Educator, author, speaker and award-winning designer Trish Witkowski has curated one of the most comprehensive collections of folded print and direct mail samples and authored seven books for the graphic arts industry. In the last four years, the Rochester, New York native has introduced a growing legion of fans to the value of print marketing through her popular YouTube series “60 Second Super Cool Fold of the Week.”

Now, the self-proclaimed folding fanatic is poised to break into new territory as a direct mail evangelist, creating inspiring educational resources for marketers who may be missing the boat on the power of mail.

Witkowski recently spoke to Structural Graphics about her experience in the industry and what she plans to do next.

SG: Has art always been a passion for you?

TW: I would say I was always artistic. I was class artist, voted most artistic. Always drawn to anything creative. I started studying fine art [in college] and then I just realized there was never going to be any money in it, so I decided to go to a more marketable career and that’s when I switched over to graphic design.

RIT has a world renowned school of print – one of the best programs in the world at the time – so I decided to get a masters degree there to improve my production skills and printing knowledge. That’s really where the interest in folding came around. I had to come up with a thesis topic and something that I was running into as a designer for RIT’s university publications department [was that] we kept using the same few folds over and over.

So when I was coming up with my thesis idea, I decided I’d try to determine how many different ways you could fold a brochure. I thought it was going to be a quick project and it ended up being a seven-year research project that led to publishing FOLD: The Professional’s Guide to Folding.

SG: How did the YouTube series start?

TW: It came to me as an idea in the middle of the night. I was frustrated with not being able to get my message across and not getting people excited about the content. I had a speaking event years ago at one of the big print shows [and] was expecting 30 to 50 people to show up and three showed. I gave my presentation and left with my tail between my legs. That day I realized I had a choice. I could give up on this whole thing because nobody’s ever going to get it or I can reinvent myself. And that’s what I did.

I had this idea and I decided to give it a funny name, “60 Second Super Cool Fold of the Week“, and have something fun and different every week and that’s how I came up with the slogan on my shirts. You can use the word ‘fold’ in just about anything and it makes sense. It’s been a fun hook to keep people watching.

SG: Do you think today’s marketers are savvy about direct mail?

TW: I would say there are certainly marketers today who are very savvy in mail, however I think there are a lot of people that need to learn more about it. Mail has an image problem. There’s this idea that technology trumps mail and mail is old school. What I hope to push out into the industry is really compelling evidence of how successful people are with mail. You combine highly targeted mail with a really great mailing list, an interesting format, a solid message and a compelling offer and it’s magical. I think people need to get re-acquainted with mail.

SG: What are the most important components to an effective direct mail piece?

TW: The biggest most important thing is audience. It doesn’t matter how creative and beautiful the piece is if it doesn’t fall into the right hands. You have to get your audience right first. Then, once you’ve got the audience, you need to give them a compelling offer, a reason to act. Those are the two most important things. If it’s not to the right person or if the offer isn’t compelling enough none of the other stuff matters.

SG: Do you think direct mail works better for some companies than others?

TW: I don’t. I have a sample of a direct mail piece sent by an email marketing company. Even email marketers are sending mail. I think any business can benefit. I’m not just trying to be all-inclusive and broad. I really believe that because marketing is a relationship. I don’t see mail as the single point of contact. I see it as part of a cross channel marketing type of approach. You might send an email sometimes to compliment your direct mail or do a web ad or other types of marketing too, but mail is a wonderful way to connect and create a relationship with your audience. It’s not as old school as people think. It really can carry different types of technology and drive people to other ways to be in touch with the customer.

SG: Moving forward do you see your role changing?

TW: It’s definitely going to continue down the educational path. It’s pretty neat I’ve been able to craft a career that’s interesting and fun to me. And to be able to share and inspire other people in the industry and ultimately promote print and the value of it.

These days people want information and inspiration so I do a lot of speaking, video and writing – and I’m bridging into online learning. I’ve really gotten interested in direct mail. It’s an incredibly valuable marketing tool. It’s evolved for me from just about format to the whole process of creating effective marketing communications. Although I still am collecting things like crazy and all about formats and techniques. [Now] I’m talking about the process involved as well and getting results. Not just saying, ‘here’s a great idea for a cool format’ it’s more like ‘here are all the things you need to think about and here’s how format plays a role.’ Once people know how to use [direct mail] and what their options are I think they can really get tremendous payback from it.