Thursday, July 30, 2009

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.