Direct Mail Tips
Blog Category
How to Use Color in Direct Mail to Drive Results
You might have heard through the grapevine that Pantone’s 2020 color of the year is Classic Blue. I see a lot of blue in my job; there are several studies showing blue is America’s favorite color, and approximately one-third of brands use blue in their logos.
Why Nordstrom and J. Jill’s Direct Mail Mistake Cost Them Millions
A very unexpected article drew me out of my usual morning email-checking haze today. My supervisor Debora Haskel had forwarded me an “interesting read” from MindFire, highlighting a drop in sales for clothing retailer J. Jill. The headline read “Retailer J. Jill learned the Hard Way Why Direct Mail is Still Relevant,” and the smell of scandal perked me up more than the cup of coffee I was holding [...]
The Outer Envelope is Key to Getting Your Direct Mail Opened
Fair or not, your audience is always going to judge your direct mail by its outer envelope. Their three-second assessment of your outer envelope (part of the 3:33 rule of direct mail—a topic in itself) will make or break your mailing. If they’re not moved to open the envelope, you don’t get to talk to them [...]
Tips for Creating a Call-to-Action that Can’t Be Ignored
From time to time, in direct marketing writing and design, we need to focus on the fundamentals to help us stay sharp in conveying the purpose and value proposition of what we’re selling. Why? Because so many direct marketing packages fail to answer these basic questions: Do we give our audience a reason to open? […]
3 Times You Can Break the Grammar Rules in Your Marketing Copy
Grammar is nit-picky and tricky, and it’s constantly evolving with our culture and turning hard-and-fast rules into bendable guidelines. Yes, there are still rules, but they can be a bit obscure or not entirely enforced in colloquial speaking, so we can run into situations in which following proper grammar rules makes writing sound overly formal […]
The Power of Direct Marketing Copywriting, Tips, and Testing, Testing…
Quick, which offer will pull better: 50% off or Half Off? Should you offer something FREE or Complimentary? Buy One Get One Free or BOGO? If you answered “It depends” to the questions above, you’re right. That is why we test.
Proofreading Tips to Improve Your Content
I know I talk about the importance of proofreading more than the average bear, but it deserves repeating: proofreading is important. Having polished, error-free communications is crucial in every industry—and doubly so in marketing, where messaging can play such a huge role in direct mail design. Proofreading can be tricky, but there are […]
Direct Mail Best Practices: An Update for 2018
While direct mail best practices tend to stand the test of time, they aren’t carved in stone. Today, I’d like to take some time to revisit one of my more popular blogs from a few years back, titled “Maximize Value with These Effective Direct Mail Techniques,” and see what has changed, what hasn’t, […]
Essential Elements of a Medicare Advantage Marketing Plan to Nail the AEP
Our hats go off to all our Medicare Advantage marketing partners this time of year. We know their to-do lists are long leading up to October 1, when marketing can officially begin for the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP). There are marketing plans to finalize, prospect databases to compile, creative to develop, and Centers for Medicare […]
The Right Way to Use Color Personalization in Your Envelope Design
In a world where consumers are bombarded with hundreds of ads a day, we’ve been conditioned to make snap decisions on what deserves our attention and what doesn’t. When you think about it that way, envelopes are everything when it comes to direct mail design. The envelope needs to capture your recipient’s attention and spark […]
