To produce a successful direct mail campaign, it is critical to use an art designer who is familiar not only with direct mail (dm) fundamentals but also with dm production techniques. 

Aside from the fact that an inexperienced designer can affect your response rate because of an unprofessional-looking package, using a designer with direct mail experience will make your job go through more efficiently and problem-free.

Spending a few extra dollars on the front end can literally save you thousands of dollars at the back end. If you are using one of your own staff (a common way to minimize costs), or even if you are doing it yourself, make sure you follow proper printing guidelines as well as basic DM fundamentals.

Here are 5 reasons why an experienced art designer should be used: 

1. An Experienced Designer Follows Basic Printing Rules

For example, a job may have been quoted as having an envelope with no ‘bleeds’ (printing terminology when ink goes to the edge of the paper) but when the artwork is checked, it is noted that the envelope has been designed with bleeds.

In another example, an inexperienced designer has not created the correct panel sizes for a multi-page brochure that requires folding. Without designing specific panels with slightly smaller dimensions, the brochure will not fold properly. In both cases, extra costs and time delays are involved but an experienced designer knows how to avoid these traps.

2.  An Experienced DM Designer Follows Basic Printing AND DM Rules

There are many rules that a designer experienced in direct mail will instinctively follow.

For example, most people use window envelopes because they tend to lower the total production cost of a direct mail package. For one thing, no matching of the package inserts to the outer envelope is required.

However, care must be taken to ensure that the prospect’s name and address will show through the window once it has been folded and inserted. This may sound simple but depending on the size of the addressed piece and how it is folded, it can make a big difference whether this objective will be achieved or not.

An experienced direct mail designer knows how to accomplish this.

3.  Making Changes To Artwork Causes Mailing Delays 

If you or your organization needs to make changes to your artwork after it’s been delivered to your printer, it could literally take weeks. This depends of course on how many levels of red tape you need to pass through. 

Even if your printer can make the changes at his end, by the time the changes have been made and approved, you will probably have been bumped on his printing schedule. 

Making artwork changes involves considerable back and forth communication between you and the printer. Revisions themselves can take up a lot of your precious time in your schedule causing major delays in getting your mail out the door.

4.  An Experienced Designer Uses Proper Design Software

For simple spot-color work (one or two ink colors, not a colored photo) with no intricate detail like a logo, a high resolution PDF (Adobe’s Portable Document Format), may be fine for artwork. Your printer will be able to make minor changes to the PDF art if necessary.

However when major changes to artwork are required and you have opted to stay on print schedule by letting your printer make the changes, it is ALWAYS best to provide ‘native’ or artwork in its original design format.

The most common software programs used by designers are Adobe InDesign and Quark Xpress. These programs are specifically designed to be used by printers. Artwork changes can be easily done at the print shop. There is no need for you to re-do the art and send a revised version.

The final artwork just needs to be zipped (compressed) and sent to the printer.

5.  Poorly Designed Artwork Causes Mailshop Problems

Just because your printing has just been beautifully printed and delivered to your lettershop (mailshop) on time does not mean that you are now home-free. There are still many potential issues that can literally create a ‘nightmare’ at your lettershop. Some of the more common problems are improper positioning of the address block, incorrectly-sized inserts or outer envelope, oversize or overweight packages or poorly-folded inserts.

Other problems can be caused by pieces that require special production equipment or envelopes that don’t meet postal standards. At this stage of production, poorly-designed artwork can cause major delays and huge budget overruns.

Conclusion

Using art designers with dm experience will greatly improve your chances of getting a mailing successfully out the door. They not only know how to create art that can be used by a printer but they will also create art that avoids many production issues such as improper sizes, incorrect postal standards and special lettershop equipment.  A few extra dollars spent on the front end will save you both time AND money in costly revisions and mail delays.

Rainer Fischer
Your Direct Mail Success Coach