Despite the growing popularity of mobile marketing, a good direct mail campaign still generates plenty of sales for small businesses and corporations. Many marketers focus on writing high-converting copy and using eye-catching graphics, but they don’t put enough emphasis on choosing the right font. The fonts you use says a lot about your approach to business, so choose them carefully.
Enhancing Readability
The right font makes it easier for prospects to read your marketing materials, increasing the likelihood that they will read your mailing in its entirety. If you choose the wrong font, all the effort you spent writing copy and choosing a color scheme won’t pay off in the end. Serif fonts encourage readers to move their eyes across the page, making them ideal for sales letters, brochure copy, and other mailings. Reserve sans serif fonts for callouts, pull quotes, subheads, and captions.
Broadcasting Your Business Personality
The font you use in your direct mail campaign should reflect the personality of your business. If you are promoting a law firm, bank, or investment brokerage, choose a font that matches the conservative nature of your business. Graphic design firms, art galleries, advertising agencies, and other creative businesses can get away with edgy or whimsical fonts. Build a recognizable brand by using the same fonts in all of your promotional materials.
Emphasizing Essential Information
The right font for one part of your mailing isn’t necessarily the right font for the entire mailing. Use italicized fonts to emphasize important information or draw attention to a particular piece of text. Bold fonts are ideal for headlines or the postscript of a sales letter. Make your mailing visually appealing by combining strategic splashes of color with a font that matches the topic of the promotion.
Maintaining Consistency
If every one of your direct mail pieces has a completely different creative look, you run the risk of confusing potential customers. When you design your very first promotion, pick a typeface you would be comfortable using for future mailings. A typeface is a set of fonts that belong to the same family. Using the same typeface for all of your promotions makes it easier for customers to recognize your brand. Once you choose a typeface or individual font, avoid using too many sizes or colors in your promotional materials. Too many different elements will distract prospects from your message.
Improve Your Results
The font you choose can actually affect your conversion rate, for better or worse. If your font turns off potential customers, you run the risk of losing a sale. The right font makes it easier to persuade customers to buy your product, try a new service, sign up for your email list, or take some other action.
Drew Eric Whiteman studied the effects of using Garamond, Times New Roman, and Helvetica fonts in print marketing materials. Sixty-six percent of participants were able to comprehend the text written in Garamond (a serif font), while only 12.5 percent were able to comprehend the text written in Helvetica (a sans serif font).
Writing attention-grabbing copy and creating aesthetically pleasing designs are important, but you also need to pay attention to the font you use. The right font enhances readability and improves your chances of gaining a new customer.
