Designers all have their opinions on what makes a stylish design. From time-to-time, we at Go-To-Market Strategies have even fallen victim to it. You know, design a beautiful piece, with compelling headlines, a great photograph, and a wonderful offer. But then something happens. We don't get the response rate we expected. And our creative bubble is burst!

Whether your direct marketing program is made up of direct mail, magazine advertising, or online marketing vehicles (and it should be a bit of ALL of these), there are a few guidelines you should strictly follow (like it or not all "creative" types) to secure the metrics you want:

Copy. First of all your piece must take into account that most readers are slow...or skim readers. The results data is so convincing, we're about to change some of our own practices to reflect the following:

• Break your copy into digestable chunks
• Make sure that you have no more than 60 characters, no less than 20 characters per line
• Copy is harder to read on glossy paper
• For body text, use Times or Pallatino font (Serif Types generate 65% reader comprehension compared to 12% with Sans Serif Types) and for headlines use Arial, Optima, Verdana (Sans Serif)
• Use black for body copy (again comprehension rates are 70% for black vs 29% for blue and 10% for red) but consider color (red) in headlines and call outs
• Body typeface should be 12 point or higher (and if you're using a Sans Serif font, increase leading)
• Reverse type is okay for headlines, not body copy
• Keep all caps to a minimum. Use bold instead
• Copy within a border or sidebar is read before any other copy

Graphics. Graphics are a critical creative element for direct marketing. There are some graphic treatments that just pull better than others:

• Always use people or people using the product/service over product shots alone
• The larger the illustration, the better (larger illustrations get more "sight time")
• Warm colors (yellow, red, orange, pink) pull more than cool colors (green, blue, gray, beige)
• Use color carefully...do not overdo it

Layout. As critical to a direct marketing piece's success as copy and graphics, the layout can make or break a piece:

• For magazine ads and postcard type mailings, the eye goes from right upper, to left middle, and ends at right lower...design your piece to consider this flow
• Also, i t is best to follow a Picture, Headline, Body Text format (67% comprehension) over having the Headline and/or Picture under or alongside the Body Copy (34% comprehension)
• For letters the eye starts left upper and zig zags to an end at lower left (this is why a P.S. in letter is so important)

There are a lot more details that go into a successful direct marketing program (offer, audience/list, frequency), but getting your creative just right will, in and of itself, improve your results. Your designer may not like a lot of the above creative recommendations, but the results tell another story. As much as we hate to admit it, things like Times, 12 point font (over the more stylish Verdana, 10 point) just get the job done when it comes to direct marketing vehicles!

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