Elevate Your Postcard Campaign with Specialty Print Effects

Postcards can be a powerful, direct marketing tool, but standing out in a crowded mailbox requires more than just great design. Adding specialty print effects to your postcards can transform your direct mail campaign into a high-end, tactile experience that converts.

Preferred Direct offers a variety of specialty print finishes that can add a premium feel to your direct mail postcard campaigns. Let’s take a look at some of the options available to enhance your next print campaign.

Metallic Inks – The Budget-Friendly Option to Foiling

Metallic inks contain reflective particles that mimic the look of foil without the need for expensive substrates or foil stamping methods.

These shimmering inks can enhance your premium postcard campaigns, providing an upscale, polished look. We suggest pairing metallic inks with rich, jewel-toned colors like navy, burgundy or black. It helps the metallic effect POP off the background and creates a more luxury feel.

Design inspiration:

• High-end product promotions (jewelry, luxury fashion, automotive)
• Elegant event invitations or VIP offers
• Exclusive club memberships and premium service announcements

Fluorescent Inks – A Bright Way to Catch Attention

Fluorescent inks are formulated with specialized pigments, which absorb and emit UV light to provide a glowing, neon effect.

We suggest using these inks sparingly to draw the viewers’ eyes to important information or call-to-actions (CTA’s). These bright colors are especially useful for sales advertisements or limited time offers and can give the appearance of a personalized, hand-written postcard.

Design inspiration:

• Limited-edition or limited time offers for dealerships and realtors
• High-end fitness or beauty brands with a vibrant, energetic brand voice
• Informational finance and legal postcards for clients

Tactile Coatings – A Touch of Luxury

Tactile coatings provide a textured finish to a print surface, such as soft touch coatings, grit coatings, matte varnish, embossing, and more. The most popular option is soft-touch, which creates a velvety feel across the postcard.

Add this as a flood coating to stand out immediately when recipients handle their mail pieces or add as a spot coating to draw attention to details like car leather.

Design inspiration:

• Luxury fashion, cosmetics, and high-end electronics
• Premium real estate listings
• Special event invitations

Specialty Coatings – Add Contrast and Shine

Specialty coatings are used to give visual interest to printed pieces. Popular choices include high-gloss and matte, used alone or together to create visual depth in high contrast designs.

Our favorite approach to specialty coating is giving rich, vibrant images a boost with gloss coatings and create a striking contrast with a super matte coating in non-image areas. This will add a sheen over key visuals to grab attention, while leaving the key text areas easy to read.

Design inspiration:

• Premium travel and hospitality promotions
• Upscale real estate and interior design showcases
• Gourmet food and beverage branding

A successful direct mail campaign starts with reaching your audience, but the real success lies in capturing their attention and inspiring action. Specialty print effects are a great way to add memorable details that elevate your postcards and improve your campaign ROI. Preferred Direct is proud to have recently installed a new HP Digital Press capable of running high-end, specialty printing inks and coatings for your next luxury campaign. Contact our team today for expert advice on your next campaign and explore our specialty print and postcard options.