Making direct mail better should be a priority for every print organization that even remotely touches the direct marketing segment. Direct marketing underwrites the postal costs of many other segments in the U.S. with 77.3 mail pieces delivered in 2018. While direct mail volumes have grown, direct mail designers and producers are still vying with many other channels for a piece of the marketing pie. Designers are also competing with the perception of direct mail as “junk mail.”   

Let’s face it, everyone loses when poorly designed pieces make it into the mail. Consumers are annoyed and more likely to toss everything in the bin. If response rates are low, especially on mass mailings, it drags down overall industry performance making marketers less likely to put their budget on mail versus non-print channels. Everyone in the supply chain has a vested interest in creating truly effective direct mail. That means everyone in the supply chain needs to work together, and the opportunities to create great work have never been better.

While some print and mail organizations offer services like design and marketing strategy, most of what they print is designed by someone else. In order to have an impact on mail design, they need to work with designers before the piece becomes a job. The idea is to get designers excited about the latest digital production technology and help them raise the bar on what is possible. We call this creating “design optimists.” This requires an investment in customer education and outbound marketing to designers, as well as the technical ability to deliver high quality production. Getting to designers before they are customers may actually help bring in more business, particularly if a printer can enable them to deliver differentiated designs that their last print partner couldn’t.