Leveraging Colour Psychology for Effective Direct Mail

Whether it was in your logo design, brand imagery, or most recent product launch, colour strategy likely came up at some point in the conversation. Deciding how you are going to represent your business is as much about the words you use as the imagery that consumers experience.

A surprisingly important element of product marketing is colour choice. Influencing everything from the visual appeal to a consumer’s emotional and behavioural response, colour schemes have a significant impact on how direct mail is perceived.

Some businesses like using a more personalized approach to their marketing strategy, which includes sending content designed specifically for each recipient. This creates a more authentic engagement experience, allowing the consumer to form a deeper connection with the product. Understanding your prospective audience is an essential factor in delivering influential content. Incorporating the right colours could make or break this decision.

When planning a direct mail campaign, there needs to be an end goal in mind. These could range from increased revenue to conversion rates. Nonetheless, there needs to be a common objective. This can easily be achieved through a well-thought-out and consistent theme. Developing either a design concept or colour scheme ahead of time that effectively represents your brand messaging will help ensure the direct mailers resonate with the intended consumers.

Understanding Colour Schemes

It’s important to keep the colour scheme consistent across every aspect of a campaign, regardless of whether it’s a single mail-out or multiple pieces. While this may seem obvious, every colour has a unique psychological effect on the brain. Each has the ability to impact how a consumer perceives your direct mail.

The different experiences we have with colour within our given environments impact our reactions to them. As a marketer and business owner, you must be aware of these influences and apply them to your direct mail design concepts in order to achieve the best results.

Knowing how each consumer is going to perceive your colour scheme is near impossible. However, understanding the basic psychological effects that each colour may provoke is beneficial. While colour association will vary from person to person, the fundamentals behind them remain the same.

To get the intended response from your direct mail marketing, you need to not only have messaging that resonates, but also build an effective colour palette. Consider the following colour guide the next time you start designing a direct mail campaign.

Yellow

Considered a cheerful, warm colour, yellow quickly grabs your attention. However, unlike other colours on the spectrum, it is most effective when used sparingly—any overuse runs the risk of becoming abrasive. Obviously reminiscent of sunlight, yellow is typically perceived as bright and powerful, which reflects optimism.

An excellent accent colour, using yellow as part of your direct mail campaign can help make the other elements stand out. Troi Mailing Services offers customizable postcard printing services in Toronto, making it easy to add the desired amount of personalization to each product printed.

Orange

Orange is also associated with warmth and light. Conveying physical safety, comfort, and enthusiasm, it’s a good colour choice for messaging that’s intended to feel calm or welcoming. Considering darker shades of orange that are reminiscent of autumn, it can also be used to convey earthier designs and concepts.

While a full orange colour scheme may be overwhelming for some consumers, an orange background or graphics can bring energy to your direct mail. Through our postcard printing services, we offer an expansive selection of creative options to ensure your message is properly shared with consumers.

Red

Red is one of the most common colours used across marketing campaigns. That said, it’s typically a difficult colour to effectively incorporate into direct mail designs. Often associated with extreme emotions such as anger, danger, and excitement, it also evokes a strong sense of passion. This makes it an excellent choice for businesses looking to stand out and make a loud impact.

Utilizing our postcard printing services in Toronto, you can easily print cost-effective marketing materials that suit your needs. This means you don’t have to sacrifice full-colour graphics or backgrounds in order to meet your budget.

Green

Nature remains one of the strongest colour associations that consumers tend to have. Green being the most prominent representation of this, it tends to evoke feelings of tranquillity and growth. Its connection to nature also makes green a perceived symbol of new beginnings.

If you are looking to start a new mail campaign, using a green colour scheme could be very effective in conveying the idea of a fresh new start. Our team at Troi Mailing Services offers postcard printing services in Toronto that can help you create a simple yet effective design aimed at driving results.

Blue

Similar to green, consumers often strongly associate the colour blue with nature. However, given that blue occurs more extensively (think water and the sky), it tends to evoke different emotions. Ranging from distance and sadness to stability and calmness, blue can be perceived in various ways.

At Troi Mailing Services we offer postcard printing services that include a wide range of options, allowing you to incorporate multiple colour shades within your design.

Purple

Purple holds a significant amount of symbolism, as it was once associated with wealth and royalty. Today, it remains representative of prestige, imagination, and wisdom. When developing your direct mail design, it’s best to use purple strategically in order to avoid evoking an excessive amount of extravagance, unless that’s your intention.

As part of our postcard printing services, we often use digital laser printing, making it possible to effectively personalize your direct marketing postcards in multiple spots. This high level of customization ensures that the intention behind your message is properly conveyed.

Black

Synonymous with mystery, luxury, and seriousness, black has the ability to evoke some extremely strong emotions. Keep in mind that it can also be reminiscent of death and evil, so be considerate of how and where you use it in a direct mail campaign. The use of a bright colour alongside black can provide a sense of sophistication, whereas an entirely black colour scheme might come across as cold.

Our team at Troi Mailing Services has years of experience customizing direct mail products, giving us the expertise needed to help you create the best designs possible.

Where to Find Postcard Printing Services

Troi Mailing Services can help you design effective direct mail products, offering impactful postcard printing services in Toronto. To get started on your next campaign, call us at 1-866-486-9350 or contact us online.