Perhaps like many of you, I spent a relaxing labor day outside with family and a hot barbecue. It was especially relaxing, in fact, because my wife spent much of the afternoon showing off our new daughter to friends and relatives. That left me free to eat my burger in peace and chat with my brother. He was not so lucky. He had to eat, talk with me and keep his three year old busy. It was actually sort of amusing watching him pick various toys up and try to get his son interested long enough to take a bite of his lunch or finish a sentence. I did some rough calculations in my head and estimated his son’s attention span at about 20 seconds, which is probably not that much shorter than the average adult. I suppose we just hide it better.
Marketing 101 teaches us that your message needs to be clear and focused. Of course, it also needs to be relevant and compelling. Interestingly, this fundamental rule applies to online mediums as well as offline. For example, landing pages are a great way to convert prospects. They are usually only one page and offer the visitor only one option.
Your print efforts need to be the same way. Whether you’re doing an elaborate mailer with multiple components, or a magazine insert, your goal should be to deliver one message and request one action from the reader/recipient.
A very large part of our business is our high impact direct mail pieces. When clients see a really cool design or an elaborate mailer, the temptation is often to pack it with as much as possible. Most of our mailers work best with beautiful graphics, a compelling offer and a focused message.
Recently, I received a packet at home that was in a large thick mailer and included at least ten different pieces inside. There was a letter, a few buckslips, a large cardboard thingy and a few other inserts. The package was from a baby magazine and they were trying to get me interested in all sorts of different services. They had something that talked about insurance, something that spoke about the importance of saving for college and the big cardboard thingy had a picture of a happy baby sitting in his diaper. I left it on the table for my wife to look through, but after a few days it just became part of the clutter and eventually ended up in the trash. I wonder if it would have been a more effective mailer if they had sent one wave to promote their insurance product, one about college savings, and one about cute babies in diapers. At least then I would have paid more attention to a single message and the three year old inside me may have acted on it. Instead, it just became part of the clutter.
As you evaluate the creative for your campaign just be sure that every component is supporting a single message and a call to action. It really doesn’t matter what you’re doing; a fancy mailer, a print ad, or an online campaign, the same rules apply. This BMW magazine insert is a great example of keeping a message focused. The client had lots of space to add creative, but instead the point is very clear. The entire two-sided magazine insert is devoted to tires.
It really doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; it could be insurance or automotive, I guarantee you that many of your prospects are three year olds secretly walking around in adult bodies.
