***Never say Never…New Life for an Old Tool

Direct mail is in a revival these days. Even Microsoft recently sent out a direct mail campaign to market adCenter, their online paid ad service. Imagine that, direct mail ads to advertise an online ad service! Direct mail can be an effective way to target select markets, if done correctly. How do you make your mail stand out from the rest? 

• Start with a clear message and an easy-to-understand call to action.
• What do you want them to do, simple and specific?
• Use only graphics that help tell your story.
• Don’t pack everything in your piece. Give them a reason to contact you.
• Be generous with white space. It is important to allow the reader’s eye to rest.

Type and fonts

• Use reverse type sparingly. Not at all, if your target audience is over 55.
• Speaking of over 55, use 14 point or larger type if your target is older.
• Do not put any small type on a darker color background.
• Limit the number of font families, preferably only two, e.g., Arial font for the headlines and Times font for the body copy.
• Use bold and italics carefully. They can be great to highlight important information, but if everything is bold or italic then nothing is important.
• Stick to easy to read fonts. Fancy fonts can be hard to read.
• Type on funny angles is not fun, it’s just hard to read. Don’t make them think beyond your call to action.
• Be careful using justified type (left and right margins are even). Justified type can create uneven spacing causing “rivers of white” throughout the type.

Paper and Ink

• Choose duotones/tritones colors carefully. People look funny in purple… use four-color printing or black printing if you use photos.
• Choose ink and paper carefully. Match them to your audience. Astro-bright papers may be great for a garage sale, but may not be right if your target markets are corporate professionals.
• Avoid metallic inks or foils for copy.  The glare from the inks makes it unreadable and impossible to fax or scan.

Most important: Remember to put your contact information in several easy-to-spot places. Give them several easy ways to contact you including your web address, phone number, street address and email. With just a little planning you can create an effective printed piece for your business that can become a valuable part of your marketing puzzle. Bonus: Create the mail piece into a downloadable pdf from your website too…