The Idea Center - Blog, Page 17

Swipe to the left

Postcard Calls to Action: The Importance of a Great Offer

August 4, 2014

Importance of Postcard Offer

Whether you’re selling a product or a service, a luxury product or a competitively priced commodity, the way you present your offer to your audience has a massive effect on the response rate and profitability of your direct marketing campaign.

In this blog post, we’ll look at one of the most important parts of any direct mail campaign: crafting an effective offer. From wording to value, read on to learn the basics of designing an offer that your target audience responds to en masse.

The Anatomy of a Great Postcard

July 28, 2014

Anatomy of a Postcard

Over the last century, advertising has evolved from formulaic newspaper ads into all sorts of shapes, styles and designs. Yet despite the great amount of freedom today’s marketers and designer have, most advertisements follow a simple six-part design:

  • Heading
  • Subheading
  • Copy
  • Image
  • Caption
  • Call to action

In this blog post, we’ll look at the anatomy of an effective direct mail postcard and discuss what makes each element – from the heading to the call to action – such an essential part of a profitable direct marketing campaign.

The Most Powerful Words to Use in Your Postcards

July 22, 2014

Powerful Words

There are more than one million words in the English language, from complicated polysyllabic terms to simple connectives and pronouns. While all words have their own purpose, only a select few trigger powerful impulses when we read them.

Playing with Color Basics - Psychology and the Technicolor Postcard

July 8, 2014

Color in Postcard Design

Without a doubt design is a fairly subjective matter. It’s nothing short of challenging to account for personal taste and preferences. Color in design is no exception. A color may cause one person react one way and another person will have a have a completely different reaction. Happily, these reactions can be fairly culturally predictable. For example, in Western culture white often carries with it the connotations of purity while in Eastern cultures it represents mourning. One more hitch, though: color carries very personal meanings that may vary slightly from one’s culture. Color is known to affect mood and encourage certain types of behaviors, such as stimulating appetites. Also, some colors may be more appealing to certain sexes and age groups than others. The bad news is color can be a complex subject to navigate. The good news, however, is there are many tools and conventions in place that make choosing color for your designs a bit less daunting.

Quick Start Guide: Postcard Imagery and Color

June 19, 2014

Postcard Imagery and Color

From the red and yellow of McDonald’s to the royal blue used in bank branding, the colors used in marketing make a huge difference in the way we perceive different brands and companies.

In addition to the colors used in logos and direct mail postcards, the images used in marketing also have a significant impact. From the subject of the image to its size, a wide variety of variables contribute to the psychosocial impact an image can have.

In this quick start guide, we’ll explain the basics of color and imagery for businesses interested in developing their brand and attracting new customers using direct mail postcards and promotional materials.

Why You Should A/B Test Your Direct Mail Postcards

June 10, 2014

A/B Testing

Your direct mail postcards are generating leads and sales for your business, but are they as good as they could be? Unless you test your postcards using A/B testing, you may never know which headline, image or copy converts the best.

In this guide, we’ll cover one of the most important topics for getting the most from your postcard marketing company: split testing your direct mail postcards to learn which offers the best return on investment for your business.

How To Use White Space to Design Great Postcards

June 3, 2014

Postcard White Space

When you’re designing a direct mail postcard, space comes at a premium. Postcards are an excellent way to get your message across to prospects quickly, but their small dimensions mean fitting everything in can be a struggle.

Since space is so limited, it’s tempting to fill every square inch of your postcard with your heading, subheading, images and sales copy. This strategy might seem like the most efficient use of space, but it’s actually a serious design error.

Long Live the Postcard

May 23, 2014

Long Live the PostcardThere are those out there who want you to believe we’re useless, that postcards are dead. Are you kidding me?! No matter how many times it’s written, reported, or blogged about, it’s simply not true. We are not dead. In fact, today’s marketers (MarketingProfs, for instance) predict that print marketing will continue to thrive in 2014 and beyond.

5 Elements of Design to Improve Your Postcards

May 22, 2014

Elements of Postcard DesignDo you need help designing direct mail postcards to promote your business? From white space to color, the most effective direct mail postcards use timeless elements of design to create the right impression with their target audience.

In this guide, we’ll share five tactics that you can use to incorporate design elements like spacing, size and color into your direct mail postcards to encourage your target audience to read, understand and respond to your promotional message.

7 Postcard Design Fundamentals

May 12, 2014

7 Postcard Design Fundamentals Running a small business means that you wear quite a few hats - employee, manager, and all-in-one marketing department are just a few examples. So, when you want to set up a fast postcard direct mailing to announce a new product or service, all the work will fall on your own shoulders, from the idea stage to the design to dropping the direct mail advertising postcards in the mailbox. While the first and last may be easy, the design stage will often be the most difficult.