By nature, we as humans don’t have the greatest attention span. In a world overflowing with rapid-fire media, constant noise and unlimited distraction, capturing just a few moments of this fleeting time is a code that every marketeer will endeavour to crack in each piece of media they produce. Offline marketing is no exception, which is why when your direct mail lands on its recipient’s door mat, it needs to catch their eye.
Here are 5 ways to ensure your direct mail does just that from PSE’s visual virtuoso, Freya.
1. Targeting and Personalisation
It goes without saying that nobody likes to be bombarded by marketing that is irrelevant to their interests, but more crucially, people do like to feel important. With this in mind, how can we ensure that your recipient feels spoken to on a personal level rather than broadcasted along with thousands of others? Whilst targeted marketing is all about re-envisioning the public as statistics and trends, it’s exactly this which will help them to feel like more than just a contact on a mailing list.
Ensuring your mail ends up in the homes of an audience that is likely to be interested in your offering is an important first step in making your direct mail feel like it was made just for them, but there is more we can do to garner interest and engagement. Using personalised details such as names or relevant content based on their most recent brand interaction are both ways you can take targeting and personalisation to the next step, helping recipients feel an instant connection to your mail and a need to see what’s inside.
2. Alternative Sizing
When it comes to catching the eye of your recipient, size matters. How many times have you received post in an A5 envelope? Probably too many times to count this week alone… Yawn. An alternatively sized piece of mail is one of, if not the first, things that a potential customer will notice, and bigger doesn’t always necessarily mean better. Smaller, unique shapes can be just as intriguing as those that barely fit through the letterbox.
Not only can we experiment with the length and width of our direct mail, but physical marketing comes with the potential for 4-dimensions of impact. Simply adding a little depth or weight to your mail can help to add immense value to your campaign, giving a memorable, tactile experience from the moment it lands in the recipient’s hands. In a hallway plagued with bland envelopes, be the vibrant box.
3. Using Colour
As we know, the time you have to communicate your marketing message or offer is incredibly fleeting. Fortunately, a person’s primal attraction to colour can be compared to that of a puppy’s instinctual reaction to a squeaking toy. Not only can a well-designed colour palette magnetise a potential customer’s gaze, but it also begins to build a sense of what your campaign is about before the seal on your envelope is broken.
Deciding to use colour presents opportunities to both communicate your brand and evoke certain impressions within an instant, namely a sense of quality. A piece of mail that reflects value in the way it looks could be the key difference between an extended period of time spent in the hands of its recipient and the dreaded recycling bin.
4. High-Quality Imagery
The old saying goes, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’, and when you don’t have the time to say a thousand words, imagery can be your most efficient tool to quickly showcase your campaign and its offering. Whether it’s story-telling graphics or eye-catching photography, imagery will help to represent your brand as one of quality, separating your marketing from the bills and spam that it may be amongst.
Remember, your piece of offline marketing is there to be held and interacted with, so put some consideration into how you can get creative with its components. The composition of your imagery and how it interacts with the elements of your envelope or box can turn a mundane experience into a funny, charming, or enticing one by experimenting with the window, fold, or even the address.
5. Utilising Interactivity
The most effective direct mail is that which approaches engagement creatively. Whilst we know how effective it can be to take an imaginative approach to the aesthetic of your material, offline marketing also poses the unique ability to create more involved experiences. Whether it’s something as simple as a QR code that begins your recipient’s online journey through a captivating campaign or something that ingeniously initiates a physical involvement beyond opening a letter or box. Why not include instructions showing how recipients can transform your letter into a piece of brand-relevant origami, or include a puzzle or challenge that helps reveal the true meaning of your campaign? However you choose to engage your customer, a well-thought-out interaction will be one that they never forget and will earn you the all-valuable second thought.
Direct mail can be an exceptional method of creating brand memorability and attachment, but only if your mail has piqued the interest enough to incite the interaction. Getting your mail opened is a pretty significant hurdle to overcome, and even once you’ve achieved that, captivating extended attention is something that few companies succeed with. However, with 25 years of experience in offline marketing, we at PSE are confident that our tips will help to ensure your mail will be amongst the select few that avoid the paper waste graveyard.
Visit offlinemarketing.co.uk to find out how we’ve helped countless businesses produce irresistible offline marketing.
