How to Create an Effective Direct Mail Graphic Design?

A question worth $1 million. After all, we live in the age of images. While this may seem like an obstacle when you have a lot to communicate within your direct mail campaign pieces, in reality, graphic design is your biggest ally (regardless of how capricious it might get).

Good graphic design can make or break your campaign. 

The truth is people go to school and study this topic for years, which means it’s going to be challenging to include all the whys and hows of direct mail graphic design in this one article. 

But, we will try to offer you some basic yet valuable tips on how to approach this topic to quickly and effectively elevate your campaign materials and use their full potential. 

Without further ado, let’s get down to business. 

Design Objectives

They say the first step is always the hardest. In the case of effective direct mail graphic design, it’s also the most crucial one. This is when you set the goals for your campaign and, by extension, set objectives for the graphic design. 

There are many variables to take into account when making these decisions. You need to have a great understanding of your target audience. Ask yourself, what are their needs? How do they consume ads? What do they want to hear? What do they care about?

Your job is to answer those needs. And your graphic design should reflect that. 

Once you’ve identified your goals for the campaign, you need to decide on a format you’re going to use.

Choosing the Format

There are a few direct-mail formats to choose from, each with a different purpose. The most prevalent formats include: 

• Postcards
• Letters
• Brochures
• Catalogs

Of course, the more lengthy the format, the more graphic design comes into creating it. If you have little to no experience with design, it will make much more sense to hire a professional to create a catalog for you.

However, something simpler, like a postcard, can be designed in-house if you are aware of a few important direct mail graphic design principles. 

Choose the format wisely and ensure it supports the objective of your campaign. If you want to learn more about different formats and how they can be utilized, check out our article entitled The Different Types of Direct Mail and How You Can Use Them. 

Visual Elements and Graphics

We won’t say anything groundbreaking when we state that graphics and visual elements are the backbone of your marketing mail materials. This is how you draw the attention of your readers, how you can stand out from the crowd. 

Visuals are the first thing people notice, and if you want to make them go deeper into your copy, you need to nail this part. 

Choosing the right images and graphics

What is the secret to choosing the right images for your direct mail pieces? The pictures you use should accurately represent the topic of your campaign. 

So, if you’re informing your clients about a certain product or service, it makes sense to include imagery that showcases people using said product/service. Always bring the value your clients receive with your services upfront. 

Walk the line between creativity and clarity of message carefully. While it can be a great bonus if you manage to differentiate yourself from your competition, too outlandish graphic choice can lose your message in translation. 

What should you pay close attention to when selecting images for your campaign?

High-quality vs. stock imagery

Ensure your imagery is of the highest quality possible. If you talk a lot about your product and its value for the customer in your campaign, it might be worth considering hiring a professional photographer to snap and prepare visuals to showcase your product from the best side.

You can also use stock imagery, and in many cases, it is the most effective and affordable way to achieve desired effects.

Just remember to use pictures in high resolution, of 300 DPI (dots per inch) or higher. This way, you’ll avoid blurry imagery that looks unprofessional and unappealing to the readers.

Background matters

Avoid using busy background images. This makes reading the text much easier. Remember – your audience will not spend as much time with the piece as you do. Your job is to make it as easy as possible to read the text and absorb the message. A more or less unified background that supports this goal is imperative. 

Color selection and its psychological impact

We won’t get into too much detail about color psychology (it’s a vast subject worth its own article), but just know that the selection of colors in your direct mail graphic design matters and should not be left to chance. 

In a nutshell, use blue if you want to invoke stability and responsibility, green for finances and profitability, red if you want to introduce a sense of urgency and passion (or if you have a food establishment), and yellow for energy, optimism, and cheerfulness. 

Typography and Text

The next step is to think about how you want to represent your copy. Imagery is one foot, and good text is the other. How the copy looks on a page matters vastly. 

Selecting appropriate fonts for readability

As disappointing as it might sound for some artistic spirits out there, choosing a direct mail piece font is not a time to showcase a full spectrum of your creativity. The font should be (yes, you guessed it) easy to read, even from some distance. 

Therefore, going with something simple yet presentable, like Helvetica, Arial, or Copperplate, offers great benefits. While Times New Roman is one of the most recognizable fonts in the world, thanks to the ornamentation that is included within its design, it does not make for a good advertising font (especially for larger blocks of text). 

Choose one or two typefaces and stick to them when designing your direct mail piece. This will make you look more professional than changing the font in every other section.  

Typography hierarchy for emphasis and flow

Another thing is the importance of breaking your text into blocks and sections, highlighting the most important and attention-grabbing slogans. It’s a crucial skill to master. Creating a clear hierarchy for the text, which includes the headline, subheadings, body, and CTA, makes your copy much more approachable and clearer.

Use the size of fonts as a guidepost for readers, drawing their eyes toward the most important sections of the text.    

Font size and spacing considerations

And since we’re talking about font sizes, select them with readability in mind. You definitely want to avoid using too small of a font because you can be sure no one will work extra hard to find out what you’re trying to say to them.

It’s better to be more concise with your copy and utilize a larger font for the body, making it more readable. 

Proper spacing is also important. Avoid including a large chunk of text. This looks like a lot of work to get through, which is not a feeling you want to invoke in your readers. Instead, section your text into paragraphs, as well as include lists and graphs.

 In your direct mail graphic design, you want to say the most using the least amount of words. 

Layout and Composition

This next stage of creating direct mail graphic design is all about the art of putting visuals and text content together on a page and making them look understandable. Having a proper strategy in place for this task will help you avoid chaos and utilize the space you have in the most effective manner possible. 

How to approach creating a layout for your direct mail pieces? 

Balancing text and visuals harmoniously

First and foremost, you can go very far in your graphic design journey by using a simple grid layout. It’s a relatively straightforward way of planning the content distribution on a page and seeing immediately if it works.

See some amazing examples of different layout grids and how they can be used in graphic design here. 

Keep In Mind

Your layout needs to be compliant with USPS mailing regulations. When you’re using Tradel’s platform to design your mail materials, this doesn’t concern you as much, as our templates are already created with these regulations in mind.

If you’re tackling this task on your own, check the regulations regarding the layout of your mail and use the templates your print company offers to avoid making costly mistakes.   

Effective use of white space for clarity and aesthetics

Did you ever hear someone talking about the value of silence? It can be quite impactful. The same goes for white space on a page (mind you, it doesn’t have to be white per se; in this context, it’s negative space).  

It goes hand in hand with what we were talking about earlier in this article, namely, creating a design that is not too busy. 

White space can make a whole difference, helping you place emphasis on certain elements of your design. Too much is never good when it comes to graphic design, so don’t be afraid to include and use to your full advantage a white space in your direct mail campaign materials. 

Print Considerations

What are some basic print considerations you should keep in mind when designing your mail materials? 

Well, as we already mentioned, print and mail regulations are imperative, and you need to adhere to them for your mail to be printed correctly and sent to your recipients. It might be helpful to know a few print-related definitions you will encounter throughout this process. 

A safe zone is an area where the main elements of your design (text blocks, images and others) are placed. This zone usually extends to 1/8 inch or more inward from the trim edge.

The trim is the final size of the printed piece after it has been cut along the trim marks or trim lines. This is exactly what you’re going to get to your hands once the printing is concluded. 

To ensure there are no white borders or unprinted edges, we use something called bleed, which is the area of your design that extends beyond trim marks. 

Using templates offered by your print or direct mail company is the safest way to properly design your pieces with these three considerations already included. 

Visual Branding Consistency

What’s also important to keep in mind is that your branding should extend to your direct mail marketing efforts. Using logos and colors associated with your company within your design is very much welcomed. 

Also, consider the tone of your brand’s voice and how it aligns with the copy you’re including in your direct mail materials. Make sure the branding is consistent across all of your communication channels, including your direct mail campaign. 

Proofreading and Quality Control

Don’t disregard the role of proofreading and quality control. Have multiple eyes on your projects to ensure the highest quality of the pieces you’re crafting. Sometimes, an outside perspective can bring a lot of value to your design, especially if it’s coming from someone more experienced than you are.

Quality control will help you avoid costly mishaps and delays, so never skip that step. Ensure that the message of your ad comes across well, that the copy is legible, and all the information is up to date and grammatically correct.  

Design Software and Tools

Okay, so now, with a much better understanding of what comes into creating a good piece of direct mail material from a graphic design standpoint, you can go to the most fun step – actually designing something.

But what tools should you use?

 There are many free software for designing ad pieces like brochures, postcards, or letters. A few of the most popular ones include Canva, Crello, and Easil. These tools are great if you’re looking for software to practice your design skills but have little experience with it. They include a wide variety of templates, so it’s much easier to start creating your direct mail piece from scratch.  

However, if you’re in need of a more complex solution that will get you from point A to Z of your direct mail campaign, look no further than Taradel! 

With us, you will be able to design your piece using one of three options.

1) Use our FREE template design tool

2) Upload your ready design

3) Have our in-house design professionals create your mailer for a budget-friendly price 

With all of these design options, you are able to launch your campaign all within the same platform. You bring us your ideas and goals, and we take care of the rest, printing and delivering your materials straight to your clients! 

 Find out more about how you can launch your next standout direct mail campaign with Taradel.      

Final Thoughts

Just like we promised at the very beginning, graphic design is a difficult skill to master, and the topic itself is a subject of studies, books and courses that take years and hours to get through. 

What we talked about today are some useful basic principles that will help you avoid making some simple mistakes when designing direct mail pieces. 

If you have more questions regarding the secrets of direct mail campaigns, head to our blog. We wish you the best of luck in creating captivating, effective graphic designs for all your campaigns!