You grab the mail and have two ads in your hands, along with a few other mail pieces. One is cluttered with huge chunks of text and gaudy colors, barely readable. The other is sectioned off in an organized way and is soothing to look at. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the pop of color near the offer. This one is for the restaurant you heard about but hadn’t had a chance to try yet. You toss the first ad in the trash and place the second one near your keys.
Design matters more than you think. When done poorly, your message is quickly glanced over and forgotten. When done well, it can carry your direct mail and print marketing campaigns. Here at Signature Graphics, we’ve seen the difference first-hand. Some of our most successful clients work with our creative team, Kobalt Design, to create their best-performing ads. In this blog, we’ll show you how to create effective direct mail ads with Kobalt Design.
Direct mail and print marketing work so well due to their tangible nature. While digital works great, it will never affect your memory in the same way. Print is so memorable because you can see it, feel it and even smell the paper. Combined with the fact that it “sticks” around for longer, it’s one of the best decisions you can make for your company.
While digital is a quick ad centered in hundreds of other visuals that pop up online, print has much less competition. Especially as more and more people are moving to digital. However, this just means that print advertisements work even better. Far fewer people are utilizing the tactic, so your ads stand out even more.
Is print marketing or digital marketing best for your brand? Learn how they compare in our related blog: Print Marketing vs. Digital Marketing.
The key to creating your best direct mail ads and maximizing your ROI comes down to these 10 design tips. Keep reading to see how you can get your best campaign results.
Achieving designs that catch attention starts with creating eye-catching visuals and color themes that correlate with one another and match your brand design. Finding the perfect balance between striking and consistent is crucial. You want a design that demands attention without being obvious. Some of the most effective direct mail ads include matching color palettes, relevant images and other design elements that put your content on display and highlight your features.
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Just as important as the text you choose is the white space in between. If you have huge blocks of text, your potential customers will be intimidated and won’t even begin to read. However, if you set up your content in a readable way, eyes naturally can’t help but consume the page. It’s all about the hierarchy of your content. Using the largest heading at the top of your page and shrinking as you continue down ensures the most important stuff is read first.
Using paragraphs to separate different ideas into sections also ensures your content is placed logically, in a way that your audience will appreciate. Lastly, make sure to highlight the most important information first and add the extra stuff as you continue down the page. Finish off your message with a call to action.
Related Read: Layout Tips for Effective Print Marketing
Nothing conveys a trustworthy brand and message more than consistency. If you come across direct mail that has a brand gorgeously spread across the page and later find a shoddy, mismatched website, it’s not going to look good.
The more you seamlessly blend your brand across all omnichannel platforms, the better your audience response will be. You want to use the same color themes across channels, convey similar messages and offer a website that contains all the extra information in one place. If you’re missing one of these things, future consumers will catch on and might be deterred from your product or service.
Remember when we mentioned to start with the most important information at the top of the page? This is where the “catch” comes in. The web that weaves a story and catches your audience ensures that your audience can’t help but continue reading your message.
The best ways to catch your audience are to:
There are many other ways to hook your audience, but these are just a few you can utilize. The more interest you pique at the beginning of your direct mail, the better.
We’ve touched on this a little already, but utilizing benefit-driven copy is one of your biggest advantages in direct mail ads and print marketing. Many companies start listing off their service or product features, but it doesn’t directly link to their audience.
Instead, put yourself in their shoes and determine what they want to hear most. Most consumers don’t care about the obvious things. They want to envision themselves using your product or service. The best way to do that is to describe what they get from it by investing in your product or service.
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As you can see, the second example is so much more vivid, and the audience can see exactly what they are getting out of the service. Instead of just seeing some random service offerings, the second option brings you right into it, so consumers are invested from the very beginning.
The more personalized your message is, the more trustworthy you come across. Words are powerful, especially when they include information as personal as a name. The minute a name is used, it shows reverence and respect. On top of that, it automatically garners attention. You can’t help but notice your name because it’s the one word you’re always taught to respond to.
When you add personalization in direct mail, consumers are immediately more invested in that act alone. A name is powerful and immediately recognizable by the person to whom it belongs. This simple act can be a game-changer for your print marketing mail.
While there are a ton of gorgeous fonts to choose from, they’re not all built the same. Some are impossible to read with all the eccentric flares and details. When you opt for an unreadable font, trust us when we say your consumers can’t read it—and no one’s going to take the time to figure it out for some unknown, random company in their mailbox.
To immediately gain the attention that you want, use simple, easy-to-read fonts and colors so your consumers immediately know what’s happening. With more readable, recognizable direct mail, you’ll see better results short- and long-term.
If you’re just spouting off information and then telling potential customers to call you or visit your website, there’s no incentive whatsoever. It’s important to create mail that’s engaging and intrigues consumers. The best way to do this is by:
There are a variety of ways to make your direct mail more engaging and applicable to your customers. Using some of the above ideas in combination with these design tips can help you get started.
One of the final ways to create effective ads with Kobalt Design is to sign off with a compelling call to action (CTA). Your CTA should be at the end of your advertisement to show your potential customers how to interact with your ad. Without it, you have a lot of information but no next steps. The CTA makes their next steps easy and to the point.
Some of the best CTAs to use include:
By including a CTA, you tell consumers exactly how to get in contact with you and buy your products or services. If your audience is interested, they’ll take the next step to learn more or go straight into buying your product or service.
Direct mail is different for everyone. Many people assume it’s just a personalized postcard or letter, but there are so many options you can choose from. The most compelling direct mail comes in a variety of print marketing materials. Some of our favorite examples we’ve seen include:
The print marketing materials you choose for your campaign should correlate with your brand and particular needs. If you have a new line of products, a quick postcard teaser is a great way to get people thinking of your brand. Later, you can pair this with other channels of marketing to get even better results.
Curious how our creative team can help improve your direct mail campaigns?
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Once you learn how to create effective direct mail ads, you can see incredible results with your print marketing campaigns. However, if you need help at any step of the way, Signature Graphics can make each step easier with our comprehensive or a la carte services. With design, printing, assembly and delivery, you can let us handle everything or just the services you need.
Our Kobalt Design team makes it easy for our customers to enhance their direct mail and other print marketing campaigns. Regardless of what kind of message you want to send potential consumers, our team has years of experience and can amplify your results. Ready to get started?
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