Mail Design
Mail design is not just about creating something that looks incredible. It is also about displaying your message and capturing the attention of your recipients.
Our USPS Mail Design Professionals® can take your concept all the way to creation using modern approaches and eye-catching designs. We are constantly researching new trends within the design community, not just for direct mail, but for any marketing piece.
Direct mail marketing doesn’t have to be a challenging platform to work with and Cornerstone Services, Inc. can make it simple. Using past designs that have worked can be a valid strategy, but mixing up your designs can show significant results. Not every design piece has to be ground breaking or “re-invent the wheel“.
One important tip is to find a way to set yourself apart from any competition – at Cornerstone, this is our primary goal when coming up with a design. We know what works and will help you get the results you are looking for, starting with a great mail design.
Here’s a few tips for Mail Design:
Use a logo
An attractive, clever and colorful illustration can help familiarize the brand or company with your recipients. Using a good logo will greatly increase the chances of people opening the mail piece and reading your message.
Coatings and finishes
Try to incorporate an interesting effect to the piece by using a combination of coatings or finishes (gloss, foil, matte, etc…). This helps make your mail piece stand out from all the rest. Check out Cornerstone’s printing service page for more information about coatings and finishes.
Non-Traditional mail pieces
Receiving an “odd” mail design piece always captures a recipients’ attention, this is because most mail is an envelope, postcard or newsletter. Break it up by sending out something that looks and feels different. Some examples are die-cut mail pieces, custom cut outs that create unusual design shapes.
Call to Action
A call to action message is key in direct mail marketing and can fit into any mail design. The recipient tends to look at the address block of the mail piece first (since it contains their name and address information), so keep this in mind. Try to make the message enticing, a reason for them to open the mail piece or read the entire content.
Easy to read
The mail pieces that get thrown away instantly are the ones that are cluttered with hard to read text. Your content should be written using a standard format with headings about the copy, sufficient spacing, clear font style and size. Avoid “cramming” in text where you don’t have to and design with the recipient in mind. Follow this guide on how to write easy to read text.
High resolution images
Modern mail design pieces can work very well with high resolution images and avoids cluttering the piece with text. One nice image can tell the story that a whole paragraph of copy text would otherwise.
Keep it simple
Flat colors, a logo, and some text are all you really need for mail design when it’s done correctly. Using complementary colors in an interesting way removes the necessity of images. Design practices change all the time but a clean look that gets your message across will always be in style.
We follow all USPS® mail piece regulations when creating a mail design by using the USPS Notice 67® tool. Cornerstone Service, Inc. guarantees that all of our designs are approved by the USPS® and can be mailed out successfully.
Here are a few of our mail design pieces used in direct mail marketing campaigns.
