Direct mail can be an extremely effective promotional tool when properly used. Unfortunately, too often it is poorly targeted, leading people to call it “junk mail.” As an example, for years I was on a mailing list aimed at selling technical products to engineers and scientists.
Normally this mail would have gone straight into the garbage. But since my husband, John Hayes, is an engineer, I passed these pieces on to him. In fact, he even bought a product from one of these mailings.
So when his company recently began looking for a way to promote a newly developed software application called EnvelopeDesign, written specifically for the envelope manufacturing industry, he asked me what I thought about using direct mail.
Small target market
For a number of reasons, direct mail made a lot of sense. Direct mail works best when your target market is small. A company with between 100 to 5,000 prospects may find this number too large for personal sales calls, but too small to be reached efficiently using mass media vehicles.
In the case of envelope manufacturers, there are only about 200 in all of North America who are good candidates for John's software, and they are very spread out. Most of the potential customers for this software are in the United States, too far apart for in-person calls, but too small a group to reach through mass advertising.
Target market identifiable
Direct mail also works well when you can identify individuals in your target market by name and you can either develop or purchase a list of these people and their addresses.
Since most of the larger envelope manufacturers belong to the Envelope Manufacturer’s Association, it was easy to obtain current names, titles and mailing addresses and then create a database of prospects.
Objective is to get action
All of us want our target market to do something – make a phone call, mail a reply card, or visit a web site. Direct mail is a great way to stimulate action.
While the ultimate objective for John was to eventually convince customers to buy his EnvelopeDesign software, he knew it would be a long sell cycle. What he really needed was a list of qualified prospects so he could more narrowly focus his sales efforts.
To create that list, he offered a free demo CD of EnvelopeDesign. His measure of success for the direct mail campaign would be how many CD requests were received.
Response rates for direct mail are notoriously low. The industry averages are between one and three per cent. Nevertheless, even with a low response, direct mail was still more cost efficient than other methods to find qualified prospects and provide a satisfactory return on investment.
Pushing the envelope
The first challenge in direct mail is to get people to open your envelope. Studies show that the average person takes less than seven seconds to decide to open an envelope and remove the contents.
Direct mail designers often use lots of colour, graphics and teaser copy to ensure envelope are opened. But it’s important to keep your target market in mind. In John's case, he was dealing with companies that make envelopes, many of which are used for direct mail packages. These people are more critical observers of the mail they receive than typical consumer or business audiences.
With that in mind, a very simple design was used, with the EnvelopeDesign logo at the top left of an oversized white envelope. But the mailing label on the envelope was shaped like a small envelope blank (basically what an envelope looks like before it is folded and glued.) It showed fold lines, no ink areas and glue areas, of great interest to those in the industry, and all are features provided by the software being promoted. The mailing label was imprinted with the name and address of each person from the database.
Hot spots
There are a number of “hot spots” that the eye is drawn to on a direct mail letter. Readership can be increased as well by other copywriting and design techniques, many more than can be described in the scope of this column.
Probably the two most important hot spots on the letter are the space just above the salutation (called the Johnson Box) and the postscript just below the signature. Both try to create interest and convince people to act. Since consumers know they will find the most important point of the letter repeated in the postscript (or P.S.), many save time by going directly to this spot.
For John's direct mail, a large envelope blank was used instead of more traditional sheet of letterhead. The copy was kept short since the target market is busy and would not read a lengthy letter. Both the Johnson Box and the P.S. were used to full advantage to get across key points.
The design of the entire package was unconventional. Even the product information and testimonials were printed on different shapes and sizes of envelope blanks. Since the software being promoted designs envelopes, these pieces were especially meaningful as they also illustrated a bit about how the software works.
It’s too early to report the final results since the package was only mailed in late September. However, the interim response rate has far exceeded the industry average and is already in the double-digit range. For this project, direct mail was exactly what was needed to push the envelope and the EnvelopeDesign software.
Normally this mail would have gone straight into the garbage. But since my husband, John Hayes, is an engineer, I passed these pieces on to him. In fact, he even bought a product from one of these mailings.
So when his company recently began looking for a way to promote a newly developed software application called EnvelopeDesign, written specifically for the envelope manufacturing industry, he asked me what I thought about using direct mail.
Small target market
For a number of reasons, direct mail made a lot of sense. Direct mail works best when your target market is small. A company with between 100 to 5,000 prospects may find this number too large for personal sales calls, but too small to be reached efficiently using mass media vehicles.
In the case of envelope manufacturers, there are only about 200 in all of North America who are good candidates for John's software, and they are very spread out. Most of the potential customers for this software are in the United States, too far apart for in-person calls, but too small a group to reach through mass advertising.
Target market identifiable
Direct mail also works well when you can identify individuals in your target market by name and you can either develop or purchase a list of these people and their addresses.
Since most of the larger envelope manufacturers belong to the Envelope Manufacturer’s Association, it was easy to obtain current names, titles and mailing addresses and then create a database of prospects.
Objective is to get action
All of us want our target market to do something – make a phone call, mail a reply card, or visit a web site. Direct mail is a great way to stimulate action.
While the ultimate objective for John was to eventually convince customers to buy his EnvelopeDesign software, he knew it would be a long sell cycle. What he really needed was a list of qualified prospects so he could more narrowly focus his sales efforts.
To create that list, he offered a free demo CD of EnvelopeDesign. His measure of success for the direct mail campaign would be how many CD requests were received.
Response rates for direct mail are notoriously low. The industry averages are between one and three per cent. Nevertheless, even with a low response, direct mail was still more cost efficient than other methods to find qualified prospects and provide a satisfactory return on investment.
Pushing the envelope
The first challenge in direct mail is to get people to open your envelope. Studies show that the average person takes less than seven seconds to decide to open an envelope and remove the contents.
Direct mail designers often use lots of colour, graphics and teaser copy to ensure envelope are opened. But it’s important to keep your target market in mind. In John's case, he was dealing with companies that make envelopes, many of which are used for direct mail packages. These people are more critical observers of the mail they receive than typical consumer or business audiences.
With that in mind, a very simple design was used, with the EnvelopeDesign logo at the top left of an oversized white envelope. But the mailing label on the envelope was shaped like a small envelope blank (basically what an envelope looks like before it is folded and glued.) It showed fold lines, no ink areas and glue areas, of great interest to those in the industry, and all are features provided by the software being promoted. The mailing label was imprinted with the name and address of each person from the database.
Hot spots
There are a number of “hot spots” that the eye is drawn to on a direct mail letter. Readership can be increased as well by other copywriting and design techniques, many more than can be described in the scope of this column.
Probably the two most important hot spots on the letter are the space just above the salutation (called the Johnson Box) and the postscript just below the signature. Both try to create interest and convince people to act. Since consumers know they will find the most important point of the letter repeated in the postscript (or P.S.), many save time by going directly to this spot.
For John's direct mail, a large envelope blank was used instead of more traditional sheet of letterhead. The copy was kept short since the target market is busy and would not read a lengthy letter. Both the Johnson Box and the P.S. were used to full advantage to get across key points.
The design of the entire package was unconventional. Even the product information and testimonials were printed on different shapes and sizes of envelope blanks. Since the software being promoted designs envelopes, these pieces were especially meaningful as they also illustrated a bit about how the software works.
It’s too early to report the final results since the package was only mailed in late September. However, the interim response rate has far exceeded the industry average and is already in the double-digit range. For this project, direct mail was exactly what was needed to push the envelope and the EnvelopeDesign software.