Steer Clear of Common Direct Mail Characteristics

Did you know the average person only receives 1.5 pieces of personal mail a week compared to the 10.8 pieces of direct mail they receive?

Naturally, then, a person would be more excited to open a piece of personal mail than mail from the local restaurant or contracting company.

As marketers, however, it is our job to try to make direct mail feel more like personal mail than just an advertisement. When our computers catalog certain e-mails as junk mail, they use distinct characteristics of an advertisement e-mail. In the same way, recipients of direct mail mentally analyze and catalog each piece of mail they receive daily. You want your direct mail piece to not contain the common characteristics of a piece of ‘junk mail’.

Here are some common characteristics of direct mail and how to avoid them:

1)    A plain, white envelope

How to avoid: Draw something crazy on the envelope. Make it colorful. Make it look personalized. For my clients, I make it look like I have drawn all over the envelope that they are receiving. It looks like time went into it and that everything was hand-drawn, not printed.

2)    Company XYZ listed as the sender

How to avoid: Use a personalized return label. Write a person who works at the company’s name instead of the company’s name. It will stick out like a sore thumb as a piece of direct mail if the company’s name is listed in the corner. When you use a person’s name, the recipient will be more curious as to who this person is who sent them a piece of mail; with XYZ company, they immediately know why they were sent the mail and simultaneously realize they don’t want to waste their time opening or reading it.

3)    An automated stamp in the upper right hand corner

How to avoid: Pitney-Bowes automated stamps are great for saving time, but they are not great for getting people to open your direct mail. No one feels special when they receive a piece of mail that has been rushed through a machine. Sit down and put real stamps on all of your direct mail – it will work wonders toward making this person feel like you spent time on them and appreciate their future patronage.

4)    Address printed in a black Times New Roman font

How to avoid: It is incredibly important that when you send out direct mail, you print the recipient’s address in a handwriting font. Find a believable handwriting font and use it on all your direct mail envelopes. Have you ever gotten a piece of personal mail that had your address printed in a boring black font on the front? Most likely not. With a handwriting font, it looks like the letter came from a friend.

If you follow these tips I have just provided, your letter will definitely look less like a direct mailer and more like a piece of personal mail. People will be more excited to receive your letter and many times more likely to actually open it. There are more characteristics of direct mail that I haven’t mentioned, but it’s best to avoid as many as you possibly can.