Direct Mail Elevation and the Art of Interruption
Have you ever had a piece of direct mail in your hands, maybe for a campaign that you did for a customer, or simply received at home, that really stopped you in your tracks?
Maybe it made you notice it for some physical quality. Or a blazing headline across the front. Or even a clever use of marketing technology.
That’s the power of interruption, that voice in your head that says, “Hold up, I’ll get my kid from soccer practice in a second. Let’s see what’s in this envelope.”
Our routines and conversations, whether we have them with others or ourselves, can be interrupted by anything. A barking dog, a crying baby, a smoke alarm — or a well-crafted direct mail piece.
People have short attention spans, perhaps shorter than ever, with dozens or hundreds of messages encountered every day in our digital age.
People are rushed, tired, jaded, and dare I say it — bored — with the glut that never seems to end.
Your mailing isn’t any different. It must interrupt and keep on interrupting until some kind of action is taken, like scanning a personal QR code, calling a number, visiting a location, or setting it aside on your fridge, not throwing it into the recycling basket.
Elevation to Interrupt
The challenge is how to interrupt. Even in a less-crowded mailbox, it’s not enough to simply show up and hope to be noticed.
In the past couple of years, I’ve talked with practitioners in our vast mail and print ecosystem who are creating interesting mailers. Instead of resting on their past successes or maintaining the status quo, they push to do more, to up their game. The word that keeps coming up is “elevation.”
Elevation is about more than ink on paper. It’s about being intentional and finding — or even better — making opportunities to go beyond the ordinary routine and use your mail campaign to make customer engagement memorable and valuable.
Personalization on a mailer says “this really is for you” because it reflects the recipient’s unique location, needs, or behavior. With variable data printing, the images, headlines, and offers mean something because they’re relevant. Instead of a single glance, the mail piece earns further review and consideration. It creates a personalized and more authentic experience for the reader.
Create Sensory Appeal
Physical design is another way to create the kind of friction that slows down a customer or prospect. Dimensional designs, embellishments, textures, foils, and specialty stocks catch the eye and invite a touch that lingers. Creating sensory appeal to get attention is one thing. To truly elevate the experience for the recipient, tactile touches need to connect at a deeper level, helping to tell a brand’s story or highlight an important part of the message or offer. Think about how a soft-touch coating adds a luxury or premium feel to an envelope or folded self-mailer. And the higher cost can be justified by the fact that the campaign is going to only select high-value audience segments.
The elevation mindset isn’t for everyone or every campaign. But depending on the technology used, it may be surprisingly affordable even for mass mailings. That is, if you mail campaigns that are eligible for USPS’s 2026 Incentives program. Promotions that use sensory features or integrate multichannel can qualify for 5% discounts (or more if you stack add-on bonuses).
This is where the rubber meets the road. Innovation and creativity in your direct mail not only interrupts a customer and gets them to act — it elevates their experience and builds loyalty. And, it can result in ROI that’s good for your customer’s bottom line.
