“We should send a postcard.”
Maybe. But before you open InDesign, pick a size, or start debating paper stocks, there are a few more important questions to answer.
A great print campaign doesn’t start with the piece itself. It starts with what you’re trying to accomplish, who you’re trying to reach and what you want to happen next. Once you have those things figured out, decisions about format, personalization, creative and mailing become a whole lot easier.
Before your next print campaign hits creative, start with these five things.
Start with the action, not the format. Are you trying to get someone to make a purchase, register for an event, donate, schedule an appointment, renew a membership or come back after they haven’t engaged in a while?
Even “we want to raise awareness” deserves another question: What would success actually look like? If you want someone to register for an event, the piece needs to quickly communicate why they should care and make registration easy. If you're trying to reactivate a customer, a personalized offer might matter more. If you're introducing a complex service, the mailpiece may simply need to create enough interest to drive someone somewhere they can learn more.
The action you want someone to take should influence nearly every decision that comes next. It’s much easier to decide what the piece should look like once you know what it needs to accomplish.
Before everyone gets the same piece, look at your data. You probably know more about your audience than their first name and mailing address.
Location, purchase history, donation history, customer status, industry, membership level, products owned, event attendance or previous interactions could all change what’s relevant to that person. The question isn’t simply “Can we personalize this?” It’s “Would changing something make this more useful or relevant to the recipient?”
For a nonprofit, that could mean showing a donor the impact of a program they’ve supported. A retailer could feature products based on a customer’s previous purchases. A multi-location organization could automatically show each recipient their nearest location. A B2B campaign could change its examples, imagery, or messaging based on industry.
You don’t have to personalize everything just because you can. But if your data can improve the campaign, decide how you want to use it before the design is locked. It’s much easier to build personalization into a campaign than bolt it on afterward.
Want to see an example in action? Download our free personalized print campaign example to see what variables in the print piece changed and how it impacted ROI.
Your mailpiece probably isn’t the entire campaign, so think about where it fits into everything else you're doing.
Maybe an email introduces the campaign and the mailpiece reinforces the message a few days later. Maybe the mailpiece is the first touch and a QR code takes the recipient into a personalized digital experience. Maybe you're specifically using direct mail to reach customers who haven’t responded to email. The right approach depends on the job you need print to do.
This is also where you should think about what happens after someone responds. If they scan the QR code, where are you sending them? Does that page continue the same message? What happens if they fill out the form? Can you tell which campaign brought them there?
A QR code in the bottom corner doesn’t automatically make a campaign integrated. Plan the journey first, then design the individual pieces around it.
Now we get to the fun part.
Once you understand the goal, audience, and role of the piece, you can think about what print itself can contribute. A postcard might be exactly right, but it shouldn’t automatically be the starting point just because you’ve mailed postcards before.
Maybe the piece unfolds to reveal the message. Maybe a tear-off element makes the response easier. An envelope could build curiosity before someone ever sees what’s inside. An interesting paper or finish could reinforce the creative concept. Different audiences might receive different versions. Or maybe the smartest idea really is a simple postcard with one incredibly clear message.
The point isn’t to make print more complicated. It’s to recognize that the physical piece itself is part of the creative opportunity.
You have size, shape, paper, folds, finishes, envelopes, inserts, personalization, and plenty of other variables to work with. Think about those possibilities while you're developing the idea, not after the design is finished.
Budget, quantity, and timeline aren't the exciting part of campaign planning, but knowing them early can actually give your team more freedom to make good decisions.
If the budget is fixed, you can decide where an investment will have the biggest impact instead of designing first and cutting things later. If you're mailing a large quantity, a seemingly small change to the format or production method can make a meaningful difference in total cost. And if you have a hard in-home date, the production schedule needs to work backward from that date — not from when the design team hopes to finish.
Mailing adds another layer. Size, weight and construction can affect how a piece is processed and what it costs to send. Personalized campaigns also require the data to be ready, while campaigns with multiple components may need additional time for things like matching, inserting or fulfillment.
None of that means the operational details should dictate the creative. They should inform it. Knowing your sandbox before you start designing is a lot better than finding its boundaries after everyone has fallen in love with the idea.
If you read those five things and realized you don't know exactly what format, stock, finishing technique or mailing method makes sense, good. You don't need to.
Bring your print and mail partner the things you know: your goal, audience, available data, budget, and timeline. From there, they should be able to help you figure out the format, production, personalization, mailing, and what’s actually possible within those parameters.
That conversation is a lot more valuable when it happens before the PDF is finished.
So before you design your next print campaign, don’t start by asking “What should we print?” Start with “What are we trying to make happen?” Then build the piece around the answer.
Looking for a print and mail partner who can help? That's where Aradius Group comes in. Reach out today, and we'll show you how to maximize ROI from the printed piece.