Direct Mail and the Dynamics of Response
Part III: Interactive Design

by George Duncan

What do we mean by "interactive" design and copy? What's a copywriter doing preaching about design anyway?

To answer the second question first, a copywriter will see that the design supports the marketing message without upstaging or disrupting it. He or she will put your best foot forward and make sure no self-serving designer steps on it.

As to the second question, response-driven copy and design is interactive. At times even proactive. Why? Because if you need a response, agreement with your message (the goal of general advertising) isn't enough! You must prompt an action...now! An order. An inquiry. A donation. Whatever. That, in turn, requires the prospect's involvement. Which we create by (1) getting the prospect's Attention, (2) arousing his or her Interest, (3) stimulating Desire, and finally, (4) directing him to Action. The time-honored memnomic in direct marketing is "AIDA."

Disruption and Interaction.

Imagine walking into an art gallery. As you enter the room, there are four pictures immediately visible. Each is the same approximate size, shape, etc. Which would draw your attention? Hard to say, isn't it?

Now in your mind's eye, turn one of those pictures slightly askew. Now which one would you notice first? Of course. The crooked one. That's the principle of direct mail design. It's the unexpected that gets attention.

In order to prompt a response, design must be disruptive. It must be proactive. It must reach out to the reader and involve him or her. Here again we want to avoid the "gee, that's nice...when's my next meeting?" syndrome. Predictable straight lines and white space don't do that. As Target Marketing publisher Denny Hatch put it succinctly some years ago, "Neatness rejects involvement." He also compared dm design with Piet Mondrian's famous painting, "Broadway Boogie Woogie" with its patchwork of colored rectangles. It's an apt comparison, except it omits the diagonal. Mondrian's painting is all vertical and horizontal lines, albeit engagingly juxtaposed. The diagonal is even more intrusive. One diagonal line in that painting, and that's exactly where the reader's eye would land.

Direct mail design must cut through the clutter of all the other mail your prospect received that day (more than 200 pieces a week for some executives). And when it does, it must then interrupt that incessant conversation he/she has going on in her head -- just as you and I and everyone else has. It must override daily concerns about the morning meeting...the phone calls and messages waiting on the desk...and that guy at the party last night.

And we must make all that happen in the next five seconds! Following are some proven tools and techniques, used and used again by savvy direct marketers.

Laser personalized envelopes get attention, for all the reasons that our own name gets our attention. How much more attention they get than addressing straight titles depends on the market, the product and other factors. Some positions turn over so rapidly that titles can be more reliable than individual names.

A copy teaser - if it's the right teaser, and if the person is a valid prospect - will help target the prospect and offer him or her an immediate reason to open the envelope.

Further, it gives the prospect something to agree to - right up front. So even before she's seen your proposition, you have her saying "yes" at least to your teaser statement. That's a valuable edge. I often try to include both a user benefit and a reference to the offer on the envelope. As mentioned above however - and it bears repeating - teaser-laden envelopes and other indications of advertising mail may be self-defeating in certain environments. (More about teasers in an upcoming column.)

Size and shape can play a role. These days, 9" x 12" envelopes seem to be working for many marketers, though these are considerably more expensive than #10s. Size is often associated with importance. Even mailers who regularly use #10's are testing larger #12's and #13's. (A 6" square envelope once worked well for me in selling a computer magazine. It projected the image of a floppy disk, but it was pricey.)

Poly envelopes appeal to the tactile and visual senses, providing a tempting, "peek-a-boo" hint of the contents, as do multiple windows in paper envelopes with stickers, tokens and illustrations showing through.

Brown or grey kraft stock signifies monetary or informational value.

Copy written on a slant raises the reader's anxiety level...to be resolved by the copy inside. Phrases highlighted by bullets (benefits, features), get read before body text, and are retained longer.

A headline "group" - a headline with a subhead that immediately expands upon the headline statement, followed by two or three short, bulleted extensions - give the reader more information and greater involvement in roughly the same amount of space than a headline alone, no matter how well written it may be.

Simulated checks don't fool anyone - but they project a value image nonetheless, as do stamps. (Several years ago, I tested stamps in an insurance package to a very conservative military market. It outpulled the control at the time and as a policyholder, I received the same mailing myself several years later! Today, AT&T and other major telcos are using checks - real ones - in their attempt to get people to switch their long distance provider. Repetition in this case indicates success.)

Tokens help focus the prospect's attention and provide a standalone response mechanism. It's like handing the prospect a pen after he's read the contract. They also give the prospect something concrete to do - an action to take to signify assent.

Copy snipes and bursts introduce unexpected visuals into your design to seize and hold attention, promote involvement.

Let me repeat. Don't dismiss these tools and techniques just because you personally may consider them beneath you or your audience. While we want to introduce these techniques carefully in business-to-business applications, consider what you're trying to achieve in the face of all that inertia, inattention, distraction etc., and test these proven stimulus/response mechanisms.

Then let the market tell you what works and what doesn't. Business publications like Fortune, Inc., Business Week and others have used all the techniques above to so-called "busy" executives with great success.

A direct mail package doesn't pull 2% because 98% of the recipients said "no" to your offer. As Mary Kay Ash has pointed out, only about 35% of any population is open to new ideas at a given point in time. And then there are all the people who for one reason or another never saw your package to begin with.

Just Your Type.

Typography is a very creative art. That's one reason why there are so many typefaces available, with more being created as you read this. But leave those faces to the posters and display ads and annual reports and packaging and sales promotion pieces where they belong. For response design, stick with the tried and true for maximum readership and retention. Serifed typefaces for text.

The purpose of the serif, or the little knob on the ascenders and descenders of each letter, is to create a line across the page for the eye to follow like a track. It allows the eye to relax as it moves across the page, since it doesn't have to work so hard to keep it's place in the text.

Ease of reading translates for you into more thorough reading of the material, with higher retention of the content. It's a Law of the Universe (not my opinion) that any energy expended to understand copy will leave the reader with less energy for retention.

San-serifed faces (no serifs) can be used in headlines for some variety, so long as the headline is short, and the typesize is large enough so the eye doesn't have to work to capture it. (I have an 85-page "Handbook of Direct Response Production" in my collection, published by a major paper manufacturer no less, with all the text set in a san serif typeface, and captions for the illustrations screened down to about a 50% grey against a grey tinted background. Very cool. And almost unreadable.)

The two most reliable and widely used typestyles are Times Roman (serif) for text and Helvetica (sans serif) for heads. Other text faces include Century Schoolbook, Garamond, Caslon, Goudy and Palatino. Display or headline faces include Antique Olive, Avant Garde, Futura, and Univers. You can find many variations on those, but don't stray too far from the basics. Just because there are a million typestyles available on a CD-ROM, doesn't mean you have to use them. Above all, type should never call attention to itself. It should be "transparent" to the reader.

We mentioned reverse type (white type dropped out against black or dark background) in the last column. Don't do it. Unless you deliberately want to create a negative emotion with the copy.

Do not mix more than two typefaces or families on a page or panel or maybe even for an entire dm package. Use bolds, lights, mediums, Roman, and extended styles of the base typeface for variety. Use italics sparingly, for emphasis. Do NOT set entire copy blocks in italics.

Set body copy in 10-12 point, never less than 9-point. And if your market is "mature," consider setting body copy larger than 12- point. Headline copy should be several points larger, depending on length.

For promotion letters, stick to "Courier," 10-12 pitch, as un- creative as that may seem. Again, don't be afraid to go larger for older audiences. You're after readability, not design awards. (Courier was the original IBM Executive on their electric typewriters, chosen after exhaustive tests proved it to be the most readable typeface.)

Among the few designers I've met who understand the unique dynamics of response design and communication design in general is the man from Toronto, Ted Kikoler (416-444-6631). Following are Ted's Ten -- admonitions to writers, designers and others for "Graphics That Sell."

1. Get the product into the reader's hands. This does not mean give him a sample, but visually get the product closer to him. People need to take a car for test drive, try on a dress, or walk through a house before purchasing them. The closer they can get the product to them, the closer they get to wanting it. Do this by:

   • Making photos and illustrations as large as possible.

   • Cropping them to show the essence. Cut away all unnecessary material. Leave the part of the photo that still tells the whole story. The reader will automatically fill in the missing part of the product in their mind. This technique saves valuable space and can make unexciting photos appear more dynamic.

   • Involve the reader in the picture. Have life-size hands coming in from the side of the page that could be his.

   • Show the product in actual use if possible. (In software promotion, we do this with screens, sometimes with callouts. GD)

2. Make the reader's eyes go where you want them to. His mind will follow. Here's some things that work:

   • The eye normally goes from
     -- dark areas to light areas
     -- large objects to small ones
     -- bright areas to drab areas
     

   • The eye zeros in on things that are out of place color, size, shape, and position. (See above. GD)

   • Have photos and illustrations face the copy or be in the direction you want the reader to go. Every photo has direction.

   • The further along in the sales pitch, the smaller the typesize can be. The more interested the reader gets, the easier it is to keep them with you. therefore, the smaller the type can get. (But not smaller than 9 point.-- GD) Have your largest type at the beginning for the headlines and lead-in paragraphs.

   • Captions and call-outs get high readership. (In fact, it's best never to run a photo without a caption - GD)

   • If everything in a direct mail package looks alike, the reader can make the mistake that he's already seen one of your messages. Make both sides of a 2-sided piece look different.

3. Handwritten messages get noticed. It's an effective way of highlighting special thoughts or as a way of teasing a reader into a long letter. But don't overuse it.

4. Make things move. Don't let anything be static. This can be dangerous though. Too much movement on the page or in the wrong direction can hurt readability.

5. Break up large areas into smaller visual ones. These smaller chunks are easier to digest and add noticeability. Large, massive block of copy look like a lot of work to the reader. Make it easy for them.

6. Make different sections look different. The reader gets bored easily and if they see something with the same style throughout, it will look like a lot of reading, which means work.

7. Talk the reader's language. Use colors, layouts and overall appearances that the reader can relate to.

8. Talk the product's language. Masculine products have to look masculine, female products look feminine, etc.

9. Warm colors get a warm response and cold colors get a cold response. Use bright warm colors on order cards, such as red.

10. Keep things simple. Make the eye move easily from information to information. Line up as many things as possible. This reduces eye strain and distraction.

Those are the basics of good, response-driven design, from a copywriter and from a designer. There are many other design considerations involved in the creation of a direct mail package and its various components including format, paper stock, action and involvement devices and more. But if you understand what we've said here, they will make much more sense to you as we continue to explore the dynamics of direct response in future columns.

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Copyright 1994 - 2000 George Duncan, All Rights Reserved. Ted Kikoler's "Graphics That Sell" used with permission.