‘Get personal’ when you next create your labels

1. Personalisation is very effective. For instance, previous research has found that using the recipient’s name on an envelope, rather than the word “recipient”, increases response rates from 12.8% to 20.8%.

2. Labels that have some relevance to the reader can also help grab attention. For example, we are more likely to pay attention to drink stimuli when we are thirsty. Consumers will more quickly notice a label with a bee on it, when they are looking for honey.

Research has shown that relevant visual cues improve efficiency. This can also be applied to other types of labels. An example of this is how warning labels can be improved by including words like ‘caution’ or an exclamation mark to show urgency.

Writing a warning label’s key word in the appropriate colour red was so effective at reducing the time taken to find it, that the word would have to be increased to twice the size when written in black to be as effective.

Personalisation and relevance can easily be applied to shipping labels. For example, in our study when a mailing envelope included the participant’s name, participants spent 11% longer looking at it than average and were 10% likelier than chance to look at it first.

Similarly, a face made the likelihood that people would look at that product’s label first 18% higher; and increased the time spent looking at an envelope’s label by 11%.

Think about ways you can add personalisation to your product and mailing labels. With Design & Print it’s really easy to edit your shipping labels with a customer’s name as you can edit each label individually. Once you have created an overall design, simply click on ‘edit one’ and one of the labels to change the name.

Whilst it may feel like it’s time-consuming, it literally only takes a few seconds to change each one and your customers will really notice the effort.