Direct Mail Design

by Danetta Smith

Direct mail is one of the most heavily used forms of advertising and its popularity continues to grow. You can create interest in products and services or extend your customer base to new places. Direct mail can have a lot of information and directly reach groups that are being targeted.

While the design may not be the most important part of a direct mail campaign, it should not be overlooked. The design is the presentation of the offer. Your direct mail design should be easy to read, emphasize important ideas and persuade readers to respond. If your design does not accomplish these it may take away from your actual offer.

Copy

With direct mail, you should focus on the copy before you start designing. Should your copy be funny, emotional or serious? Know your audience—you want them to respond to your offer. The offer is what sells your product/service. The text and fonts should be very clear and easy to read. Decide what is important in your copy. Then with the design, you should highlight the important keywords and phrases.

Easy to Follow

Scan over your final direct mail piece rather quickly. Do your main ideas stand out? If they do, the reader should continue to read the smaller print. Your website, phone number, address and any other ways of contacting you should clearly stand out. The reader may have questions or concerns. If your contact information is not easily found, you may loose them.

Back-to-Front

Check your mail today. Do you notice anything? A recent mail observation found that almost all of your mail is delivered to you with the address label up. Your mail carrier reads the address before placing it in your mailbox. They never turn it over. This means the first thing your reader will see is the back of your direct mail piece—not the front. The back needs to have just as much attention as the front so that your reader will turn the mail over rather than throw it out.

Keep it Simple

Don’t overload your mailing with information. If your reader sees uncommon fonts or something over-the-top they may start to think the offer is too good to be true. Plain and simple messages are not normal anymore. So keeping your mailing simple may make it stand out more and get a response from the reader.

If you find that Direct Mail Design is something that your company would like to know more about, feel free to contact Central States Media at info@centralstatesmedia.com or on the phone at (309) 693-2345.