Every day we come home, get our mail and sort through for the bills and any letters from friends and family. It’s pretty much a routine we have…you already know what you’re looking for. So what makes a direct mail piece stand out so that we don’t rule them out and throw them in the trash?
The envelope is the first thing we see. If it doesn’t immediately catch your eye or looks questionable, 9 out of 10 times it goes “bye-bye”.
Now the question is: how do we draw them in? We all know the old saying don’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case, you have to! The envelope is the first impression, so you have to hook that fish and reel it in. The idea is to at least get them to read the letter inside.
Some great ideas to boost your envelope appeal:
1. Use unique colors for the envelope itself. Depending on your product or service, use colors that pop. Colors can captivate and stir emotion. For example, when promoting to teenage girls, test using colors like hot pink.
2. Create urgency by using a call to action like “Limited-time only” and “Look inside for FREE _______”.
3. Experiment with different size envelopes and test which one works better.
Here’s an example of a successful mail piece that we created.
The objective of this direct mail piece for the Philadelphia zoo was to increase memberships. The strategy was to create multi-format mailings featuring the benefits of membership. The end the results, we were able to increase response rates, because of new creative and new list selection.
Funny enough Mike our VP and Creative Director, STILL wears the “I Belong in the Zoo” t-shirt that was featured on the piece.
About Lois GellerLois Geller is President and Owner of Lois Geller Marketing Group and headed agencies in New York and Toronto. Lois taught Direct Marketing at NYU. She’s the author of five marketing books, including Response: The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing. Follow @loisgeller on Twitter.
Sorry, when I receive something looking like that in the mail, it immediately goes in the trash.
I hope we do get another zoo client. Not sure we made any money on the other one, but we all did love visiting the animals!
Lois, even though I receive way more electronic mail than I do printed mail, I still can’t wait to see what the mailman brings each day. “Did you get the mail?” or “Has the mail come yet” are questions you’ll hear over and over at our house on a daily basis. Since the amount of paper-mail we received has decreased considerably over the years due to our own interests in doing more online, it’s actually a pleasure to see what gets delivered and what stands out. You’re so right — the envelope makes all the difference. How fortunate we are today to be able to print color digitally today than compared to the first colored envelope mailing I did in the 90′s. It worked back then and I agree with you that color works now, too. By the way, I also used to work with zoo people and loved hearing about their direct mail and online outreach. Their animal stories were good, too.
Zoo people are the best! I hope more zoos will track you down. You get them!