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Design Advisory Services

Direct mail design advice for your mail marketing campaigns
Design advisory for direct mail

Practical advice achieving the ideal balance of cost and impact

An expert eye during the design of your direct mail campaigns can make a substantial difference to future print, fulfilment and postage costs.

We assess every element of your mailings, from paper sizes to the number of pages, and identify ways you save expense and preserve visual impact. With DM360, effective direct mail design is reviewed and optimised from all angles.

Knowledge that
keeps campaign costs down

A couple of grams too heavy, or a few centimetres too large, can have a massive influence on your mail-pieces and costs further along the direct mail journey.

Our pragmatic advice and attention to detail pinpoints subtle changes to your direct mail designs that keep them within industry thresholds, significantly cutting down your overall expenses. Together we’ll find the perfect balance of style and function to maximise the appeal and ROI of your campaigns.

Keep direct mail campaign costs down with our design advisory services

Size, weight, format –
we cover everything

We put every aspect of your mailings under a microscope to discover where savings can be made.

From proposing different paper stocks and finishes, to removing redundant pages in brochures and magazines – every suggestion is focused on optimising the cost of your campaigns without compromising how effectively they engage your audiences.

DM post size, weight, and format considerations and advice (e.g. 170gsm Silk, 120gsm Uncoated, 300gsm Gloss)
Quality control and
direction at any stage

Receive specialist advice on the design, format and layout 
of your mailings at any phase of their development. We get involved from the outset, or sanity check campaigns before they’re finalised – reach us at any point to ensure your design is perfectly optimised for the direct mail process.

Direct Mail Print and mailing quality control and direction services
Featured Insights

What’s The Cost of Poor Direct Mail Design?

When most people talk about direct mail design services, they focus on the creative behind your campaigns. The typography used, the imagery selected, the amount of white space, where call to actions are positioned – the list goes on.

These are undoubtedly important to building brand awareness and capturing the attention of your target audience. But what often goes overlooked is how design influences the overall cost of a campaign…

Print, fulfilment and postage are all greatly influenced by size, weights and formats. If the graphic design of your mailings have added a couple of grams or a few centimetres, the costs you incur further along the journey can be significantly higher than they necessarily should be.

Direct Mail Design Advisory Services: Frequently Asked Questions

Can you help with direct mail design?

Our design advisory service assesses your designs from a purely practical perspective, advising on how you can optimise your proposed design, layout or formatting to reduce costs across the rest of your campaign’s journey.

This takes into consideration:

  • Paper sizes
  • Type of paper stock
  • Finishes of paper stock
  • Weight of mail-pieces
  • Format of mail-pieces
  • Number of pages
  • Volume of designs and images

We do not offer a specific service where we work with you or your agency to develop the creative of your direct mail campaigns. In most circumstances people who use our design advisory service already have a design in place – our role is to suggest subtle tweaks that can often lead to significant cost savings.

What do your design advisory services look at?

With DM360, our design advisory service can be applied to all examples of direct mail, including (but not limited to):

  • Brochures
  • Catalogues
  • Letters
  • Postcards
  • Magazines
  • Tabbed mailings

This acts as a valuable step in your overall direct mail marketing strategy to minimise the overall costs of your campaigns, whatever materials you are producing, before they proceed to print, fulfilment and postage.

We recognise that effective direct mail design is not just visually compelling, but as cost-effective as possible.

How much does direct mail design advisory cost?

Our direct mail design advisory service is completely bespoke, and costs will depend on a variety of factors, including:

  • How long you require our support
  • How many designs and mail-pieces you would like us to review
  • Whether you require this as a one-off service or as part of our end-to-end offering

While you may initially consider this an inessential step, the overall savings to the print, fulfilment and delivery of your marketing campaigns often make this a worthwhile investment. If you would like to discuss this further, get in touch with our team – we are always upfront when it comes to prices and are happy to answer any questions you may have.

What is the best direct mail design or format?

There is no single ‘best’ design or format when it comes to direct mail. Depending on your goals, your audience, and your budget, the ideal size and finish of your mailings will differ.

That is why we take a bespoke approach to each campaign and pull from our vast industry experience to assess every element of your mailings. From paper sizes to the type of finish, we optimise your collateral to ensure it retains its impact in the most cost-effective way possible.

What is bleed and how does it affect design?

In print, bleed is a term that refers to the amount of ink beyond the edge of the paper. This is an important consideration for your mail pieces, as having a suitable amount of bleed on a design ensures there is never any unintentional white space around the edge.

What is the minimum font size I should use for direct mail artwork?

Although it is vital to ensure your mail items are legible, there is no standard minimum font size for a piece of print artwork, as this will depend on a number of factors, including:

  • The type of mailing being sent out

  • The fonts used within

  • The layout of the design

  • The information being conveyed

Should my artwork be RGB or CMYK?

Only CMYK is suitable for print, as it ensures parity between the colours on-screen and those produced by a printer.

How does artwork design proofing work, and are there limits?

Whether you need our involvement from the outset of a project, or a final sanity check before campaigns are finalised, we can advise on the design, format and layout 
of your mailings at any phase of development.

However, we do not develop or consult on the creative in your campaign. Our role is solely focused on optimising existing designs and balancing its impact with cost-effectiveness.

What is direct mail design?

Direct mail design is the aesthetic aspect of a physical mail item. This element is crucial in grabbing the attention of your recipients, and can involve a wide range of elements, such as:

  • Layout

  • Typeface

  • Colourways

  • Paper weight

  • Print finish

  • Format and size

What should be included in a direct mail design?

The design of your mail item will vary significantly, depending on the objectives of your campaign, as well as the dimensions and format of collateral.

However, there are core elements that should always be included in a design, such as clearly labelled call-to-actions, logical layouts, on-brand colours, as well as bleed marks for print.

What are the benefits of good direct mail design?

The design of your direct mail item can have a significant impact on its ability to grab people’s attention, engage recipients and generate a meaningful return on your investment.

With a well-optimised design, you can make savings in the long-term without jeopardising the impact of your mailings and help to:

  • Establish trust

  • Build credibility

  • Inspire action

  • Differentiate your brand from competitors

Go beyond direct mail
today with DM360


Unlock the true power and potential of your direct mail marketing. Whether you’re looking for a single service or the complete DM360 package, fill out the form and let’s get started.

  • Reach audiences quickly and cost-effectively with the right postage service
  • Source and manage reliable, robust data
  • Fulfil mailings rapidly with unrivalled attention to detail