Colour in shared mailing

We have not found that colour is beneficial to raising response rates in many circumstances.  It can help - but the general rule seems to be that it only helps where there is an obvious need for colour in order for the reader to understand the product.

Thus if you are selling a behaviour management course which is best described in words, you don't need colour.  If you are selling a book on school improvement which itself has no illustrations, you don't need colour.  Indeed even putting in a copy of the cover of the book does nothing to help.

But if you are selling furniture then it is quite likely that the teacher will want to look at the furniture before even picking up the phone to make an enquiry.  Here a colour picture can help.

What certainly does help - especially with a brochure - is to print on coloured paper.  Black print on a tinted background can give the impression of colour without the distraction of colour.

If you want to know about colour in detail there is a full article on the Theory of Direct Mail website.