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.

 

Other tips to help you get your direct mail opened - guaranteed!

With direct mail often delivering a 1-3% response rate or even less, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that you’re using a targeted mailing list and have a well-written, attractive letter. Without these things, you’re in for a disappointing campaign and maybe even losses rather than profits.

There are other steps you can take, however, to increase the rate at which your envelopes are opened and read therefore increasing the number of people who will respond. With direct mail, your first impression is the appearance of the envelope. When an envelope looks unusual and is personalized, the recipient is more likely to take a second look. Also, you want to make sure that it stands out – consumers have seen it all before from the pre-approved credit card applications to bland postcards.

From my experience, working with clients from many different industries, there are five tried and true rules that I follow with each campaign.

1)    Use a Live Stamp

Postage meters may be the easiest way to prepare your mail for delivery, but it is not going to get you the best response. Spending a little extra time to actually stamp each and every envelope will make it look like you aren’t mass-producing direct mailers or ‘junk mail’. It will seem as though you drove all the way to the post office to pick up the stamps and then spent a while focusing on each envelope and the impression you were making.

2)    Never use an inkjet printer

Many high volume mailers use high-speed inkjet printers to spit out their direct mail quickly and reliably. But the key problem here is that many high volume mailers use it! People have seen it before and can tell the difference when you use a nice quality printer that may take a little more time.

3)    Personalized Return Address Labels

Again, it may take time or a few extra cents to stick these on each envelope, but the recipient will appreciate it. Taking time for each customer makes it appear as though you are thankful for their business. Also – think about it – how many direct mail pieces you have received lately that had a personalized return address label? Not many. Most have their name printed in the upper left hand corner, a Pitney Bowes stamp in the upper right hand corner, and a little clear hole in the middle where your address is. They couldn’t even take the time to print your address on the envelope! If you are using your business return address, try putting an individual name instead of the business name.  This really makes the piece look more personal.

4)    Use an outrageous, individualized design on the envelope

The days of the plain white envelopes are over as are the days of a little logo in the corner. You have got to go crazy, be outrageously creative, get someone to notice your envelope. Make your envelope the first thing the recipient notices when they open the mailbox. How do you do it? Use a wild color, draw some ‘unplanned’ doodles on the outside, and make it known that you’re not the average company and this is not the average piece of direct mail. Check out the product Doodleopes® for some examples of what I’m talking about.

5)    Use a handwriting font to write the recipient’s address

How many times do I have to say it? Personalize the envelope! Make it look like you spent a lot of time! Find a believable (not fake-looking) hand-written font so it appears as though you handwrote their address on the front of the envelope. This way, your direct mail piece will look like it came from a friend. If you’ve followed the rest of my tips, the recipient will be so curious as to which company spent so much time personalizing the letter for them that they’ll be excited to open it. And if they don’t need the service right now, you’ll have made such an impact that they may just save your direct mail piece on their refrigerator for next time.