Margie Dana

Say It with PURLs & QRs

Standard mailer pic

Recently I got a slick mailer from Standard Finishing Systems, a local company in the graphic arts manufacturing industry. They’re going to exhibit at the print industry’s largest annual trade show, Print 2013. It takes place next month in Chicago (I’ll be there delivering two sessions, BTW).

What interested me about this mailer? Its use of a PURL and a QR code. Most of the time, in my humble opinion, PURLs (Personalized URLs) are lame. They bring you to a page on a web site that gives you nothing more than a bit of info about the firm and why you “must” do business with them. In these instances, a PURL is a waste of money – nothing clever, nothing inspiring, nothing worth seeing.

Ho. Hum.

But I loved what Standard did with this PURL. It brought me to a page that showed pre-generated contact information for me (which I corrected, since they still showed my company as Print Buyers International). The copy asked a few key questions, such as whether I planned on attending the Chicago show and, if so, did I want to stop by their booth for a demo.

This page also linked me to several videos that demonstrated different pieces of their equipment. The videos are high quality and quite zippy, plus they use great music. It’s a terrific use of videos to showcase a manufacturer’s strengths.

While editing the contact form I landed on, I supplied my new email address. Within two minutes I received a thank you email from Standard, for my interest in their upcoming show.

As a writer I pay extreme attention to email content. This one was letter perfect: not a typo or bit of dicey grammar anywhere. Short and to the point, very professional. Two thumbs up from this marcom expert!

Postcard pic 2 for blog

On the inside of this mailer I noticed a small QR code, encouraging me to scan it with my smart phone to see video previews of their featured products. So I did. The results were equally impressive – great information, interesting video content, and totally viewable on my iPhone. Much of the time I am not impressed by QR codes I scan. This one was well done.

Using PURLs and/or QR codes to engage your audience in a direct mail campaign is smart marketing if you do it correctly. It worked on this piece because the “payoff” in both cases was brainy. They didn’t lead us to lame landing pages. They offered good quality content, including videos that were professionally done.

For this mailer, it wasn’t the creative or the offer that pulled me in. It was the one-two marketing punch made possible by a PURL and a QR code.

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With the PURL and QR code, Standard effectively engaged me, and the campaign was expertly implemented. The combination of offline (direct mail piece) and online (PURL’s customized landing page plus the QR code’s landing page) was very powerful.

I fully expect to hear from Standard again. A company that executes a solid integrated marketing campaign to connect with its audience before a major event will surely keep in touch. Will it be an email message or another direct mail piece? Perhaps a phone call. I’m putting my money on an email. What do you think?

The Right Way to Do a Postcard and a QR Code

A few weeks ago I wrote a Print Tip about a postcard that got it all wrong – too many messages + a cluttered design = failed attempt at impressing me. I tossed it.

Last week I got another postcard altogether. It, too, is a jumbo (6 x 9). This time, whoever was behind it got it right. I’m sharing photos (front and back) to show you why I’m singling it out. It’s from AMSP (Association of Marketing Service Providers), who sent out this card to promote their annual conference in June, in San Diego.

The key message is simple and direct (TWO THUMBS UP, GUYS!). The copy on side one is short and intriguing: “What’s Next? Find out June 25 – 28, 2013. At the bottom is the event info (name, dates, venue, city and state) and the marketer’s logo.

One thing in particular works really well on this side of the postcard: the main type is reversed out of the full-color photo. Really attention-grabbing.

The flip side (address side) also keeps it clean and simple – with jumbo type that’s laid out in an atypical, quirky manner: the type is flush against the top and left edge of the card. Intentional or not, it works. I noticed.

The colors are pleasing and fresh (navy blue and an aqua blue, with bold black text for the “Be Ready for What’s Next” line on this side of the card.

And there, nestled below this copy is a 1” square QR code with these red instructions: Scan for a chance to win a free registration!

So I did! I wanted to test this code and see what it offered. It brings you to a page asking for basic contact information. Short, sweet and simple. I filled it in and am crossing my fingers I win the free registration. (I was in San Diego once, speaking to an audience of print customers. What a gorgeous place!)

This postcard is a terrific example of how to do it right: a handsome direct mail campaign designed to do one thing: get me to scan the QR code to win a ticket to an annual conference. Had it been a mess of a postcard, or had the QR code not been designed well, I wouldn’t have bothered.

Congrats, AMSP! Hope this postcard is a huge success for you. Their website, BTW, is http://amsp.org.

Make Your Marketing Message Shipshape

A direct mail piece has a very short window to grab my attention – seconds, literally. Either I’m hooked and want to read more, or I’m totally unimpressed and toss it.

In the past I’ve written on this subject but have always singled out production elements like paper, finishing techniques, design, content, or the size and shape of a particular package.

All of these elements matter. One can be featured effectively to get my attention on a particular piece of mail. And admittedly, what grabs me might not grab you.

Lately, I’ve received a couple of mail pieces that got my attention for a different reason – and not in a good way.

I’m talking about marketing messages that are messy. On a few pieces in last month’s mail, marketers were attempting to throw everything at me all at once, on tiny pieces of real estate.

For instance, there was so much content crammed onto a jumbo postcard that I was left scratching my head. What are they trying to tell me and sell me? My eyes darted right to left, top to bottom. I flipped the card over to try and figure out what the message was. I was confused and annoyed.

Someone in this printing/mailing/marketing/fulfillment company must have decided to produce one postcard to mass mail to their entire database. They used this little vehicle to tell us everything they can do.

The content on this messy postcard includes multiple headlines and subheads, a bulleted ‘what we do’ list, multicolor graphics in a chart (sort of), and another photo that I’ve seen used in this industry too many times already. Some key copy is laid out in such a way that it’s nearly impossible to read. Enough already. I cry uncle.

I want to blame the designer but know that he or she was probably given all of this content and told to deal with it.

Too much information on a direct mail piece is a waste of resources and can damage your reputation. If you’re using direct mail (or email) to market your business in a generic way to a broad audience, pick one message at a time and market that. Do a series of mailings. Get the best writer and designer you can. Boil the heck out of what you want to promote for each direct mail piece. Hit us between the eyes with one powerful message. Make me remember you for all the right reasons. Send me something beautifully crafted.

The content, the design, and the delivery vehicle must support one another when you produce a direct mail piece, and when they’re in sync, the piece will lift your message high up over the heads of the all the junk I get fed daily.

Saying Sayonara to Print

It burns me up. Preprinted on my latest Starbucks “Sweet 15” card is this message:

“This may be your last postcard. Starting 10/16/12 your rewards will load digitally right onto your Card, and we’ll notify you by email when you’ve earned one. Verify your email so you don’t miss a drink. Starbucks.com/rewards”

As a Starbucks Gold Card holder, I’ve been getting the telltale black-and-gold postcards every time I’ve earned a free tall drink. Amidst all of the junk mail that pours into my home, this little 4 ¼ x 6” card never ever gets lost. I cherish it and proudly carry it to my local Starbucks to reclaim my free drink.

Now that the company has decided to no longer print and mail these postcards and to send me an email instead, I guarantee I’ll miss or lose track of these offers. They win. I lose.

Don’t they realize that I get 200 – 300 emails every day of the week? And that 90% are unsolicited spam? And that once my emails fall ‘below the fold’ on my monitor, I often lose track of them?

On the contrary, an iconic little postcard never gets lost. I perch it on my kitchen counter each and every time, a visual reminder when I head out the door for a coffee run.

Am I making too much out of this new policy? Maybe. Am I showing my age? Probably. But my two computers, my smartphone and my iPad are choking with emails. For certain messages, I prefer print.

Yes, Starbucks is surely saving millions (mostly on postage, I daresay, not on printing costs). But I keep reading that consumers are increasingly demanding the personalization of their content as well as how they want to consume it. This consumer wants her Tall-Pike-with-Room reward notices on a simple, 2-color postcard.

The postcards set Starbucks apart. As Dana Carvey’s Church Lady used to say on SNL, “Well isn’t that special?” Yup. Quite.

Replacing the postcards with emails? Not so much.

When Real Mail Looks Like Junk

I came really close to throwing out this piece of mail that came to the house. I totally thought it was junk mail, and had I not hesitated at a snippet of copy on the bottom, it would’ve been trashed – and maybe our son would’ve lost all opportunity to have his picture in his high school yearbook.

To me, it had “junk” written all over it. It’s a 6” x 9” envelope with a couple of windows. The artwork on the envelope was particularly uninspiring: top-to-bottom photos of strangers. It didn’t look like a solicitation for a high school yearbook photo. It looked like a solicitation for singles seeking romance. Addressed to our son, the about-to-be high school senior, it didn’t impress me as personal, urgent or 1^st class. Au contraire.

But that little bit of copy across the bottom stopped me after I’d opened the cabinet that houses our trash can and was within seconds of depositing it there: Your Official Yearbook Appointment from Brookline High School.

Oops. Saved from certain death.

Here’s the sort of direct mail I open first and/or pay immediate attention to:

[list style=”bullet” color=”pink”]

Hand addressed
Hand stamped
Checks I’m expecting (and every now and then, those I’m not!)
Bills (reluctantly, I admit)
Packages I’m expecting
Packages I’m not (there’s something about packages)
Something from someone I know well (family, friends, personal acquaintances)
Magazines that publish something I’ve written
Special offers from publications I love but haven’t subscribed to. Yet.
Obvious gifts

[/list]

I’m 110% influenced by the design and message on a piece of mail (the way I’m getting more particular about the look of an email: some I never open; some I always read). Gorgeous paper, an elegant and/or edgy design, smart use of space, clever copy, one terrific offer, wonderful typography, a sense of urgency – all of these elements work together to get me to open a piece of mail.

This piece was neither elegant nor intriguing. Evidently, many other parents of seniors had the same reaction, because about a week after receiving this envelope, I got an email from the high school. All parents of seniors did. It basically said something like this: Yes, it was an official mailing by the company contracted to take your child’s yearbook photo. Yes, you can reschedule if you missed the date indicated inside the packet, or send in your own photos.

And I think the school missed the boat. They should have let us parents know ahead of time to expect this mailing in early August.

What do you think? Is it just me, or would you have (nearly) tossed this envelope? What makes you open a piece of direct mail?

The REAL Value of Direct Mail

h3>By Larry Raff

How coincidental is this? Last week I wrote about two different but very effective pieces of direct mail that I got at home (and loved), and within days, I was emailed a terrific blog post by Larry Raff, a nonprofit development consultant and president and principal of Copley Raff, Inc.

This post struck such a loud chord with me about the power of direct mail, that I had to share it. Enjoy!

________________________________________________________________________________________

The traditional (and frankly easiest) way to evaluate a direct mail program is to determine net revenue and the number of donors you keep, gain, and lose. A mature and well managed program will invest in acquisition, end the year with more donors and, if you are really good, achieve an overall higher average gift to boot. Results are evaluated annually or semi-annually to inform the next budget cycle strategy. If this is your approach to valuing your mail program you will be challenged to sell greater investment in the program to your boss… especially these days.

Consider taking a longer, more detailed, and sophisticated view of direct mail value. While all of the above is obviously important, it is important to acknowledge that “unexpected” windfalls, such as significant bequests, are often from longtime $25 direct mail donors. These are the ultimate rewards from a regular mail solicitation program that keeps your mission and need for philanthropy in front of your lower profile and often overlooked donors and stakeholders.

Assuming that gifts like these are rarely direct-mail-driven ignores a striking reality: your donor file contains wealthy people who give you – and many other organizations – money regularly. Even billionaires write $100 checks! The size of their gifts may not elevate them to your attention, but it is your job to find those high net worth donors hiding in your file and to do something about them.

Stories abound about the gift officer who picked up the phone to thank a donor for his/her large mail gift or loyal giving and ended up with a new friend, a larger donor, and sometimes a new major
donor. Here are some key questions for consideration in regards to direct mail and fundraising:
[list style=”bullet” color=”pink”]

Should the $2.5 million gift made by a $1,000 direct mail donor five years after her initial, $25 response to an acquisition letter, be “credited” to direct mail?
What about the $1 million campaign gift from a donor referred to your group by one of your low dollar mail donors?
And what about those bequests?

[/list]

The correct answer to all the above is “YES!” But of course, let’s also be careful to credit these gifts to the organization as a whole: to all the programs that touched the donor. The profession of fundraising will be able to achieve its greatest success when all development folks come out of their job-title silos and take a collaborative view on performance. And in this context, direct mail undeniably sets up and contributes to major and planned giving success!

A properly integrated development office will identify these targeted mail donors through wealth screening and has the staff to make personal contact with them and plumb the potential to elevate them to greater generosity and involvement. The annual giving officers are central to feeding the major gift pipeline, and the direct mail program gives them “grist for the mill”.

If your in-house mail program is not growing net revenue and increasing the pool of active donors from year to year, you should consider bringing in an expert to help turn things around. Whether you hire a dedicated staff specialist or an experienced direct response consultant, you need someone who can look beyond the typical metrics that define mediocrity, and offer integrated wisdom and technique to ensure that direct mail becomes an effective and productive incubator for your major and planned gift donor portfolio.

And here’s the silver lining: You can now re-task and retrain the annual giving staff (formerly assigned to direct mail) to take personal engagement to the next level, meet with prospective major donors, and ask for larger gifts. This is why we call it “development” and not simply “fundraising.”

Your takes:

The true value of your direct mail program far exceeds the number of dollars and donors generated per each campaign.
Your best and next gift just might come from a regular, but under the radar, direct mail donor. It's time to re-examine who should be on your prospect radar.
Consider bringing in direct mail expertise to realign, integrate, and optimize your direct mail program. Dollar for dollar, it could be one of the wisest investments you make.

This blog post points out the value not only in a strategic direct mail campaign for fundraising, but also in getting professional expertise in designing and measuring your campaigns. Well said!

For more information about Larry’s company, Copley Raff, and to read more of his blog posts, please visit http://www.copleyraff.com.

Two Direct Mail Pieces Catch My Eye

ur son Jacob is a high school junior; therefore, he’s getting lots of direct mail pieces from colleges and universities all over the U.S. Many of these pieces come from schools we’ve visited (and to which he’s considering applying), although he’s clearly in some database (College Board, perhaps?) that’s generating tons of mail from lots of other schools.

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I love looking at these pieces. He only seems interested in stuff from schools at the top of his list. To be honest, J’s not interested in mail in general. He’s getting his information elsewhere (web sites, peers, counselors, Facebook). I know many parents whose children have a different reaction – they do take the time to look at this kind of mail.

Still, I look. Two pieces caught my eye recently, and though they’re very different, I think they’re terrific in their own right: one for its message; one for its design.

The postcard from Brown University caught my eye for its message. It’s a simple, 5 ½” x 8 ½” full-color postcard. One side was a full-bleed campus photo with an inch-wide horizontal banner running across the middle. “COME SEE WHAT’S NEW AT BROWN” was the only copy on this side, plus the university logo. So right away, you knew what this card was all about. NEW things.

Brown Front

Brown Back

On the mailing side was the content: four bulleted paragraphs of very small type describing – yup – what’s new at Brown: 1) website for the Office of College Admissions, 2) creative arts center, 3) social media accounts, and 4) four athletic facilities.

I like the postcard’s focus very much. However, I think that for a postcard, it’s too copy heavy, and the second color (a lovely, springy-green shade that’s a screen tint) is too light when used in the body copy. This color is used for the URLs in the copy as well as for Twitter and Facebook addresses. There’s not enough contrast between the pale green and the white of the paper. There’s also a QR code tucked into the corner of the body copy. I’d have liked a little instruction with this code (“Scan this code”). The URL's is not a special landing page, either; it’s the admissions page on their site. (While I was on this page I noticed they recently posted admissions for the class of 2016: Brown accepted 9.6% of the applicants out of nearly 29,000. Oh, those Ivies!)

The other piece I liked for its design came from Tufts University. This 8” x 8” square beauty was a brochure about their upcoming summer session. The design is outstanding, as is the print quality. It has a sunny yellow cover, with a spot varnish simulating the sun’s rays. The cover in particular is gorgeous (kudos to the Tufts Print and Marketing Communications staff, who gets credited on the back cover).

Tufts Outside

Tufts Inside

The inside pages of the 12-pager use color, different typefaces, and photography very intelligently, very creatively. Lots of leading between lines of copy, coupled with different sans serif typefaces of different weights makes this fun to look at – and enticing to read. The designer used type treatment & a great color palette to emphasize phrases. It really works. It’s a visual acknowledgment to the fact that readers are more likely to scan for key words rather than read everything. So phrases like “individual attention, “intense and challenging,” and “work at the college level” jump right off the page at you. The university’s URL (http://ase.tufts.edu/summer) is printed in nice, big type on every spread. What a gorgeous design this is. What a smart piece.

This time in Jacob’s life is generating tons of direct mail for me to peruse and critique. Some mail inspires and impresses – like these two pieces. Into my sample drawer they go. Use a postcard for one simple purpose – to share what’s new, perhaps? Create a luscious brochure in a delightful square shape with a stunning cover design, and make your type do double duty (convey content and catch the eye).

I’ve had a mini-education in print publications from Brown and Tufts. I’ll be sorry to see all of this mail come to an end in a year!

How Direct Mail Packs a Punch in 7 Ways

What a great event I recently attended! NEDMA (that’s the New England Direct Marketing Association, at www.nedma.com) held an all-day Digital & Direct Mail Marketing Innovations Symposium in Waltham, MA. There were several concurrent sessions with topics including, “Email +”, QR Codes, Advanced Social Media Marketing, and – my favorite – “New Ideas, Formats & Technologies in Direct Mail.” This last one was a lively panel discussion, and the room was packed.

Karen McCormick

One panelist was Karen McCormick, President of Fulfillment Express in Waltham, MA (www.fulexp.com). Despite technical difficulties (meaning her slides weren’t available), Karen jumped into her presentation – complete with a real mailbox from Home Depot as a cool visual aid – and delivered a ton of good insights about direct mail.

First, some valuable statistics that Karen shared:
[list style=”bullet red”]

The average person gets 23 pieces of mail per week.
PS: Karen counts the pieces of mail she gets every day.
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Raise your hand if you do.
Her customers are saying that mail stands out, when you consider how much email everyone gets. Inparticular, she’s hearing this from young alumni, who pointedly told her, “Don’t email us if it’s really important – MAIL us.”
79% of all households read/scan the mail they get.
67% of consumers feel that mail is more personal than the internet.

[/list]

Karen then shared the following list of 7 direct mail attributes that we, as marketers and graphic arts professionals, need to keep front and center.

I don’t recall her name for this list, but I’m calling them:

How Direct Mail Packs a Punch in 7 Ways

Direct mail is….

Intrusive – Karen showed a sample of The Boston Conservatory’s view book. I didn’t have a ruler handy, but this beauty was MASSIVE. Talk about eye-catching.
Tactile – Her sample for Bentley University’s promotional piece was mailed in a glassine envelope (and it also had a QR code on the cover).
Targeted – This sample was for the Girl Scouts, who we learned are doing a major rebranding, and who use a lot of direct mail. Again, they used QR codes, and they have different versions of pieces they mail out to different market segments.
Varied – A sample for the Rivers School annual appeal piece was anything but a boring #10. It had interesting folds with an insert at the heart of the piece. The school produced about 15 lots. Some were stamped and went first class; others were mailed at the nonprofit rate.
Measurable – Several postcard samples from different customers were shown. One, from National Tire Battery, used codes and coupons. They mail out postcards regularly. Responses from these pieces are totally measurable.
Personalized – If you don’t know by now that with variable data printing technology you can personalize copy as well as graphics on direct mail pieces, I don’t know what to say.
Effective – The most amazing sample Karen held up was a gorgeous box a client produced for a small mailing – about 500. Inside the outer box was an elegant and simple white box, wrapped in a blue ribbon. Inside this was a personalized letter, brochure, and a picture frame. This campaign, though costly to produce, sold $1 million worth of business for the client.

The upshot? People want something they can hold onto and touch. Direct mail doesn’t have to be ho hum anymore. Find ways to make your campaigns memorable. Thanks to Karen, this list will help.

If you want to reach Karen McCormick, call her at or email her at . In coming weeks, I’ll share more insights I learned at this excellent NEDMA event.

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Every Door Direct Mail™

Thanks to a follower on Twitter – Gregg MacMillan (or as I like to call him, ) – I learned about a nifty USPS program called Every Door Direct Mail™ (EDDM). Gregg is the President of TechneGraphics, Inc., in Milford, OH. His LinkedIn profile also says he’s an EDDM Expert.

In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

With EDDM, you can send a mail piece to every address within a specific neighborhood, zip code or city in a cost-effective way. Whether you’re a big company or a small business, this program provides online tools designed to help you saturate certain mail routes for as low as $.142 apiece in postage.

Gregg tells me it was specifically designed for businesses whose target audience is within a compact geographic area. EDDM was made possible by a change in postal regulations to allow the use of simplified address format (Postal Patron or Residential Customer) for saturation mailings on city routes. A saturation mailing is a delivery to every address on one or more carrier routes or an entire ZIP code. Using Postal Patron tells the letter carrier to deliver to every address; Residential Customer signals delivery to every household.

There are guidelines to follow, of course, but it seems to me that if you don’t have a current and accurate mail list of addresses in a particular city or neighborhood, and you want to reach every address, EDDM would be a good solution.

The program is available “only for Standard Mailâ Saturation flats, irregular parcels, periodicals, and bound printed matter flats,” according to the web site.

With EDDM, you save on buying or renting mail lists – but keep in mind that there are no individual names and addresses on your mail pieces. Let’s say you have a service business in a community and want to promote it, or you’re a doctor, dentist, realtor or restaurant owner – these are obvious examples of who might benefit from EDDM.

Since Gregg’s used EDDM for his clients, I asked him to answer some questions.

1. What can’t EDDM do?

You CANNOT mail what the USPS describes as either “postcards” or “letters.” (The USPS defines “postcards” as being at least 3.5 by 5 and no more than 4.25 x 6 inches, and “letters” as being at least 3.5 x 5 and no more than 6.125 x 11.5 inches.)

The mail piece MUST BE what the USPS describes as a “flat.” (The USPS defines “flats” as being at least 6.125 x 11.5 and no more than 12 x 15.)

We have had quite a few requests from clients who would like to send out what they call postcards, which are in the 5 x 7 up to 6 x 9 range, and these do NOT qualify for the special EDDM processing and pricing.

2. What other not-so-obvious restrictions are there?

Unfortunately, at present, you cannot send to just businesses. This may change. The USPS gives you an option to send to just residents, or both residents and businesses, but not to just businesses. It is possible to send to carrier routes that are primarily businesses, but the mailing must also be delivered to all the residential addresses on the route as well. By the time you factor in that additional expense, there usually is a better / less expensive way to do business-to-business mailings.

3. When would it be a good idea to use EDDM? A bad idea?

The EDDM program was designed to help small businesses that draw most of their customers from a relatively small geographic area around their business (typically a 5-mile radius). This includes most retail stores, restaurants, and health care professionals.

EDDM is a bad idea for businesses and professionals who draw most of their customers from a broad geographic area and/or have a well-defined niche market, which can be better targeted with mail lists and a more personalized direct mail piece.

4. Is it easy to follow the online rules/forms/templates for EDDM?

The USPS EDDM website (http://www.uspseverydoor.com/ ) is quite well done. It probably requires following the instructions that are also available on the site the first time it is used, but once you become familiar with it, it’s user-friendly, and the forms and templates are easy to use.

5. Is it trackable/measurable?

The mailings cannot be tracked on the USPS site, but like most direct mail, it can be tracked based on the offer or request on the mail piece. This might be measured by the number of coupons returned, website visits, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, apps downloaded, or other 2D barcode scans.

6. Gregg, please give a couple of examples of how you’ve used this program for your customers. What types of customers? What types of DM pieces? How many, roughly? What were the results?

Our very first EDDM mailing was not a typical retail establishment, rather a non-profit community newsletter, which is a 16-page, 8.5 x 11 format, mailed monthly. The postage amount was about the same (EDDM rate of 14.2 cents vs. what they were paying based on their non-profit standard mail rate). Since they were mailing to every home in a particular zip code (about 1000), it meant that they no longer had to maintain a mail list, and did not have to address each newsletter. They have been quite pleased with the savings and the results.

Another successful mailing was for a new dog grooming business. The owner was looking for a way to get the word out quickly about their services and decided on EDDM. The 6.5 x 9 card was printed on a Wednesday, approx. 650 cards (1 carrier route) were delivered to the post office on Thursday. She started getting inquiries and bookings on Friday. By the end of Friday, she had received many calls and had four bookings. By the following Monday, she had ten bookings.

Another example was for a backyard bird feeding retail store. They do lots of postcard and newsletter mailings to their customer list, which has about 3500 names. Because it is an in-house list, they always get a great response. In the past, they’ve done some prospect mailings but haven’t had good results. They decided to try an EDDM mailing to a well-to-do area and were quite pleased with the results. I don’t have exact numbers, but they are planning to continue using EDDM.

7. I presume there are no “undeliverables” since it goes to every address, correct?

There should not be any “undeliverables,” but in reality, there is a better chance that EDDM mail pieces will not be delivered. It is the responsibility of the mail carrier to remember to place one mail piece in each mailbox since they are not sorted in with all the other mail.

8. What other ideas do you suggest for making an EDDM campaign successful?

When websites were first becoming popular, postcards were the best way to drive traffic to the new sites. Today, social media sites are an increasingly important marketing tool for retail establishments, and adding either QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) or Microsoft Tags to the mail piece is a great way to build larger social media communities.

Some examples of how 2D codes might be used could be to get recipients to visit mobile optimized sites, download apps, watch a video, like your Facebook page, or follow you on Twitter. As retail stores, restaurants, and medical professionals continue to recognize the importance of connecting with their customers, clients, and prospects using social media, the use of EDDM will continue to increase as a means to building social media activity.

Thanks, Gregg! You’ve given us great information about working with the EDDM program. So glad you follow me on Twitter – and vice versa. Follow Gregg on Twitter .

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Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with String

Raise your hand if you rush to rip open mail like the one in the picture accompanying this column. I can’t open them fast enough.

Last week a package was left on my doorstep, all hand-wrapped and taped to within an inch of its life. I had no clue what secrets it held, but I loved its homemade personality. Turns out, it was a book I ordered from Amazon (, by Nancy Duarte, if you must know). All other mail pieces sat abandoned temporarily on the floor.

If it were a practical and affordable option, I would design every direct mail campaign to arrive in this type of package. Everyone would open it.

Just three days earlier, a generic, #10 white envelope arrived in the mail from my telephone provider. It was thin and impersonal. Clearly, it held one sheet of paper. A printed message in red ink on the face of the envelope referred to my current data package, but – still – it was with a ho-hum-here’s-another-piece-of-junk-mail attitude that I slit open the envelope, fully expecting a sales pitch for new features that I didn’t need. Honestly, I very nearly threw it out unopened. That little message in red ink gave me pause. Thank God.

You know where this is going. The mass-produced, one-page letter, without any touchy-feely personality, was indeed speaking directly to me. It alerted me to the distinct likelihood that my current monthly data package was more than I needed, and it gave me a number to call pronto.

So it was that on a sunny Saturday afternoon I found myself speaking with a friendly phone company rep who helped me change my plan and save $20 monthly. And because the plan I’d been on since 2009 was not what I needed, I was given a humongous credit. It was a delightful surprise that came out of nowhere.

It just goes to show you. Brown paper packages don’t corner the market when it comes to getting mail opened. A well-written envelope teaser can be mighty effective. Run-of-the-mill, mass-mailed campaigns in thin white envelopes can sometimes bring serendipitous gifts that make your day.

This experience brought to mind a 2009 interview in Target Marketing magazine that I saved. In it, direct marketer and copywriter Alan Rosenspan answered questions about getting envelopes opened (the piece is entitled, “5 Answers About Getting Envelopes Opened”). One question asks Alan about stamps vs. indicias: which pulls better? He writes, “Stamps have always outpulled indicias, so much so that we don’t bother to test that anymore. Even bulk stamps. This is especially true in business-to-consumer, where your goal is to make the envelope look like it came from a real person – not just a company.” I also remember reading about teaser copy on outer envelopes. What you print as this copy makes all the difference. All I know is, if I hadn’t seen that red copy on the #10 envelope, I’d have tossed the letter that Saturday.

What packages get your attention?

©2011 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. Your comments are encouraged. You’re free to forward this email to friends and colleagues. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author. Comments?

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