Marketing isn’t an easy thing to do. It’s difficult and requires a lot of mental strength. You’ll need to pair creativity with personalization while focusing on a targeted message that your audience will respond to. The more you do it, the more likely you are to automate the process. However, putting in a few extra hours of invested time to make sure that each marketing campaign is unique and well thought out is worth it. To learn more, we’ll examine the importance of putting in effort during marketing campaigns.

How you choose to market to your target audience matters. The more effort that you make, the higher your response rate will be. This is especially true regarding personalization and vibrant imagery, as was demonstrated in a study conducted by The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

The study wanted to look at the impact of personalization, geographic imagery, and overall marketing messaging on response rates across their target population. While this study was conducted in 2010, the results hold true today.

All of the mailings used in the study were professionally designed and produced to ensure that quality and consistency was achieved. The three variables that were tested throughout this marketing study included color vs. black-and-white, simple personalization (i.e., use of name), and more complex personalization (i.e., demographics or interests).

The study found that using color on marketing materials had a very similar impact on response rate when compared to simply adding a name to a black and white direct mailer. When combined, adding color and the subject’s name increased response rates by almost three times. Therefore, at the bare minimum of your marketing campaigns, you should be using color printing and the subject’s name to help enhance your overall direct mail campaign. However, if you want to exponentially increase your response rate, adding more complex personalization is essential.

In the study, complex information was derived from databases that included methods to generate an intimate emotional feeling between the advertiser and recipient. To find the right information to use for your marketing campaigns, you need to consider what your target audience wants or needs and offer them an easy, straightforward way to solve their problems or achieve their goals. The more research that is put into making sure that your direct mail campaign is targeted towards your audience, the higher the response rates will be. Just make sure that you overlap unique, tailored offers with names and always opt for color printing to get the best results. The study conducted by RIT reported an increase of 500% response rates when they did this, which is well worth the added effort and slight increase in printing cost for color vs. black-and-white.

While adding complex personalization requires additional effort for your marketing campaigns, the data doesn’t lie—it’s worth the extra time. To get the most out of your mailers and other marketing supplies, Impact Color provides high-quality printing for direct mail campaigns, enticing graphics, and other printed materials. Browse our services and contact us today to get started.