Articles by Mike Dietz

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Woman writing creative marketing ideas on a whiteboard while two coworkers look on

There’s Nothing Like a Good, Old-Fashioned Whiteboard for Coming Up with Creative Marketing Ideas

Posted August 28, 2019 by Mike Dietz in Creative

Hands down, one of the coolest features in IWCO Direct’s Creative Services offices are our whiteboard walls. When we were redesigning some of our office space a few years ago, the Creative Services team got the opportunity to provide input into what we wanted and what would make the workspace more efficient [...]

Female customers checking out dress worn by beautiful friend in bridal shop

What Shopping for a Wedding Dress and Choosing Direct Mail Formats Have in Common

Posted July 16, 2019 by Mike Dietz in Creative

We’ve talked a lot in the past about finding the right tone and format for your direct marketing message—for instance, keeping financial offers in official formats like a #10 envelope, and entertainment offers in promotional layouts with brighter colors and graphics. What we don’t often talk about is the fact that we often present a […]

Woman seated at her laptop looking confused and upset while reviewing a piece of direct mail

How to Avoid Four Common Direct Mail Design Mistakes

Posted June 4, 2019 by Mike Dietz in Creative

You know when you’re riffling through your mail and you find a direct mail piece that is down-right painful? Where you see it and think to yourself, “Who on Earth thought this was a good idea?” and then toss it into a pile, never to be seen again? I come across a lot of direct mail design mistakes [...]

5 Questions a Designer Asks About Direct Mail Formats

Posted March 6, 2019 by Mike Dietz in Creative

Those who have ever designed direct mail before—or even those who pay attention to what’s in their mailbox—know there are plenty of direct mail format options out there. Self-mailers, #10 envelopes, snap-packs, monarch-sized pieces… the list goes on and on. Likewise, there are a lot of factors in choosing a direct mail format for your […]

3 Tips for More Engaging Mailpiece Design in 2019 – IWCO Direct

Three More Tips to Make Your Mailpiece Design More Engaging

Posted February 1, 2019 by Mike Dietz in Creative

A few days ago, my colleague Marcus Johnson provided seven tips to make direct mail marketing copy more engaging. I think you’ll find that many of those tips cross over from copy into design, and that’s for a good reason: The effectiveness of direct mail relies heavily on how well the marketing copy and mailpiece design work together to engage the audience and prompt them to take action [...]