Essential Direct Mail Design Tips and Ideas

The USPS processed and delivered 509 million pieces of mail. That translates to 21.2 million pieces of mail per day and 353,000 per minute. Simply put, the USPS handles 47% of the world’s mail.

You may be wondering how businesses are able to convert prospects into buying customers with direct mail. Well, it’s no secret; the success of direct mail marketing is all about sending the right piece, to the right prospect, at the right time. But how do you get noticed in the mail box? Standing out in the mail is all about the use of impactful images with a strong Call to Action on your piece. And if you can add in personalization in your direct mail design, that will help you stand out amongst the competition!

In this post, we highlight essential direct mail design tips and ideas that will help increase your response rates.

Keep Your Brand and Design Consistent

Your postcard is a gateway to interacting with your customers. If you want them to take action – buy your products – you need to build trust immediately. How do you go about this?

By maintaining consistency in your brand and design.

When you do so, you promote bonding and familiarity between your brand and your consumers. Not only that, you reassure your customers that they are dealing with the same brand.  You want to create brand awareness and stay top of mind.

To achieve consistency, pay attention to the design and conceptualization phases. That means maintaining the brand message, color scheme, and other elements.

Understand What Your Consumers Want

If you don’t know what your audience is looking for, it is difficult to design postcards that will achieve a high response rate. You want your postcards to be relevant to your audience so making sure the design of the piece and offer speak to your prospect is very important.  Remember, when you target a specific audience with your direct mail piece, you are positioning your business as the go-to location for customers to find and buy the products they need.

So profiling your current customers and identifying the right target audience for your marketing message is key to setting up a successful campaign.  If you are unsure where to start, work with a reputable data company and they will help you find the right target market.

Understanding what your customers want and making sure your direct mail piece is designed accordingly is key.

Use Pre-Built Direct Mail Templates

Want to entice your airline passengers with a printable paper plane? How about using a briefcase design to entice business travelers? Want to celebrate the anniversary of your loyal customer or Christmas?

You can achieve this with a pre-built direct mail marketing templates.

A quick search on Pinterest will reveal hundreds of designs for your target audience. For instance, you can choose a coffee cup in a box as an appreciation gift. You can also use a brochure or a loft cube design.  Again, it’s about being relevant to your target market and speaking to them with your marketing message.

With pre-built designed templates, you get to save time and money. The templates are designed by professional direct mail designers. As such, you can achieve a higher response rate if sent to your target audience.

Use White Space Effectively

Adding white space to your direct mail design emphasizes the important sections. Also, it helps to organize your elements helping you avoid overcrowding design elements.

For instance, you can add white space between your logo and brand name or CTA. Here is a simple trick to utilizing your white space well.  Divide your layout into four parts – header, body, call to action and image. The header should be clear and attention-grabbing. For the body, it should have the important details. For your call to action, use an accent color to ensure it stands out.  The Image is the most important part of your direct mail design. Use high resolutions images that are simple and colorful.

Direct Mail Design Tips for Your Business

There are more direct mail design tips to keep in mind. After designing your postcard or brochure, proofread it. Also, give it to others to proofread your design. You can request your employees, your family or co-workers to do so.  Better yet, ask some of your existing clients if your design would get them to respond!  You are trying to find like customers, so why not ask them what would make them want to do business with you.

Their opinion will help you to create effective designs and campaigns.

Looking for great direct mail designs for your business. We at Modern Mail & Print Solutions can help. Contact us today!