How to NOT make your mail look like junk!

Mail has value. For the most part people realize that the sender spent money to put their message in front of them. Because time is so precious, the recipient of your mail piece may only spend about 3 seconds to make a decision to open or toss it.

A well designed mail piece can be very effective - regardless of how much it cost to get it there. Now I am not proposing that you convert all of your mail to Standard Mail, some mail may need to go First Class either because of content, timeliness, or not having at least 200 identical pieces. Over 17% of what is sent First Class today can be converted to “Automated” Standard Mail or what used to be called “Bulk Mail”

Mail in the Real World. When someone goes thru their mail, pieces that the recipient considers junk are quickly culled out – ok, thrown away. Your goal as a mailer is to minimize the number of your marketing pieces that end up in the trash. Do I have your interest? Good. The trick is to first avoid the pitfalls that can make your mail appear dumpster worthy. The other is to make sure that the envelope conveys a reason to open. Below is one of my favorite examples of a company doing everything right.

For purposes of this article I am going to be talking about envelopes, but before I do, it is important to realize that “Self Mailers” (newsletters, flyers etc) and “Post Cards” are “already opened” and the recipient doesn’t need to make a decision to risk a paper cut to see what is inside. So for those types of mail, it generally doesn’t matter how it was addressed or what form of postage was used.

For envelopes however, the method of postage is critical. There are 3 choices:

Preprinted Indicia is a favorite of many because it can be printed at little to no cost but it conveys a message of “Junk Mail”. I think that its use has its place on some envelopes, especially on pieces that are expected or welcomed because of the return address, or if the look or nature of the piece compels them to open it regardless.

Stamped mail should be used primarily in consumer to consumer appeals, Invitation style mailings for example. Be aware that because mailings submitted thru the Bulk Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) don’t need to be faced and cancelled, that stamp will arrive as a virgin, naked without the cancellation. Many recognize this instantly as “Junk Mail”. Did you know that you are allowed to cancel your own stamps using the Mailers Postmark? It is a very effective tool that will fool even a seasoned mail chucker. Stamps on business mail screams out – “I am a small time business that can’t afford a meter”. Is that the impression you want? Here are 2 examples of Stamped Invitations

Metered Mail shows that the mailpiece is an official piece of business mail. It clearly shows that money was spent to get it to them and demonstrates value. Even the Post Office is routinely fooled, as “non endorsed” Standard Mail is frequently returned for free, as if it were First Class. It simply looks like First Class and folks don’t tend to notice that the amount paid was about half the cost of a First Class stamp.

Other Pitfalls:
Duplicate Pieces – Receiving more than one of the same piece conveys a negative message:

1. Material and Postage waste.

2. Obvious lack of attention. And the killer ~

3. “This must be Junk Mail” realization.

Take the time to de-dupe your list as part of the address cleansing process: CASS (now includes DPV and LACS Link) – now all of the addresses will be standardized making finding duplicates easier.
De-Dupe – Try several passes eliminating the most obvious ones first using a fine/exact match criteria, then try less fine/exact screen and manually step thru the matched groups to make sure the software is doing what you expect before processing entire group.

Process your list thru an NCOA service like Move Update – at least every 3 months.

**********************AUTOCR**C-047

Optional Endorsement Lines – Get rid of the Junk. Carrier Route Standard Mail requires them on every piece, but Automation Standard doesn’t. You really only need them on the first piece of a “package” or “tray” and only on AADC or Mixed AADC. It is one more “flag” you can remove to not make your mail look like Junk. Mail Houses use them to sort by, but with a little bit of practice you can sort by “package” (“bundle”) marks and “tray” marks. These can be placed anywhere in any sized font and are rarely noticed by the novice. I like them on the edge so when sorting you can easily catch the break while flipping thru a handful. “Break marks” are another way to sort without using endorsement lines. Many pieces of processing equipment can be programmed to recognize these marks and create sortation breaks on the collection belt or pause the printer.

Ancillary Service Endorsements – Are an excellent way to help keep your list up to date. Make sure you choose the right one for the class of mail you are using. Choosing the wrong one reminds me of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and his “Search for the Holy Grail” when the old knight says “He chose poorly” and the guy turns to dust. I have heard first hand of examples of choosing poorly that cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars.

No reason to open – Give them a reason to open! Unless the reason is pure mystery, (which won’t work well for you in the long term) the envelope needs to be your messenger. Think of the outside of the envelope as a canvas. Certain areas are required for the address, return address, Barcode Clear Zone and postage, the rest is limited only by your imagination as even the required elements have flexibility on size and placement.

Best Practices
Test different message lines or appeals (test only one element at a time) and gauge the results. Test mail to a small portion of your list before committing to a huge mailing campaign and fine tune as needed to achieve the desired results.

Use the Right List – This is probably self evident but needs mentioning. If you are trying to sell Air Conditioners, maybe your best list shouldn’t contain the demographics of Eskimos.

Use Variable Data – The use of Variable data can dramatically improves results – as much as 500%.

It can be as simple as customizing the offer message on the envelope or you can try some more sophisticated methods like: Print the variable data on RPN(s) Repositionable Notes to give your piece a stand out appeal. Try using PURLS (Personalized URLs) to gain the marketing power of the internet combined with the targeting strength of direct mail and see the results in real time.

Learn from your mailbox - I consider myself a student of this industry because there is always more to learn. The mail I receive at home and at work is one of the best teachers! There is so much you can learn from looking at the work of others. Examine how it was addressed – What kind of printer did they use, what type of postage, if it was a stamp – was it cancelled. Did they use an optional endorsement line, planet code, ACS line, Intelligent Barcode, Sortation #, package mark, tray mark, break mark or Ancillary Endorsement? What was the marketing appeal? Was there a message or tag line to make the recipient want to open it?

In my office I have kept hundreds of examples: “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”, everyone a teacher. Marketing via the mail can be a science it can also be extremely successful with doing just a few things right, but you will never know if the envelope is thrown away.