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Around the Bend

It’s not enough that Trish Witkowski has made her name (and a pretty decent living) teaching marketers about the many distinct and creative ways that they can bend, seal, crease and deliver their mailers. Neither is it enough that she has authored books and recorded more than 200 YouTube videos about the subject. No, Witkowski won’t be satisfied until she gets you into the fold, too.

“In direct mail, if you can pique someone’s interest, you’re one step closer to getting a higher response rate and a bigger return on your investment,” Witkowski explains.

“You want the best chance possible to get the attention of the recipient,” she adds. “There are many ways to do this, and folding is one component that is, in my opinion, underutilized. So many creative things can be done with folding and direct mail, and I don’t think we, as an industry, are taking advantage of the opportunity.”

read the transcript [RTF]

There’s nobody — and we mean nobody — who cares more about folds and direct mail than Witkowski. She calls herself the “chief folding fanatic,” but that’s not even halfway close to how fervent she is about getting marketers to incorporate folds into your creative.

Each week, there she is, the self-styled chief folding fanatic, sitting behind a simple white table (nondescript green potted plant in the background) for her online show, “60-Second Super-Cool Fold of the Week,” with a sample of a folded piece in her hands. She’s pumped up, excited even, about explaining why this intricate fold or that creative bend can make your next piece all the more effective.

The list of samples is impressive: mail that folds out like an accordion with inserts, mail with zips and pockets, mail that could be dubbed “the transformer” — a chalet one moment, then, flipped inside out, a snowflake (with information printed inside)!

The show’s purpose, Witkowski explains, is to prove print’s effectiveness in a powerful and visual way using real-world examples sent to her by a global audience of viewers.

Witkowski, the founder (and chief folding fanatic) of foldfactory.com, a company that builds dynamic templates for folded materials, says digital media campaigns are most effective when combined with direct mail. She often blogs about the importance of print and sees it as a viable method for getting a targeted audience to take notice.

“Print has always been a highly effective form of communication and will continue to be, especially now that the technology has advanced so much,” she asserts. “With all of the enhanced direct mail technologies available, we can print shorter runs to a more targeted audience. There can be a lot of value in spending a little more per piece on a high-impact solution that can be mailed to a smaller group of high-quality prospects.” She urges companies to liven up their campaigns and spend additional time, energy and resources to create mailings that are appealing and customer friendly. “Why send 100,000 yawns when you can send 30,000 ‘wows?’” she asks. “It’s wasted money if you’re not getting the attention of your audience.”

For optimum attention, Witkowski advises companies to add an interactive element to their direct mail pieces. Try a teaser or a tear strip, a die cut, a pull-tab or a sticker. She says one of her viewers, Evok Advertising in Florida, sent her a sample of a piece they produced for a client where they added a simple die cut to the cover of a direct mail piece and experienced a 30-percent response increase over previous campaigns.

Witkowski suggests using folding to enhance and adequately display the message. Roll folds, gate folds, accordions, parallel folds, and specialty forms of folding can all create impact if executed correctly. The key to success is to strike the appropriate balance between your design concept, the content in layout and the chosen folding style.

“Sometimes people see a fold and they make a mental note to use that in their next project, but if you force your concept into a cool fold because of the wow factor, you can create confusion. There is a form and function that has to take place in direct mail.”

She continues: “The goal shouldn’t be to get into somebody’s “great idea” file. You want them to notice the piece and take action. It has to have purpose and accomplish a goal — which is response.”

To accomplish that goal, she advises marketers to rely on the “intuitive nature” of how certain folds are opened. For instance, some folds are better suited for a larger body of text while others require nuggets of information.

“Rather than seeing a fold as a bunch of empty panels, start thinking of it as a user experience,” says Witkowski.

That “user experience” varies from fold to fold. When opening a roll fold, she says the natural tendency is to roll it right open, which means the critical marketing message should be on the interior spread, and not on the fold-in panels on the right. If you compare that experience to a gate fold, the natural opening order is to reveal one spread and then the interior spread, so the marketing message placement is quite different.

“Folding choice has everything to do with how users view content,” says Witkowski. “It has to do with how you lead them through the piece. Folding gives you the ability to control pace and direction. What is intuitive to you is not necessarily intuitive to the audience. Mock it up and watch people experience the piece, and when they hand it back ask about the marketing message.”

Address alignment, aspect ratio and fold placement are also direct mail concerns for Witkowski. Mention them, and she’ll rattle off a list of taboos.

“People are paying non-machinable surcharges for careless mistakes that are within their control — format-based errors like aspect ratio, address alignment and fold placement. Then they blame direct mail, saying it costs too much,” she says. “Truth is, they’re shooting themselves in the foot before they even hit the mailstream, and it gives print a bad name. Direct mail education is an area that I focus on, giving webinars to inform people of the easy things they can do to get the best mailing rates. People are always surprised by how creative they can be within U.S. Postal Service® format guidelines — they’re really not as restrictive as they think.

“There are limitless great things you can do within machinable format requirements. But you have to put thought into it.”

Download your free Deliver Twist Fold project.

Check out FoldFactory.com and Trish’s YouTube page.