Picture the scene: You’re driving down the road and feeling hungry. In the distance, you see a giant pink M. The shape looks right, but you expected something different. You drive on, keeping your eyes peeled for the brand you’re familiar with.
Of course, it would never happen. Such a huge branding error would confuse customers and lose business faster than a sieve loses water. Yet many businesses make fundamental mistakes with branding, which result in a confused message going out.
There are emotional and physical aspects in consistent branding, and keeping them in line with each other takes cooperation across different company departments.
How Direct Mail Appears
One of the first things to strike recipients is the visual element, which has both emotional and physical appeal.
How it feels – including the quality of the paper. It may seem like a little thing, but even people who know nothing about paper can feel the difference between copier paper and quality stationery. If you’re selling a high-end product, make sure your direct mail reflects this.
How it looks – colors used, mailer shapes, creative graphics and appropriate fonts all walk hand in hand to make a mailer look attractive on the outside. From simple leaflets to complex multi-stage written offers, everything printed in direct mail should speak in your company voice.
An exaggerated instance of confused messaging could be a company adopting a cartoon appearance for direct mail relating to a financial product. You may think you’re showing your human side, but recipients might get the impression you don’t take money too seriously.
Create Brand Recognition
All your creative teams (from copywriters to graphic artists and beyond) should be working from the same set of brand directives. Logos, fonts, color palettes, product descriptions and images need to be consistent across all your messaging. If your website livery is at odds with the way your direct mail looks, brand confusion sends potential customers running. They can’t really understand who you are, and it’s hard to build trust or engagement on a foundation of confused, mixed messages.
Benefits of Consistency
Direct mail doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but sometimes it can be hard to get all departments up to speed on brand changes or new initiatives. Help things along by:
- Holding regular interdepartmental meetings to make sure sales knows what marketing and creative teams are up to.
- Sharing the customer knowledge of sales staff with creatives who devise campaign concepts.
Direct mail is a strong branding opportunity that goes beyond a current offer. Unlike digital marketing methods that vanish with a click, direct mail hangs around in the real world, providing constant glimpses of your name and business. Creating brand consistency helps you grow recognition, customer loyalty and value.
