 1/8 x 11 1/2 and still stay in the same postage rate. Any size over these will bump you up
   into the flat rate category. The max size in this category is 12 x 15.
5. Call to Action: Finally make sure that your call to action is specific, prominently displayed and gives them multiple ways to respond such as email, phone, web, in person, or mobile. The more options you can provide the better response you are going to get. Make sure to state the CTA more than once and give them an incentive to respond quickly.

Every direct mailer will have challenges with the layout and design. Sometimes it is best to do a split test using two different designs to see which pulls a better response. Then you make that piece your base piece and for the next mailer you modify the one that did not work so well to test the altered design while still sending your base piece that got you a good response. Always make sure that you are tracking and analyzing your results to that you can continue to build momentum with your campaigns.