It’s the biggest problem in Direct Mail. How do you get people to open and read your letter? In this article, we’ll discuss some of the various techniques used.

The first thing you have to do is stand out in the mailbox. There are a lot of ways to do this.

An unusual size envelope can be a good attention getter. Using a 6×9 envelope, or a #9 instead of a #10 envelope will make your letter different. You will stick out from the crowd. You have to be careful in playing too much with size. Non-standard envelopes cost more. If you get too large, or make your sizes out of proportion, the USPS will charge you a non-automation penalty, or worse.

Everyone loves pictures. A cute cartoon, exciting photo, or even an unusual logo can sometimes be enough to catch your prospect’s eye and draw them in. Color is a close relative. While the right black and white photo can be just the dramatic touch you need, there are a lot more choices with color.

So you can play with size, and add photos. What about envelope color? A light blue or yellow envelope will certainly be different from most of what they’re looking at. While most colored envelopes are more expensive than white, they’re a lot cheaper than 4-color printing of photographs. A manila envelope (the tan “official mail” ones), can be effective too.

On the more artful side, there are a lot of things you can do to make your letter appear more “personal”. This can often be much cheaper than the bold techniques previously discussed. Using a handwriting font for the mailing address is a good start. If your mailer can apply pre-cancelled stamps instead of a postal indicia, that can help too. These allow you to have a stamp on the letter, but still pay the bulk postage rates. Selecting an invitation or greeting card style envelope can work well with this strategy.

Before you go too far, you need to make a critical decision. You must choose, up front, whether you’re going to go for the flashy or the subtle approach and stick to it. You can mix techniques some (perhaps using color with a handwriting font to make it look like an ink pen), but if you go too far, you’ll just turn off your prospect. That’s the biggest challenge. Finding the right balance between building interest and looking like a scrapbook (assuming you aren’t in the scrapbook business).

We hope this has given you some ideas. Remember, the best tool in your arsenal is your individuality. By using your own creativity, you can come up with something that will be truly different, and therefore effective.

Have fun!

What we do in these cases is switch to Standard Mail with drop shipping. The Standard Mail rates are lower, and by dropping the mail closer to its destination, we’re able to overcome the timing issues.

First, your piece has to qualify for Standard Mail. This means you can’t have any personal information inside, such as account balances. You also won’t get returns or forwarding services with Standard Mail without incurring additional charges.

Second, to gain a benefit, you must have a need for First Class style timing, and a piece that weighs more than one ounce. Alternately, a First Class flat or parcel would also gain by using this technique. If you’re not particularly interested in the timing benefits, you can just change to Standard Mail and realize a large savings anyway. By the use of pre-canceled stamps and other techniques, you can avoid the perception issues some associate with Standard Mail.

Once you’re past these hurdles, here’s how it works. We sort the mailing list for Standard Mail and identify geographic regions with large concentrations of mail. this can be an individual post office (DDU), a 3-digit zip Sectional Center Facility (SCF), or a regional Bulk Mail Center (BMC). Those destinations are then separated and forwarded to the appropriate center by truck or other carrier, or by Priority Mail sacks. This eliminates a lot of the sorting and travel time that would be incurred inside the USPS transportation system, and shortens the delivery window. The difference between the First Class and Standard Mail rates, plus discounts received by dropping into these centers results in charges that are about the same as the one ounce First Class rate. For a 2 or 3 ounce piece, this can be a substantial savings.

To illustrate the savings, one example customer had the habit of sending advertising letters in #10 envelopes weighing less than a pound by First Class. At current rates, their average postage per piece was 35 cents. When they shifted to a 6×9 envelope, with additional material weighing 2.5 ounces, the First Class rate would have been 60 cents! Their base postage for a Standard Mail letter weighing 3.3 ounces or less was 24 cents. This plus the shipping and processing charges, less the DBMC, DSCF and DDU discounts came to an average cost of 37 cents, a savings of 23 cents off the First Class rate. In all, they saved $6,325 off the postage they would have paid if they continued using First Class. Delivery times were equivalent and predictable as well.

Developing a mailing list by from your current client database is one of the best ways you can use direct mail. Even if you don’t already have the addresses, there are steps you can take to start capturing this information.

Sending a mailing to people that have done business with you in the past is the best way to get a high response rate. They already know who you are, hopefully had a good experience, and perhaps only need a reminder. A simple newsletter or promotional flyer can generate new interest in these old friends.

If you’re in retail, you may think you can’t develop a list. It can be more of a challenge. Most people won’t want to give out their address and other information. However, some will volunteer if you place a comment box, catalog request form, or newsletter signup sheet near your checkout. Another good technique is to use contests. We’ve all seen the boxes where you drop your paper to win a car or trip. A large percentage of folks will sign up if they have a chance to win something. You don’t have to spend a lot to do this either. We’ll talk about prize insurance and travel certificates in future articles, but a quick Google search will get you started.

The main issues you run into when creating your own mailing list are…

• Data entry
• Address format
• Address quality

If you don’t want to do the data entry yourself, there are several service bureaus that can handle the task. Hiring a professional may save you more time and money down the road with the other issues too.

The address format can mean the way you store the list. If you don’t have a list manager program Excel is good. Avoid using Word to enter the list. When entering the records, you should use the available fields in the same way. Store names as First Name, Last Name on every address, or the other way around. Just do it the same way all the time once you decide how you want it. It is very important to have separate fields for City, State and Zip. Most of the time, you can get away with one address line. If you are building a business to business (B2B) mailing list, you will probably want to have a place for company name and job title.

Address quality begins will good data entry, but it doesn’t stop there. Once you have your list prepared, you should have it run through NCOA (National Change of Address) and LACS (Locatable Address Correction Service). Most classes of mail require you to do this within 95 days of a mailing anyway, but it’s in your interest to have the address as correct as possible. If you use First Class Mail, you should edit your list for any returned mail or address corrections you receive. The more accurate your list is, the less you’ll pay for postage, and the more likely you are to reach your target audience.

Getting started in developing your own list may seem like a lot of work. Once you get started, you’ll find the benefits far outweigh the costs. In the end, you’ll know more about your customers, be better able to reach and serve them, and you might even develop a mailing list you could sell yourself.

By way of example, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the related tourism  industries are fairly close to our location. January and February are extremely down times in their market. Here, we’ll outline some of the ways we’ve developed to help businesses use Direct Mail to combat this.

 Membership cards are particularly well suited to this market. They allow these vendors to offer a “locals discount” without having to risk the tourists getting in on the act. By mailing the cards to local customers, they control the distribution, build affinity and loyalty with their neighbors, and boost their revenue when they need it most.

Mailings of time-limited coupons to the same customer list is also useful and effective. The expiration date has the added benefit of limiting the discount to the off months.

The use of specialty mailing lists and/or highly tuned selections on standard lists can be another good way to speed up a slow sales period. Often partnerships are formed between complementary companies to co-sponsor a mailing. For example, a winery might want to do a mailing to the subscribers of Wine Connoisseur magazine. By teaming up with other wineries they can offer a “wine tour”. They also couple this with a special promotion from a nearby hotel. Now, the  cost of the mailing has been split four ways, and the reasons for the consumer to be interested  are multiplied. Add in fun passports and prizes, and you’ve created an event!

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Play around with them and see what you can  come up with. Remember the main strengths of Direct Mail…

 Targeted Audience – You mail to the exact people you want to reach
 Controlled Geography – Effort and expense isn’t wasted on people who can’t reach you.
 Measurable Results – Coupons, discount cards and offer codes tel you where they came from.
 Tangible Presence – You’re giving them something to touch, read and hang onto.

A lot of people have been writing the obituary of Direct Mail for a while now. They say email is going to take its place. While email has many useful features, and is quite handy for some purposes, Direct Mail is much more effective in the way it works, and in the impression it creates.

I don’t know about you, but electronic mail marketing messages have to cross a lot of hurdles to reach me. Our email server has a spam filter that rejects messages based on the address and other criteria. After that, my mail reader program examines the content, and dumps most of the rest in a junk mail folder. Of what’s left, I just scan the subject lines, and read very little of it.

If I receive unsolicited email from a company, it’s very likely to create a negative impression, rather than a positive one. Then. there are so many software compatibility  issues that can make your creative message look like trash. You’re left with the choice of making boring, plain text messages, or taking a chance that your intended client can’t read what you’ve sent.

On top of all that are the legal issues. It hasn’t happened often, but people have been prosecuted and convicted of violating the CanSPAM act.

On the other hand, with Direct Mail Marketing, all those filters are bypassed, and I have to hold the piece in my hand, read it, and decide if I’m interested or not. If the outside of the letter, self mailer or postcard catches my attention, I’ll open it and look into it further. The copy and art on the outside of the piece can easily have just as much information and “flash” as the entire message in an email. Once I’ve opened the letter, I can have much more text and graphics to fully explain my product or service. Many people, even “computer people”, simply like having an item they can hold, examine and save.

 Mailing lists are a big advantage for direct mail as well. A physical address is much more permanent and easier to verify than an email address. Mailing lists also allow the targeting of customers by demographics, magazine subscriptions and other special interests.

 All in all, email is a good way to keep in touch with existing customers. As a way to find new customers, direct mail is hard to beat.