6 Direct Mail Best Practices You Need to Know

All direct mail professionals will tell you that it’s critical to appreciate and utilise design best practices to maximise your direct mail ROI.

Potential customers deal with their direct mail in a different way from their email. Believe it or not, there is a higher probability that people will read your direct mail than open up an email from you.

This means, if you follow some simple design best practices, you are more likely to capture the reader’s attention and make a more substantial impact.

Let’s look at the most effective direct mail design practices to help you achieve incredible results by grabbing attention, creating interest, and prompting action.

1. Set up the design

Whatever your message or offer, prioritise it by using a combination of font, type size, colour, and white space to make it stand out to the customer.

The careful use of white space helps guide the recipient’s eye through the message and directly to your call-to-action.

If you are using images, ensure they are visually exciting and easy to understand. The graphics should boost the message, be in high resolution, and be printed on quality paper stock.

Above all else, keep the design simple. Having a cluttered mailer is ‘certain death.’ It makes it hard to read and confusing to decipher what the call-to-action is. If you have a cluttered mailer – the only place it will be going is into the bin.

2. Pull-on the heartstrings

Think about who is reading the mailer and what is important to them – Savings? Family? Security? Faith?

Show them through your design and copy how your product or service can make their lives better, giving them what they want most in the world.

3. Personalisation of the direct mailer

We talk about this a lot at Active Mail. Technological dvancements in digital printers make it economically viable to use variable data printing to personalise your design and copy.

Think about it… do you know their birthday? Their name? What did they last buy from you?

All of these elements and more can be integrated to customise the message and design of your next mailer.

4. Presentation is key

The envelope is how your bulk post campaign is delivered. Stop putting your mailers into a generic, bland envelope. People know what it is and are more likely to throw it away immediately.

Make the envelope stand out by using colour, alluring or handwritten font, different shapes, or textures. Remember, the envelope is the first thing the recipient will see, and first impressions count.

5. Have a strong call-to-action

You can’t afford to play docile and timid on this one. Be clear and concise about what you want the recipient to do. Call, visit a website, scan a QR code. Make it obvious because complicated steps confuse people.

Use big, bold font, and highlight. Help guide the eyes through the message and directly to the call-to-action, so they know precisely what they need to do.

6. Tactile sensation matters

When you strip everything else away, we humans love giving and receiving tangible items. It is the phenomenon of touch that is fundamental to being human.

That is why businesses find success when they go out of their way to make the direct mailer experience memorable through unexpected or luscious textures in the card or envelope stock.

It encourages the recipient to engage with the product fully, making it unforgettable.

Final thoughts

A creatively designed direct mail campaign will give you the greatest opportunity to stand out from the crowd in such a competitive world, vying for the attention of potential customers.

Using design and stellar copy to intentionally grab attention, create interest and prompt action will always make your campaigns a success.

At Active Mail, our experts will work closely with you to design a creative campaign to meet your goals and budget, saving you time and money and delivering you peace of mind.

Take the first step now, and reach out for a no-obligation consultation.