Direct mail and the dark side of marketing

Mailshots are regarded by most recipients as the dark side of marketing. Direct mail is the most unpopular marketing tool - usually characterized as junk mail, it's frequently thrown away with out being read beyond the most cursory glance to check that it is not "real" mail, and sometimes it is thrown away unopened.

Getting individuals to read the mailing is the first hurdle to overcome. The advice offered to direct mail businesses is often counterproductive - for example, making the envelope look enticing by using color printing, putting a "teaser" question on the envelope, and so forth - simply because this flags as much as the recipient that there's a sales pitch inside.

One of the earliest mailshot promotions, in the 1920s, was for American insurance giant Metropolitan Life. The company sent out a mailing promoting retirement plans, and glued a genuine onecent piece towards the letter. The weight of the one-cent piece made the balance of the envelope feel strange, encouraging individuals to open it: the letter inside explained how one cent per day saved, at compound interest, would create over $500 following 25 years - all from only one cent, an quantity that most individuals would not notice.

The letter went on to ask how much better it would be if the individual could save two cents a day, or five cents - or perhaps a dollar. The style was sober, as if writing to an existing consumer - no sales-pitch hyperbole or advertising "puff."

The crucial issue in the mailshot was the one-cent piece - not an eyecatching, gimmicky piece of envelope style, but a genuine (if little) gift to the recipient of the mailing. Apart from creating an intriguing mailshot, even such a small gift as a penny makes the recipient more inclined to do business using the firm.

Allowing for inflation, that penny would be worth close to 50p today, of course, so it may be worth considering sticking a larger-denomination coin towards the letter. Following all, with the average mailing costing around £2 a time, an additional 10p (or even 50p) for a coin that will perhaps double the response rate has to be worth trying.

Metropolitan Life became one of America's largest insurance businesses, funding the construction of the Empire State Building and later being the biggest investor in war bonds for funding World War II.

Make the gift worth while. Real money will always attract more attention than yet an additional ballpoint pen. Don't be stingy. Send a coin that is worth something. Explain the benefits clearly, with out rhetoric - you already have their attention if they're reading the mailshot in any way. Accept that not everybody will respond - but if you get a 15 percent response you're beating the direct-mail averages by a considerable percentage.

Ensure that you link the message towards the coin - Metropolitan Life had been pitching for savings accounts, but the money on the letter would function just as well for home insulation, loans, and indeed anything where the main advantage is financial.

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Direct mail and the dark side of marketing

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