AMiable Solution #38: Dressing Up Your Direct Mail with Color

In my opinion, nothing makes a child's room more uplifting and inspiring than bright colors: red, green, yellow, orange, and blue. They encourage creativity. They're cheerful. They catch your attention.

Which is why they work in direct mail, too. Although we generally think of "dressing" something "up" as making it more sophisticated--think black-and-white and drab all over--dressing up a mailpiece simply means giving it an element of excitement. Something a little unexpected. Something to make your intended audience take notice. Something that makes your prospect put everything else down and look at your mailpiece. Now.

Bright colors do that.

Think about the mailpieces that have caught your attention. Some of them did it with color. A bright yellow highlight through an important reply deadline. A fluorescent splash on the cover of a catalog. A red teaser on an envelope.

Although the brighter the color is the more you need to use it in moderation, eye-catching colors accomplish the first goal of your direct mail piece: to stand out and get noticed.

So go ahead. Skip the pale, washed out orange and go for the bright, no-doubt-this-is-orange Pantone Orange 021. Forget the mossy green 392 and go for the bright lime 389. Change your dirty-brick red to Christmas red. You could increase your open and response rate as easily as that. And that's not child's play.

Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.