A lot of literature covers ways to generate response from your marketing materials, and most of it focuses on your offer and call to action. Those elements, combined with your mailing list or other targeted distribution methods, are definitely critical to marketing success; however, they also make the assumption that potential customers are looking at your marketing materials in the first place. But what if they’re not?

The 40/40/20 rule of direct marketing states that 40 percent of your success is based on your offer, another 40 percent is dependent on your mailing list, and the remaining 20 percent is based on everything else – “everything else” being your design, copy, paper stock and myriad other factors.

Thus, the 40/40/20 rule has a single glaring error: it does not lend the proper weight to design. I don’t care how great your offer is or how targeted your distribution is; if your design isn’t attractive you will not achieve marketing success. By attractive, I don’t just mean aesthetically pleasing; in fact, I could care less about aesthetics when it comes to marketing. What I mean is attention-getting, or attention-commanding. When it comes to marketing materials, your design should attract customers’ attention.

This point is easy to illustrate. Let’s say you’re launching the best deal the universe has ever seen, and you build a highly-targeted mailing list full of likely buyers. According to the 40/40/20 rule, 80 percent of your work has been done. Now, let’s say you print a direct-mail postcard that lists 100 different features and benefits and essentially buries your offer in 8-point font. Do you think such a postcard would be nearly as effective as, say, a postcard that boasts the same offer in an extra-large yellow font on a black background? Of course not. The first postcard will likely be thrown away before many potential customers even register the offer, while the second postcard will undoubtedly yield excellent ROI because it commands attention. It is, in short, attractive.

That’s why I contend design is the single most important element of your marketing materials. If you can’t attract attention, no one will ever see your offer. I don’t want to downplay the value of a great offer, but I do want to make the point that a great offer is worthless without an attractive design. With that in mind, here are five tips for more attractive marketing materials.

1. Contrast and simplicity

Contrasting colors command attention. Think blue or red on white, yellow or hot pink on black. High contrast isn’t always the most aesthetically appealing, but it’s nearly impossible to ignore. Print marketing materials that feature high contrast, and your message will get noticed. Keep your message simple and do not clutter your marketing materials with extraneous information to make it easy for customers to understand and respond to your offer.

2. Big descriptive headlines

Typography is more important than ever in today’s marketing world, and big, bold headlines get noticed. I like headlines that combine benefits and time-limited offers to create desire and foster a sense of urgency. Remember that you’re not writing a book: you don’t have to build to a climax; rather, you have to get customers excited about buying as quickly as possible. Big descriptive headlines will make your message impossible to miss.

3. Interesting images

No matter what you’re selling, brainstorm ways to feature your products or services – or, rather, make your point – in a unique and unusual way. Interesting images capture human imagination and, more importantly, command the attention of the human eye. Paying attention to unexpected and unusual images is hard-wired into our brains; it’s how we notice anomalies that could be critical for survival. That biological feature shared by all humans is easily exploited by unusual images in marketing.

4. Die cuts and foil stamps

Make your marketing materials unique with creative die-cut shapes, which will intrigue your customers. In addition, the human eye is drawn to bright and shiny things: foil stamps, for example.

5. Extra-large printing

When you print extra-large marketing materials, you foster the idea that your message is extra important. Customers can’t resist the urge to read such messages. Instead of standard sizes, print extra-large postcards, brochures, booklets, vinyl banners, catalogs and other marketing materials.

What other ways can you think of to print more attractive marketing materials?

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