Direct mail packages: design that sells

Direct mail packages: Design that sells I don't hear much discussion these days about effective design for circulation direct mail packages. Maybe that's because "excellent design" in a direct mail package calls attention to the magazine being promoted, rather than to itself.

Good design works to get prospects to open your package, to read the copy, to make them say, "Yes! Enter my subscription--NOW!" In this respect, the designer is as much a salesperson as the copywriter.

Copy must be written before a package can be designed, but copy and art work together to create direct mail packages that get loads of profitable responses. Despite their diversity, well-designed direct mail packages have some elements in common. Let's take a look at some of them.

1. Visual presentation gets envelopes opened.

Good envelopes get opened. Badly designed envelopes get thrown out with the garbage. The way your envelope looks determines, to a great extent, the success of your mailing. there are lots of design tools available to get your direct mail package noticed. Envelope size, color, art, die cut windows--even the kind of postal indicia you choose--all play a part in capturing a prospect's attention. You have about three seconds to grab your prospect by the nose and lead him inside the envelope. The envelope should work exactly like a strong headline for a space ad. Designers know this, which is why good ones push clients to do something different--something unexpected.

Good envelope design means knowing some envelopes have to shout to get attention and others need to whisper. The best designers never stop worrying about the package envelope. If the envelope doesn't do its job, the money spent on the rest of the package is wasted.

2. The 'kiss' school of design makes order cards work.

Unless you're designing a sweepstakes package, a magazine subscription order card works best if you keep it simple and make sure prospects understand how to use it.

Order cards also have to look important. A certificate border can sometimes accomplish this, but it isn't always apropriate. You can make your order card look important by organizing the copy, using large type, and making sue perfs have a heavy broken rule around them. An effective order card always carries the magazine's guarantee displayed prominently as a graphic element to enhance its official flavor.

Any price savings, respond-by dates and/or premiums should be stressed--with color, type or both. While it is accpetable to set housekeeping copy (foreign rates, the disclaimer on first issue shipping) in very small type, it is not acceptable to use 4-point type to restate the magazine's subscription offer.

Invest some time to work out the design flow of the order card. It's the most important component inside your package.

3. Well-designed packages are easy to read.

Good design means appropriate type and point size, and the right type in the right place. For instance, no direct mail designer worth his/her salt would ever set type for a direct mail letter. Typewriter type is the only acceptable "look" for this package component. If you don't have or can't locate an accurate repro typist, you can specify American Typewriter or Clarinda. We like Clarinda because it looks most like a real typewriter. Nothing in your direct mail package should ever be hard to read. Therefore, typefaces such as the Times Roman or Helvetica families are your good choices for body copy.

Upper and lower case type is easier to read than all caps. So, restrain the urge to have everything all caps. Save this technique for special emphasis only and use it sparingly.

Generally, the best designed direct mail packages use only two or three typefaces throughout the package. Within a family of type, it's fine to vary the type weight--bold, condensed and italic, etc. This technique adds interest and dimension to a package. Constantly jumping from one type style to another, however, destroys the prospect's ability to settle down and read your message.

It's a known fact that type reversed out of a dark background is harder to read than black type on a white background. Dropping out a large headline is fine--even dramatic and eye-catching. But dropping out a large block of body copy succeeds only in slowing down your prospect. Good designers understand that creatin a "mood" doesn't mean rendering copy unreadable.

The point size of type is very important to a well-designed package. Generally, the larger the type the easier it is to read. We like to keep body copy at least 8 point or 9 point whenever possible. Most people really have to struggle to read anything below 6-point type. So, if you want your direct mail copy to be read, don't use type that's too small. Frustration eliminates readership.

Finally, don't feel compelled to fill every inch of space in your package. Copy needs some room--some white space--around it to encourage prospects to get involved. If your copy looks difficult or intimidating, no one will want to pursue it.

4. Using color makes a difference.

Color adds emphasis and interest to every component in your package. Two color is just fine in many cases. A third color can ad additional contrast. Four color should be used only when it makes sense--you won't need it for a black-and-white business directory. In fact, if the product is very simple and not visually exciting, line art may be preferable and less costly than photography.

There are many professionals who think a two-color package means red and black only, but I think that's simply too limiting. If every circulation package is red and black, what will distinguish your red-and-black package from the other nine in a prospective subscriber's mailbox?

Cyan blue, yellow, orange, aqua, purple and lime green all work amazingly well. Screening these colors as well as black adds interest and the illusion of more color to a package. Don't overlook screens of black. Gray works with almost every color. Color screens attract attention and prevent reader boredom.

It's a good idea to keep "restful" colors such as blue and green off order cards. For this component, warm, exciting colors such as red and yellow appear to get better response.

Because color adds emphasis, it has to be used in the right place. Scan the nearest direct mail package. If your eye is drawn to unimportant or throw-away elements, the design isn't working. For example, using a second color to emphasize a magazine's name in a letter is inappropriate because the name becomes the only thing you see. A much better use of the second color would be highlighting a headline or Johnson Box copy, subheads and the postscript. Those places should contain benefits copy. Good design means knowing prospects subscribe because of benefits, not the publication's name.

5. A picture is worth a thousand words (sometimes).

In a circulation direct mail package, pictures usually show the magazine. Sometimes it's shown being used by the subscriber. More often, it's important simply to be sure the pictures of the magazine are large enough to make it seem desirable.

Covers and spreads make good photographs in a subscription brochure, as do tables of contents and/or listings from business directories. Depending on the magazine's editorial subject matter, it could also make sense to show beautiful four-color photographs from the publication -- assuming the magazine owns this photography, of course.

Well-designed packages use captions under pictures unless the pictures are covers and spreads only. Captions and callouts always get high readership.

We rarely use people in photos for magazine subscription offers. Most circulation promotion budgets can't withstand hiring models and days of studio or location shooting. And, it may even be dangerous to do this. When you use models, you risk prospects not liking the people in the photograph. If too many prospects refuse to identify with them, your response will suffer. It's usually not worth the risk or the money.

If you elect to lift photos off the magazine's cover or pages for use in a brochure, be aware that good cropping is important. Cropping should eliminate All extraneous material from a picture. The only portion of the photo you want in your package is that which advances the magazine's sales story. This technique can be used to make average shots appear more exciting, and it saves space, too.

Photographs can be used to point prospects toward your objective. They can be used facing the copy to promote readership or to move prospects along to the order card.

6. Creating flow and movement avoids boredom.

A well-designed circulation direct mail package is never static. Every component inside the package must perform the task of getting the prospect to the order card.

A simple but effective way to make a prospect move along in a direct mail letter is to end a page of copy in the middle of a thought, rather than at a period. Prospects feel compelled to turn a letter over to complete the sentence. An arrow can point prospects in the right direction.

Direct mail packages have to "flow." Flow is created and sustained by making certain all folded package components work logically so prospects aren't confused or annoyed. To be sure you've accomplished this objective, hand your comps to an associate and watch what happens as he or she looks at the package. If your associate hesitates or opens things upside down or incorrectly, you'd be wise to rethink what you've done.

Adding dimension to your design with tints helps eliminate a flat, uninteresting appearance. You can use a color tint to hold together a panel of your brochure or a block of copy. This technique helps prospects absorb copy points and makes the copy easier to read.

Design is problem solving and organization. It brings order from chaos and gets prospects to pay attention and want to find out more. It makes direct mail letters look easy to read, keeps prospects moving along to the order card, never confuses and always enlightens. It's understanding human nature and human physiology. It's 50 percent of the success of any package.

Personal taste must never be allowed to dictate your marketing decisions. Judging a direct mail package design by its beauty alone is not enough. It has to work. Has the prospect been led through the package? That's the acid test for direct mail designers.

There are some beauties around, but even the best of the best might not win an art director's club award. Direct mail design must be intelligent. Good designers aren't afraid to use proven techniques--underlining, bursts and banners, bullets and subheads, handwritten notes and all the other available bells and whistles--to make your subscription package the most exciting offer your prospect received today.

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