Every direct response program could use a little
boost now and then. The following are some direct
mail tactics that have worked for me and may do the same for you.
Get personal
People love to see their name in print. A
personalized letter or offer tends to out pull a non-personalized one. A
personalized Johnson box gets a lot of attention. A personalized teaser on an
outer envelope can as well.
Slipping personalization into the body of the letter
or PS can sometimes lift your response but use it as you would a personal
letter, don’t go overboard.
Sign
of the times
The signature can also be a response lifter. When I
was at a large commercial firm we tested a blue signature vs. black and the
blue beat the control by 10%.
The signer of the letter is very important. One
client picked a famous person who was very popular at the time, didn’t seem to
lean left or right and was for the organization’s mission but the package
tanked. Why? Possibly because they didn’t believe the celebrity was writing to
them. We even tested down to the lift note only—this person just did not do
well for them at all.
So try the opposite approach. Go with someone highly
believable. A membership services person. Someone who would actually open mail they got from the reader. On the
commercial side we used a real person, made the package personal but
professional and highly believable.
On one such mailing we didn’t only use the person’s
signature. We wanted believability so we added a business card with his real
phone number. We had NO idea response would go through the roof. The employee’s
voice mailbox filled up in the first day of the mail in-home date. We had to give
him a new office phone number but took full advantage of the situation and had
him create an outgoing message on his old line that encouraged the person to
apply for the offer. All of the names and numbers left on voice mail were
handed off to outgoing telemarketing for follow-up. It was a big success on the
test and was rolled out as a control.
Faux
sure.
I always try to make the package look as personal as
possible.
Fake photocopy:
Some of the things that I’ve used
successfully include making that extra insert look photocopied by the signer just for you. It looks less than
perfect. And sometimes I’ll even add fold marks and darkened edges to make it
really look authentic.
I have also used a fake rubber
“copy” stamp on the pages to add to the effect.
Handwritten PS:
Sure there are handwriting fonts
but even the best ones look fake. Get the signer to write out the PS or that
fake post-it note by hand. If they can’t do it get someone with similar
handwriting to write it out, scan it and then
drop it into the letter in blue ink that matches ballpoint pen ink
Another thing that has worked is
faux postmarks—especially for a package that is supposed to be coming from overseas.
I use an airmail look to the carrier with faux indicias from other countries on
the back and a fake meter mark indicia, on the front. One thing I HAVE learned over the years is not
to make the meter mark so real that the Post Office sends you a cease and
desist order.
Heavy
Lifting:
Lift notes have been shown to lift response as much
as 10% over control. Now I know many of you have differing views on lift notes.
A lot of you think a buckslip (8.5 x 5.5 inches) works as a lift note and of
course it does. Yet it’s called a lift note and why? Because it lifts response. A true
lift note in my book is actually what some may call a double-buck folded (8.5 x
7 inches folded to 8.5 x 3.5 inches), so you actually have to lift the cover to read the inside. More
interactivity within the package can lead to a higher response rate.
Yes,
we’re involved
An involvement device is anything that involves the reader. Scratch-offs, Yes/No stickers that go on the reply device, benefit
inserts, stamps, questionnaires, surveys, games. puzzles, petitions, Post-it
notes, paper slide rule calculators or
multiple enclosures (why do you think those Publisher’s Clearing House packages
worked so well?) Envelopes that open
with a zip strip or have a unique way of opening, tabs that open like an Advent
calendar to reveal something inside.
These are all designed to get the reader to spend more time with your
package.
Speaking of envelopes
I know the
trend is to mail a plain carrier without a teaser but a good teaser can boost
your response. Tease them with what’s inside or tell them everything that’s
inside. I’ve used both to great success.
Take a look
at what you’re mailing. I’m betting just about all of you are mailing a lot of
#10 packages. If you are, what do you think everyone else is mailing? Between your competition and the power, cable
water and gas companies, mailboxes are filled with a pile of white #10,
standard left window envelopes.
Let’s
dominate the mail. Stand out, go oversized like a 6 x 9, #12 or #14, or
undersized, an A-6 or monarch size package will stand out from the crowd.
Try a
different paper stock. Brown kraft, canary, blue, green pink, purple. And full
color images on the envelope seem to be working right now but if everyone is
doing it, then it becomes noise and that calm, buff, closed-face monarch
envelope really stands out in a crowded mailbox.
I’ll leave
you with a final idea. Borrow from
the digital world, design a package that’s designed to get passed along the way
you might forward a truly interesting email.
Send the same
package to two different people in the same household with a different PS.
Perhaps something like “Hey Mrs. Sample, we’ve sent this same mailing to your
son Buddy Sample and we’re hoping you will both see just how much we want Buddy
to be a part of our Collegiate Curling Team.” You get the idea.
Give some of
these ideas a test in your program and tell me about it. Or yell at me if it
fails.
