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One often overlooked aspect of maintaining a solid brand presence is regularly refreshing your marketing collateral. From direct mail to marketing emails, here are five ways to update your design and keep it fresh.

1. Update your colors.

Remember when almond used to be the “hot” color for kitchen appliances, and bathrooms were pink? Color trends change—in home décor and in marketing! When was the last time your color palette had a refresh? Check out the latest color trends and incorporate them. Consider seasonal trends or industry shifts when selecting new colors to stay ahead of the curve.

2. Go heavy on the visuals.

In today’s visual-centric world, photos and graphics are more important than ever. High-quality visuals can capture attention and convey messages quickly. Refresh your marketing collateral with new, eye-catching visuals to breathe new life into your campaigns.

3. Concise and easy-to-read text.

Keep your text concise and easy to read in the age of information overload. Use clear, simple language and break up large blocks of text with headings, bullet points, and infographics. This approach makes your message more digestible and improves readability across different devices.

4. Use plenty of white space.

White or negative space is essential for creating a clean and visually appealing design. By incorporating plenty of white space, you can draw attention to critical elements and make your content more readable. Use graphics, bullet points, and shorter paragraphs to maximize white space and maintain a clean layout.

5. Incorporate social proof.

Social proof, such as customer testimonials or reviews, can build trust and credibility with your audience. Buyers trust their friends and family more than they trust brands, so incorporating social proof into your marketing collateral can help persuade potential customers to take action. Consider featuring testimonials in your direct mail pieces or adding customer reviews to your website.

Refreshing your marketing collateral is essential for staying relevant and engaging with your audience. Design trends are constantly changing, impacted by cultural shifts, global events, and market dynamics, so keep things fresh and up to date. Design trends don’t rest, so neither should your creativity! Need help? Just ask!

How do you stand out when so many companies compete for the same customers? One way is through dimensional print. These innovative print pieces go beyond the traditional flat surface, offering tactile and interactive experiences that captivate audiences and drive engagement. From pop-up designs to textured finishes, dimensional print can take your marketing efforts to the next level.

Let’s look at some examples:

• Pop-up designs: Pop-up cards, brochures, and mailers use intricate folds and cuts to create three-dimensional elements that surprise and delight recipients. For example, a travel agency could send prospects what looks like a flat mailer, but when it’s opened, the “flat” mailer pops into the shape of a cube. This not only creates delight and surprise but it gives the agency six total surfaces to promote a variety of enticing vacation destinations.
• Textured finishes: Adding texture to print materials can create an authentic sensory experience. Embossing, debossing, and raised coatings can all be used to add depth and tactile appeal to business cards, packaging, and promotional materials. For example, many luxury cosmetic brands use soft-touch coating to create a sense of elegance and sophistication.
• Interactive elements: Incorporating interactive elements into print materials can encourage engagement and create more memorable experiences. For example, consider adding a tear-away section to your next direct mailer to reveal a hidden message or offer.

Adding this extra dimension to your print marketing can increase engagement and drive sales. How? By doing the following:

• Captivating attention: The unique and unexpected nature of dimensional print makes these materials stand out in a sea of flatness. This can help capture the audience’s attention and pique their curiosity, leading to increased engagement.
• Creating memorable experiences: Dimensional print materials create more memorable experiences. As a result, recipients are more likely to remember the brand and its message.
• Driving action: Because dimensional print increases interaction with the message, this can increase the likelihood that recipients will take action, such as visiting a store, making a purchase, or sharing the material with others.

Dimensional print offers a creative and engaging way to elevate your brand’s impact. By incorporating these innovative print pieces into your marketing strategy, you can capture attention, create memorable experiences, and ultimately drive increased engagement and sales for your brand.

Using recycled paper is essential in moving toward more sustainable printing, but it’s not the only one! For those who want to be friendly to the earth, here are five other ways to incorporate sustainability when designing and ordering print materials.

1. Keep virgin fiber in the loop. While this might sound counter-intuitive, virgin fiber is a crucial component of the recycled paper stream. Recycled paper can only be recycled a limited number of times before the fibers become too short and weak for further use. Adding virgin fiber into the process is necessary to ensure that those papers maintain high quality.
2. Use environmentally certified paper. Environmental paper certifications are granted to paper products that meet specific environmental standards. These certifications are awarded by independent third-party organizations and are based on criteria related to sustainable forestry practices, recycled content, and environmental impact. Some of the most recognized ecological paper certifications include the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).
3. Use environmentally friendly inks and coatings. Water-based and vegetable-based inks and coatings are typically made from renewable resources or recycled materials, reducing their environmental impact compared to traditional petroleum-based products. They often contain fewer of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are harmful to both human health and the environment. Environmentally friendly inks and coatings are formulated to be biodegradable or easily recyclable, reducing their environmental impact after use. They are also less likely to contain heavy metals or other hazardous chemicals.
4. Don’t laminate. If you’re specing packaging, try to avoid designs that require lamination. Once plastic film is laminated to paper, that paper becomes much more difficult for mills to depulp and reuse.
5. Clean and de-dupe your mailing list. Nothing says “waste” like undeliverable mail. Keep your mailing list accurate, up-to-date, and free of duplicates for the lowest environmental footprint.

Sustainability is more important than ever, and there are so many different ways you can approach it. Using any of these steps will move you toward more earth-friendly print marketing, and for the best results, talk to us about using a multi-pronged approach!