5 Direct Mail Design Tips to Remember

Beautiful design work by a professional designer is a lot like electricity – you don’t really think about it until it’s gone. It’s often taken for granted when it’s good, but makes a bad impression when it isn’t.

Graphic design isn’t easy for everyone and it helps to know your stuff so you can articulate what you need. To help keep the lights on for your direct mail marketing campaigns, here are 5 direct mail design tips you need to know.

Pick the Perfect Pictures

Your recipient is going to decide in less than 10 seconds if your mailer is worth keeping for a later date or throwing in the trash bin. Before they read the text, they glance over the design and look at the imagery.

Connecting with them emotionally is more important than just aesthetic, it affects your conversion rates and overall revenue.

To start, think about locations, events or people you can take pictures of that accurately represent your business. For example, a landscape company might want to take a picture of a beautiful project they just completed. A dentist office might want to take pictures of their staff to humanize their practice.

Once you have a good idea of what your audience should see, you can hire a local photographer on sites like Fiverr. If that’s out of budget, shop for unique stock photos that fit the profile on Shutterstock or iStock. Avoid using Google images, those pictures are often overused and the consumer can often detect the lack of TLC that went into that decision.

Keep copy simple

Your business is amazing and it’s hard to describe in just a few words. When you’ve put blood, sweat and tears into building your business, it’s hard to summarize all the amazing things you have to offer to fit in a 5” x 7” postcard. The good news is that you’re not alone. Many business owners and passionate marketers feel the exact same way. The bad news is that less is more when it comes to postcard marketing. The beauty is in the simplicity.

You’ll want an attention-getting headline that’s larger than less significant text and a call-to-action that drives them to book an appointment or visit a landing page. Once you’ve narrowed your copy down to a clear and concise message, you can experiment with fonts, colors and patterns to make it stand out. One of the most effective direct mail design tips for success is to keep your copy simple and scannable.

Find the right font

We cant fully discuss direct mail design tips without going into detail about fonts. Don’t feel guilty if you have a hard time picking the perfect font, even professional designers joke about spending hours just scrolling through fonts before settling on the right one. But if you’re not familiar with the basics of typography, it can be tough to even know where to start. The pros are familiar with these basic families so they can narrow it down when they have to make a decision.

• Serif fonts: Typefaces that have serifs, which are extra strokes on the ends of their letterforms. They’re commonly associated with history, tradition, honesty, and integrity. You can consider them traditional looking.

• Sans-Serif fonts: These fonts do not have serifs on the ends of their letterforms. They are more modern and minimalist. They typically are associated with a clean appearance.

• Script forms: Script forms resemble cursive handwriting or calligraphy and give a contemporary feel.

Colors are impactful

Picking colors might seem like an elementary task, but it’s more important than it seems. The colors in your overall design evoke emotions, helping your reader decide what they’re in for before diving into the copy. The most important part is that your coloring and messaging are aligned across all of your marketing channels; website, social media, postcards, etc.

This delivers consistency as readers explore your brand. But there are key color choices you can make for special events or sales that differ from your typical brand imaging.

Here’s a basic guideline for picking colors for ads:

• Red: Encourages appetite, creates a sense of urgency and is associated with movement, excitement and passion. Typically used for fast-food chains and clearance sales.

• Blue: Associated with peace, water and reliability. Provides a sense of security and promotes trust in a brand. Common for offices and corporate brands.

• Green: Associated with health, tranquility and nature. Think money, wealth and luxury brands. Used in stores or for environmental type brands.

• Purple: Associated with royalty, wisdom and respect, along with creativity and intelligence. Often used for beauty and anti-aging products.

• Orange/yellow: Increases cheerfulness and optimism. Used to draw in impulsive buyers and window shoppers. Promotes enthusiasm.

• Black: Associated with authority, power, stability and strength.

• Grey: Symbolizes feelings of practicality, timelessness and solidarity.

• White: Associated with purity, cleanliness and safety.

Print With Quality

One of the most overlooked direct mail design tips is to avoid printing on low quality materials. If it’s your first time ordering printing for your collateral and you’re going into it blind, you might be gambling when it comes to print quality.

The overall feel of your piece conveys value to the recipient, so you want the quality of the print to reflect the quality of the services you offer. Local shops are fine for small volumes as long as you agree on the materials, and you’re working with a trusted provider. Bulk printing, on the other hand, requires a vendor with expert partnerships.

When seeking a print partner, make sure that they have a history working with bulk printers and that they have options for cutting, folding, bounding, laminating, stapling and gluing. We recommend looking at companies that partner with USPS, because they have the strongest reputation. Or you can skip a step by setting up a consultation with a GrowMail Consultant.

Your GrowMail consultant can relieve your design concerns by connecting you with our team of award-winning, creative design experts.  It doesn’t matter if you just need a postcard design, or if you’re in need of a whole new creative identity. Our design team is more than capable of providing you with lasting and meaningful relationships between your brand and audience through intelligent thinking and creative design.

Bonus:

To really maximize your campaign, you’ll want to incorporate tracking and personalization into your design. Personalization is becoming essential in marketing as consumers are expecting more from the businesses that advertise to them. Tracking helps you make smart decisions on what’s working and what’s not so you can maximize direct mail as a channel for your business.

How to track:

• Landing pages: The most effective way to generate and convert leads because they can be built to include lead magnets or contact forms to collect information.

• URL shorteners: Create short URLs that are easy for your recipients to access and are trackable. This helps them get to your landing page quicker and gives you data on total traffic so you can analyze conversion rates.

• QR codes: Give your readers a physical way to bridge the gap to your landing page. You can also offer promotions and other incentives for scanning.

• Unique Phone Numbers: Set up a dedicated toll-free number that redirects to your business line or subscribe to a service with a call software company that reports analytics.

Execute Your Next Insurance Direct Mail Marketing Campaign With GrowMail

Implementing a postcard marketing strategy is a proven, cost-effective way to get more clients. To work with an expert who can help with all of the other components, schedule a free consultation with GrowMail.

With over 20 years experience with helping businesses get results, GrowMail offers a consultative approach with a full suite of marketing tactics. If you’re ready to begin getting results from your marketing efforts, book an appointment with a GrowMail marketing consultant today!.