Sometimes, when we’re planning or designing direct mail pieces, we marketers get carried away and try to jam too much information into them. We try to highlight several key features or benefits, or we try to push too many products or services at once (in a non-catalog format).
The problem with this strategy is that your brochure, your letter, or your postcard loses focus. Your recipients don’t get a clear understanding of how they’ll benefit or what you want them to do.
Your direct mail needs a “big idea” to combat this.
What is a marketing “big idea?” It’s the one thing you want your prospects to know when they’re reading your mail piece. The one big benefit. The one big reason for them to act on your offer.
You can be a healthier you in just 14 days.
Nothing protects your car like the right tires.
You can change someone’s life with $10.
Knowing what your big idea is will drive everything else—
· Your headline, which should include keywords for your big idea
· Your sales pitch or product description, which should help support this main idea
· Your offer
· Your call-to-action
· Your images, which should represent the big idea
You have only seconds to grab someone’s attention and seconds to keep it. Focus all of your elements on your one big idea so that no matter where your readers look or how much your readers read, they know why you’re contacting them: they know what you’re trying to offer and why they should want it.