The design of your direct mail campaign is vital to its success.
One of the most crucial things to recognise is that designing your campaign isn't just about putting together a beautiful looking piece of marketing material. Of course, that's part of it, but you need to consider the complete picture to maximise your campaign's success.
Here’s everything you need to know about designing your next direct mail campaign.
Planning your direct mail campaign
The planning phase of your direct mail campaign will help you settle on your strategy and ensure you have a clear idea of what you’re looking to do.
Who is your audience?
Only by understanding your audience can you genuinely create a compelling piece of direct mail.
You need to know:
- What your audience wants.
- How much information you need to provide your audience.
- The type of offers, promotions, and messages they respond to.
- What images will engage them and make them look at your mail and take action?
Knowing this information will allow you to create personalised direct mail and differentiates your mail from a general door drop leaflet that doesn't specifically target anyone.
What is the goal of your direct mail campaign?
The goal of your direct mail campaign may depend on the extent to which you know your audience.
For example, if you’re targeting residents in a specific area for the first time, your goal might be something simple and relatively non-specific, such as raising awareness of who you are.
However, if you know your audience, you might have a more specific goal for your campaign. Potential objectives might include:
- Increasing offline to online traffic.
- Sales of a specific product or service that you are promoting within your direct mail.
- Triggers of a specific promotion.
- Use of a coupon.
- Phone calls or online enquiries to your business.
Knowing your goal before you begin will help to inform your messaging and other aspects of your design.
What will be the best format for your campaign?
If you know how you will target your audience and your goals, choosing the type of direct mail you send out will be easy.
Choosing a suitable format for your campaign is vital to helping you get your message across.
What are your options?
- Brochures are helpful if you want to provide lots of information or detail about your products or services.
- You might even decide to send a catalogue if you want to showcase your entire range to your audience!
- Flyers are ideal if you want to send something smaller while still including a little information about your business and products.
- Postcards are perfect if you want to keep costs low, are sending to an existing audience, and want to announce something like a sale or specific promotion.
Bigger pieces of direct mail are typically more impactful and attention-grabbing, but they'll also increase your costs. Consider the most suitable format for your audience and goals.
What are the "must-haves" of a piece of direct mail messaging?
Compelling pieces of direct mail typically have the following elements:
- Your branding.
- Engaging imagery. This may be part of your logo and branding or standalone, depending on the space you have and the format you're using.
- A headline. This may be your brand’s tagline or something similar.
- A sub-heading highlighting the different sections of your mail.
- Offers and promotions, including any coupon codes for offers to be used remotely.
- Tracking information, like a phone number, email address, URL, or QR code for the recipient to scan to download your app or visit your website.
- Benefits or features of your business, services, or products.
Of course, if you're sending a small postcard, then you might not include every element. Still, these are the types of things you should be thinking about having to both engage and convert your direct mail recipients.
Designing the direct mail you’re going to send
If you’ve done everything as you should in the planning phase, you’ll be all set to design your direct mail and get it ready to send to your audience.
Here are the most vital things you need to take care of.
How to organise your direct mail design
If you’re designing your direct mail yourself and not using a design and distribution company to do so, think of your leaflet – or each page of whatever you’re sending – as being split into a 3 x 3 grid.
Thinking this way will help you organise your design and give enough space to your headline, logo, and other elements, and ensure you have some structure to your layout.
Of course, if you’re using a postcard for your direct mail campaign, you might find all you need is the word “SALE” across an entire side. As always, you should do what works for you, but keep this idea in mind!
How to use fonts to create an engaging piece of direct mail
Many people don't realise the impact their choice and use of fonts can have on their direct mail campaigns' success. Anyone can have a standout logo and use incredible imagery in your design. Ultimately, it's likely to be your written copy that makes someone want to engage and convert.
How can you use fonts effectively in your direct mail design?
- Keep it simple and stick to one or two typefaces. There's always a temptation to use something flashy or different, but you're trying to create something that people will want to read, not the fanciest font! Stick to classic typefaces and avoid things like joined-up handwritten fonts unless that's a vital pillar of your brand.
- Vary the font size to highlight key messages and make things like calls to action stand out.
- Use bold if you don't have much space but still want to create emphasis in your words.
- Stick to simple colours, but don’t be afraid to use different combinations of colour to differentiate specific messages or sections of your direct mail design.
Use white space
White space is one of the most effective, yet often underutilised, things in all of marketing! Just because you have an A5 leaflet, for example, doesn't mean you have to fill every inch of it with content.
Using white space will help you make things like your logo, key messages, and calls to action stand out and have the effect you want.
Top tips for maximising the use of images in your direct mail
Imagery is a hugely powerful asset in your direct mail campaign, especially if you’re sending personalised mail.
How can you maximise your use of images?
- Use lifestyle imagery as much as you can. This means images of people using your product or benefitting from using your service in a way that you can portray through a visual. If you're selling kitchen appliances, show them in action!
- Use high-quality images. Nothing screams “amateur hour” about your business like a fuzzy, out of focus image. If you don’t have your own images already, consider hiring a photographer or using stock imagery to find something engaging for your direct mail.
- Keep images as simple as possible, especially if they're going to be the background of your entire design. Try to ensure your images have a specific point of focus. A close up of one particular building is better than a shot of the whole town!
- Ensure text can be read while still enjoying the images. If you have a picture of your kitchen appliance in use, position the image so the focal point is on one side and so you can write your message on the other. Avoid using the same colours – who can read red text on top of a red toaster? If you're struggling here, you can always stamp out or blur one side of the image. This brings focus onto the thing you're trying to highlight and makes it easier for you to put text on the top.
Proofing and checking your direct mail design
If you're going to invest time and your marketing budget into a direct mail campaign, you ought to take the time to ensure it is achieving what you want!
As well as doing your own check, you should get someone else to look at your direct mail before you send it out. Don’t just rely on someone in the office, either! Get someone who has no stake in your direct mail to give you the brutal truth about it!
What to look out for when proofing and checking your direct mail design
Start by doing a standard proofread of the copy you’re including in your leaflet. Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors can stick out like a sore thumb. If you can’t get that right, people will think twice about putting their credit card details into your website!
You should also check your images are compelling, that your messaging is consistent throughout, and that everything about your direct mail addresses the goal you set yourself earlier.
Look to answer these questions:
- Does the design of my piece of direct mail flow and make sense? Can the recipient follow it in a logical order ending at a point where they'll be inspired to buy and have the information they need to do so?
- Is my messaging unclear or confusing at any point?
- Is the thing I'm trying to say coming across in a clear and obvious manner? For example, if you're promoting 25% off a purchase, it is evident that's what you're trying to tell someone?
One of the biggest mistakes people make is not to check their tracking details. Imagine sending out a piece of direct mail but getting the phone number wrong! You'd be surprised how often it happens!
Ensure you check that any of the following you include on your direct mail is correct:
- Your address and postcode, especially if you’re looking to drive footfall to a bricks and mortar premises.
- Phone numbers.
- Email addresses.
- Website URLs.
- QR codes.
The digital details are crucial for tracking the success of your campaign. With that in mind, you should also ensure any tracking you have set up for offline to online conversions is showing up in Google Analytics or whatever tracking tool you're using.
Asking other people to appraise your design – and what you should ask them!
Last but by no means least, it's time to invite other people to tell you how you can produce a better piece of mail!
This is particularly vital if your design has been for your eyes only up until now.
Ask people:
- What is your piece of mail wanting them to do? The answer should be the goal you set for your campaign earlier.
- Does your advert make them want to do it?
- Would they find your mail appealing if they found it on their doormat?
- Is there anything written or otherwise included that is difficult to understand.
Try and use a friend or family member who is not that familiar with your business. This reduces the chances of them making assumptions based on what they already know and thus not suggesting something your wider audience could find crucial.
Laying the foundation for a successful direct mail campaign
While this may seem like a cumbersome process, you'll only really need to follow it when creating your first couple of campaigns. It will soon become second nature and be the template for every direct mail campaign you design and execute. As you make continuous improvements to your direct mail, you will gradually find yourself making minor tweaks rather than starting scratch every time.
If you’re looking for help with any aspect of your direct mail campaigns, from identifying your audience to creating engaging, personalised designs, contact Mams to discover how we can help you get more from your next campaign.
