Color is one of those aspects of direct mail design that a lot of people unfortunately don’t pay enough attention to until it’s far too late. They spend so much time focusing on the precise language in their messaging that color becomes an afterthought – when in reality, it needs to be one of your top priorities from the outset.
Case in point: color balance. This is an idea that plays a far bigger role in your direct mail success than you realize and if you’re designing your own marketing collateral, there are a few key things you’ll want to keep in mind.
Building the Perfect Balance: Breaking Things Down
By far, one of the most important things to keep in mind about color balance is that your color palette actually plays a massive role in how your collateral will be perceived by your target audience. Those colors need to do more than just “look nice” – they need to both support and empower the important message that you’re trying to get across AND tie directly back into your overall branding efforts at the exact same time.
This will be far, far easier to do if you embrace a limited color palette in the first place – meaning that you stick to the same core colors that you use in your branding and try not to stray too far in any one particular direction.
Along the same lines, it’s also important to understand that “less is more” when it comes to color. For the absolute best results, you’ll want to follow what is known as the 60-30-10 Rule when blending colors. This involves using a primary color for the majority of your design choices, or about 60% of the time. Then, you use a complimentary secondary color about 30% of the time. Finally, you use an accent color that really “pops” for the remaining 10%.
Not only will that be an effective way to design truly sophisticated looking direct mail collateral, but all of your efforts will also feel like they’re coming from the exact same place, creating a much-needed sense of brand consistency as well!
If you’d like to learn about more best practices for truly effective direct mail campaigns, or if you’re interested in having our design services team professionally design a mock up mailer to help you visualize your brand on our unique format, please don’t delay – contact us today.
