Now you know how DM essentials like headlines, CTAs and Johnson boxes work. You’ve figured out strategic elements like FAQs, testimonials and P.S. lines. And you’ve seen the persuading power of visuals like comparison charts, sidebars and stock photography. With your toolbox full and ready for use, you're ready to build a cohesive direct mail package that changes recipients into responders.
Personalities aren’t just for people or quirky, energetic pet corgis. Your direct mail can have personality, too, and it can be injected into every element in order to make the package completely unified. DirectMarketingIQ echoes this sentiment, encouraging marketers to “[imagine] for a moment that your direct mail package is a person with distinct characteristics and a unique style.” Just as different people say things differently, the pieces of a direct mail package will also have a distinct voice.
For example, if your mail package is very formal, business-like and no-fuss, including an element that is highly promotional and flashy wouldn’t be appropriate. It would be like a very proper professor delivering a lecture on the industrial revolution and then suddenly shouting, with jazz hands, “THE NEW TECHNOLOGY SAVED TIME AND MONEY!” The content may fit, but the delivery will certainly confuse and distract the audience. Don’t let your mail have an identity crisis. Keep every element within your mail package working together seamlessly by infusing it with language and imagery that’s connected, coherent and consistent. Which brings us to the next point…
I once heard that the phrase “consistent user experience” is nothing but a string of buzzwords. Whether or not this is actually a common perception, there is no doubt that providing a consistent user experience is incredibly important in your mailing campaigns. The phrase can be boiled down to “cohesion,” and, in the context of this discussion, it basically means that everything about a business and its marketing channels should have the same look, feel and overall personality. So when a company utilizes a direct mail campaign, it’s important to consider how consumers (or, “users”) move between channels, physical and digital, and how having an inconsistent experience can affect their likelihood of responding.
Fusionbox discusses several ways to create cohesion across channels, referring to a successful user experience as one that is “fulfilling expectations.” Changing between color schemes and language personality across channels can turn off potential customers very quickly, because they’ve set up certain expectations right off the bat. But when physical and digital channels adhere to the same look and feel, the movement between mailpiece to website to landing page is seamless and has greater conversion power.
When it comes to maintaining this seamless cohesion, brand guidelines help connect appearance and language style across marketing channels as well as within individual direct mailpieces. Brand guidelines are the glue that keeps all marketing efforts together. Yet, despite this gluing power, many smaller businesses don’t feel they have the need—or budget—to establish brand guidelines. However, guidelines are important to the lasting success of a company and often don’t require a large budget to implement.
Entrepreneur points out the significance of branding and how many businesses make the mistake of not utilizing guidelines to their fullest potential. Guidelines are like roadmaps—they show you the direction you should go in and the specific routes that will take you where you need to be. Without them, you’ll be driving blind and your potential customers won’t be following.
With all the means and methods laid out before you, you are now ready to go forth and build some really strong, sturdy direct mailpieces. Put your knowledge, creativity and a little bit of elbow grease into it. You have the tools—now hammer your message home.