What do you see?

“Vision is currently the best-understood mechanism of the human brain”.

But what does this mean for marketers?

It means that eye tracking technology can be used for direct mail pieces to test performance in advance of full investment of printing and postage. If DM is part of your marketing mix, you can have the preliminary design run through the Predictive Eye Tracking software (PET) to test for visual path, complexity and focus.

Depending on the results provided by the software, you can make changes to your piece to optimize the effectiveness of your campaign.

Canada Post has invested in this testing and recently reported some positive findings.

If in the past you have done some DM with lack luster results, this may be the time to revisit this option and put the PET model to the test. Using PET, however, does not replace the need for sound strategic planning on target audience and segmentation, optimum timing, message and delivery of the DM piece within an integrated campaign.

DM has the potential to hit all of our senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, and emotion), which in turn drives behaviour. By connecting through these physical attributes, there is a higher recall of brand and call to action.

How will you be communicating with your audience in the near future?