Most successful companies have an idea of the primary demographics that make up the majority of their consumers, which is crucial information that serves as the baseline for who to target with their advertising. What does it take to prove to your audience that you understand them beyond their demographical labels though?
Emotional intelligence is defined by Oxford Languages as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. More relevantly speaking, the way you convey your message in consideration of what you know about your audience will demonstrate an understanding of their goals, desires, dilemmas and other interests.
Emotional intelligence is useful from a design standpoint, because you can employ various emotional appeals in your message such as:
- Presenting your company as the solution to a problem commonly experienced by your audience
- Appealing to the desires of your audience by showing someone benefitting from or enjoying your products and services
- Introducing a new product with relevance to the audience’s subcultural interests
- Addressing relevant issues that are not commonly acknowledged by the competition to show a superior understanding
The list goes on, and you may find yourself with different options at your disposal based on who the message is for and what it is about.
Make Your Postcard Relevant to Your Audience
No matter what else may come and go, people’s love for physical mail never fades. Maintaining relevance via postcard marketing is less of a concern about the medium as it is about how the advertisers apply the latest trends to the design of their piece. Doing so requires a real understanding of the trends you want to encapsulate and the ability to think outside of the box.
To develop your understanding of what is relevant to your target markets, you’ll need to investigate places where they discuss the topics that interest them. This can include a variety of venues from social media groups to forums to videos or livestreams made by personalities that are popular among the given subculture. There is also the more direct method of asking your customers what their wants, interests or criticisms are by using feedback forms, surveys or interviews. If you decide on taking the latter approach, be sure to know exactly what kind of information you’re after before reaching out to people so you can make the best use of your time and resources.
You’ll then need to take what you’ve learned about your audience and apply it to the design of your mail piece. You have a handful of things you need to consider with regard to your research when working on your design.
Visuals
Get a good idea of what enthralls your audience. Members of parenting communities may be easily charmed by the bright smile of a young toddler. Foodie groups likely get a mouth-watering sensation from close-ups of a culinary masterpiece. Yes, these are two very straightforward examples – but when exploring the facets of new trends and subcultures you should pay attention to the imagery that people use to express their ideas and avoid making assumptions based on stereotypes.
Don’t simply copy and paste what you find, your audience will be wise to pure unoriginality. Rather, you should spend time noting the thematic similarities among the content that dominates your target’s channels, affirm what reactions they elicit, and use that knowledge as a baseline when creating your design.
Call to Action
Every mail piece should be created with a specific business goal in mind. There needs to be a “next step” to which your message directs the recipient, which is laid out in the call to action. Make use of your research to find out what motivates your audience to act. Some possible angles you may consider include:
- Giving a service number – urging your audience to call if they experience a problem for which your company offers the solution
- Including a coupon or discount code – enticing your audience with a special offer to encourage impulse buying
- Featuring a QR code – inviting your audience to a landing page to encourage immediate action or begin part of your brand experience
- Presenting an invitation to learn more – building intrigue about your offerings that encourages further exploration by the consumer
Think carefully about where the CTA is going to lead the postcard’s recipients. Once again, you’ll have to develop an understanding of your audience and note the common factors among the kinds of content they engage with. Use the right imagery and rhetoric to convince them that your CTA leads somewhere that is worthy of their time.
Applying emotional intelligence concepts such as these to your postcard’s design helps show potential customers that you understand them as more than a demographic. If you have no design experience or staff in house, you may need to enlist the help of an expert to make sure your message comes out the way you envision it. Fortunately, Cactus Mailing has 20 years of direct mail experience and a highly skilled professional design team that will help you create a postcard that will make an impression. Fill out the form below or give us a call and we’ll get right to work!