Inexperienced DM Designers

Why oh why would you want to go with an inexperienced designer.

Oh, that’s right they don’t cost as much.

REALLY?

I propose that they do cost as much, perhaps more—at the very least you break even after you’ve paid for the revisions at the printers or the reprints due to errrors.

What about your time to make sure they get things right?

How about file set up?

Here are some things your designer should be providing your print vendor:

SLUG LINE:

■ File Dimensions are correct and match bid specs

■ Window size and position correct

■ Fold and perf information included

■ Special or unusual format information included

■ Note colors and paper stock

FONTS:

■ Correct fonts are chosen; not styled in application

■ Collect all fonts

LAYOUT:

■ Spell checked complete document

■ Folds and perfs are marked in FPO

■ Bleeds are pulled out

RASTER IMAGES:

■ All images are high-resolution

■ All 4/C process images are CMYK (not RGB or Index Color)

■ Signatures are high-res

■ All images have been cleaned up

VECTOR IMAGES:

■ All spot colors and process builds checked

■ Unused colors deleted from palette

■ Placed/embedded images included in print files

COLOR PALETTE & TRAPS:

■ Delete unused colors

■ Verify process, spot, and FPO colors are correct

■ Traps are checked

■ Laser text is set to overprint not knock out of background

SEPARATIONS:

■ Verify files separate correctly

■ Ink density checked

LASER TEXT:

■ Save laser text to Word document, if requested

■ Supply information to data shop (font, size, leading)

■ Be prepared to supply PDF (at 100%) for text layout measurements if requested

SEND TO PRINTER:

■ Document layout file

■ Fonts

■ Images (including placed/embedded/Photoshop layered files if necessary)

■ PDFs (composite & separations)

This is what I do as a matter of course on any given file. That’s what you pay me for. So your printer won’t have to make a lot of changes and charge you for them.

Is your designer doing this for your printer?

If you don’t know, you should ask. Better still ask your print production vendor.

Acquisition Mail Rant.

Acquisition Mail Rant.

All you mailers who have decided to not mail any more to save money. All I can say is ARE YOU NUTS?

Did you learn nothing from 9/11?

Those who did not mail were in a world of hurt, and those who did, managed to survive and keep their coffers somewhat full, Those who didn’t mail faced a short term gain and a long term pain.

Face it, there’s a lot of churn in your membership/donor bases. You have to feed that monster by bringing in new members all the time. If you just stop, where will you be in two years?

I have a commercial client who took the risk when I told him, that he needed to mail twice as much to stay in the same place.

He took that advice to heart, and actually mailed even more frequently than that and is having the best year ever, though back in February he was thinking that it was the wrong thing to do. That was until the first drop hit and his website and phones lit up with good solid leads.

It’s a numbers game. The more you mail the better your chances of reeling in a member/donor.

There are a lot of folks who have never had to exist in this rough economic climate. They were used to mailing something and reaping the rewards. Now their response rates are down by 20-25% and they don’t know what to do about it.

Don’t freak out, just mail. Don’t mail stupid. Mail smart. Make sure you have a good offer or compelling story to tell. Mail to your base and scrub those lists.

Nothing has changed. You still have to be good at your job, you still have to motivate your audience to act and you still have your core mission.

Favorite Packages—Entry 1

One of my favorite packages is the only mailing I’ve ever done for Nuclear Threat Initiative while working at SQN.

I got to work with some of my favorite people. Pru Bovee (Prudence Bovee Copywriting) , Steve DelVecchio (DelVecchio Consulting), Kristin McCurry (MindSET Direct) and Laura Colley (Production Solutions).

The package raised a total of $187,000. One single donation of $100,000 and eight single donations of $10,000. The package was fun and totally collaborative.

Design Worth a DM

Design worth a DM.


I’m always defending design’s part of the response equation.

You know it—40% of your response rate is the list, 40% is the offer, 10% is the copy and 10% is the design.

But design can be the most important part of the equation:

A good design gets the package opened, leads the recipient through the package, enhances the copy and showcases the offer.

A poor design can destroy great copy and obliterate a great offer.

That’s why it’s extremely important to hire a designer who knows how to design direct mail.

Many design firms and designers say they design direct mail. But you may find their designs lack the things you take for granted with a DM designer.

If you’ve hired a designer not experienced in designing direct mail, you may find some of the things I try and explain about designing direct mail where I’ve worked and consulted a bit familiar:

• The response device really should be bigger than six-point type and shouldn’t be buried at the bottom of the piece where people have to work to find it.
• The reply form needs to fit in the envelopes. Yes envelopes. Both directions going out and coming back. We want them to send it back with money. No really that’s how our client can afford to pay us.
• Yes, it really does need to have the recipient’s name and address on it and yes it needs to show through the window.
• Wow that’s a really great looking self-mailer—where does the address go? Interesting idea but putting it in an envelope defeats the purpose of a “self mailer” and increases the client’s costs.
• You want to break page one of the letter in the middle of a sentence so reader turns the page. I know you don’t like the way it looks, but trust me.”
• No we can’t lose the P.S.—It pulls attention away from the layout to the copy?—Yes that’s actually the point.
• This is supposed to be a two-color brochure—I know four PMS colors plus four-color process would be great, but we have a budget to stick to. No, I’m afraid that foil stamping is not in the budget either.
• Yes, a totally square package sounds coo, but it costs more to mail. Let’s stick to the specs.

You can see where I’m going with this. It’s the stuff you and I take for granted. And do you really want to explain the difference between a BRE and a CRE to yet another designer?

Hire a designer/firm who knows how to design for direct mail. Make sure the designer you hire has designed the kind of pieces you mail in the quantities you mail. Many firms will list direct mail as one of their specialties, but it might be something they did for their parents’ 50th anniversary party, a really beautiful piece with a total run of 50 and all hand work. And if that’s the type of mail you send out, then you may have made a good connection.

I’m not suggesting that you assume your design partner everything you need, but there are things that we know from years of designing direct mail that the other guys don’t.