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Direct Mail Marketing Campaign Strategy

Because of the cost factors, production time and many moving parts, you can’t afford careless planning in direct mail marketing campaigns. You need a partner with the diverse experience of Beasley’s direct mail consultants.

We work with our clients on every step of direct mail marketing, or as many areas as you need help—starting with list procurement through copy, design and print production management. Increasingly, campaigns are part of a multi-touch, multi-channel effort that can include direct mail, email, online advertising, and telemarketing efforts. We help clients with all channels, and we make sure their direct mail strategies align in message and timing.

For B2C we’ve created direct sales and lead generation campaigns for tech products, solar, financial institutions, entertainment, retail, and health care among many others. For B2B we’ve worked on direct mail marketing campaigns for clients in technology, financial services, business services, and more. Our lead generation campaigns are informative and work hard to get a conversation started with the prospect. They can be in #10, miniature or oversized envelopes, or delivered in dimensional carriers such as boxes and tubes to add extra intrigue.

As direct mail consultants we’re proud to have partnered with our clients on these successful direct mail marketing campaigns—and proud to have been awarded industry awards which are given for effectiveness, not just pretty envelopes.

SPECIAL OFFER:
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Adaptec

Adaptec

Alert1

Alpine

Amazing Solutions

Apple

DTRIC

EMC

Infinity Financial

Informatica

IntelliSeek

Intuit QuickBooks

Mark Logic

NoCost Refi

PeachTree Software

PeopleSoft

PeopleSoft

PhotoAccess

Rentreporters.com

Solar Universe

Solar Universe

SunPower

Wells Fargo

The post Direct Mail appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Recently Laurie Beasley, President of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., and also President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California, was interviewed by Sky Cassidy of MountainTop Data to ask her about new trends in B2B marketing. In this episode she describes a new type of campaign that is becoming very popular, often labeled “Meeting Maker Campaigns.” These are campaigns targeted at key accounts and are comprised of multiple touches that often include a dimensional direct mail campaign, email campaign and detailed tele-prospecting effort. The goal of the campaign is to schedule a 30 minute meeting or demonstration. The prospect is rewarded with a nice gift as a thank you for attending. Ms. Beasley describes a campaign she ran for a cloud services technology company last year that resulted in 230 demo appointments being scheduled from a list of 1,300 target accounts.

Listen to this podcast here to learn more.

Read a case study about executing a successful Meeting Maker Campaign here.

The post How to Create Successful Meeting Maker Campaigns — Podcast appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., a full service online and direct mail marketing consulting agency, has been hired by Journeyworks Publishing — who produces health education publications for public health agencies—to provide online and direct marketing consulting to help them expand their business. The initial work will be to optimize the Google Analytics installation and dashboard reports, evaluate email programs and make recommendations for direct mail and catalog offers and design.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including: content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. The agency helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California.

Journeyworks Publishing is a respected national publisher of health education and health promotion materials. Founded in 1995, Journeyworks has distributed more than 180 million pamphlets, booklets, posters and bookmarks to public health agencies, social service organizations, hospitals, schools and the military. Journeyworks is comprised of a team of employees in editorial, marketing, customer service and fulfillment. In addition, Journeyworks employs freelance writers, editors, reviewers and illustrators to help deliver critical health education messages for use by health professionals across the U.S.

Press contacts:

Laurie Beasley
President, Beasley Direct and Online Marketing,Inc.
lbeasley@beasleydirect.com
Phone: 408-782-0046 x21

Evan Frink
General Manager
Journeyworks Publishing
efrink@journeyworks.com
Phone: 800-775-1998

Learn more about our Direct Mail Marketing services here.

The post Journeyworks Publishing Hired Us as Their Online and Direct Mail Marketing Consulting Agency appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

The client is a large wide-area network (WAN) software optimization company, XYZ Software (not the real name). The sales process for this category of product is complex. It’s not made any easier by the fact that XYZ sells to IT professionals, who are extremely busy and difficult to reach. The pain point for these professionals is slow-running networks. But, isolating the speed issue is often difficult and easily trumped by fire-fighting situations that demand immediate attention.

XYZ Software had been IT marketing with email campaigns, webinars, pay-per-click (PPC), and trade shows. As is often the case, there was no process in place for tele-qualifying inbound leads or generating sales appointments or demos. This resulted in a large number of unqualified “warm” leads in the sales funnel. As a consequence they either dropped out of the funnel or remained in the funnel without further attempts to qualify them. Furthermore, Sales was not following up on the majority of leads because they were not sales-ready.

Turning “Warm” Leads into Prospects, then Customers

XYZ called us in to figure out how to turn more “warm” leads into prospects and turn more prospects into customers. Our recommendation was a multi-touch, multi-channel lead nurturing program. The program integrated a tele-qualifying process owned by Marketing, which resulted in Sales appointments and demos. We tested two offers: a Gartner Magic Quadrant report versus an on-demand webinar/seminar featuring a Gartner analyst. We also tested three lists.

1. The house lead file.
2. A rental list of the primary competitor’s customers.
3. Lastly, a webinar/seminar attendee list.

Later, as the program rolled out, we included webinar attendees and inbound responders in the lead nurturing program.

Test 1: a Gartner Magic Quadrant report.

Interpreting Metrics to Generate Revenue

As it turned out, both offers performed equally well, splitting nearly 50/50. All of the lists were productive. Because we tracked the metrics, we were able to determine that the webinar list outperformed the others.

We tracked the number of attempts to reach IT titles for each list. The number of touches required to convert a prospect into a sales-ready lead ranged from two to nine touches. The an average was 7.51. Webinar attendance outperformed the other outbound marketing techniques with an average of 2.5 touches, moving prospects through the buying process more quickly than other efforts.

Test 2: On-demand webinar/seminar featuring a Gartner analyst.

Implementing the Winning Campaign

We started out with campaign messaging provided by a product manager, but after a week of tele-prospecting, we realized the messaging was off. When conversion rates don’t manifest at a satisfactory rate fairly early, it’s time to make a change. We addressed this quickly, listening to prospects and revising the messaging to suit. Also, we provided more training to the tele-qualifiers, improving their product knowledge and training them on different ways to overcome objections.

We also changed the messaging about XYZ’s prime competitor. Instead of talking about the competitor as such, we repositioned XYZ’s technology as a solution to problems encountered by users of the competition’s product.

As part of the lead nurturing program, the calling team followed up with prospects by sending informational material such as white papers and case studies as well as invitations to on-demand webinars designed to refine the sequential touch points, improving the quantity and quality of dialogue with prospects. This helped to establish a sequence of nurturing by educating prospects on the viability of XYZ’s offerings.

We cannot share the actual numbers that resulted from this multi-touch, multi-channel program, but we can say that the program is still in place at XYZ Software, and the competing company has experienced some loss of market share as a result.

Author

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Beasley Direct is a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She is also an instructor of online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

The post How We Executed a Meeting Maker Campaign for a Network Software Company appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Anritsu is a leader in electronic instruments used by the wireless industry. The instruments are used to test and troubleshoot cellular tower transmission lines and base station transmitters. However, BTS Master Base Station Analyzer market penetration lagged other Anritsu products. And, Anritsu had been unable to penetrate the executive suite at top cell phone companies because competitors were strongly entrenched.

We had to convince decision makers our instrument was so much faster, more accurate and more compact that they would buy it the next time they needed a base station analyzer. But, before we could do this, we had to get their undivided attention with a multi touch marketing door-opener campaign.

The First Touch: life-size box, letter, brochure and response card with invitation to a custom microsite for an in-person demo and iPod shuffle.

The First Touch:

The life-size box showed off how compact the new instrument is in comparison to competitor’s large and heavy products. Inside were a letter, brochure and response card. We invited prospects to come to a custom microsite where they could sign up for an in-person demo. Additionally, demo participants would receive an iPod Shuffle preloaded with BTS Master technical material. All components were personalized. Not only with the recipient’s name but also with technical benefits which differ from carrier to carrier.

As a second touch point, we executed an email to the same lists with the same offer including personalization. Finally, in the third touch point, we followed up with outbound telemarketing setting up appointments with responders. And, to increase conversion from prospects who had not responded we contacted them.

The Second Touch: an email to the same lists with the same offer including personalization.

Goals:

We had two goals for this multi touch marketing campaign:

• Firstly, meet or exceed a projected initial response rate of 2-5% (people who received the mail or email and went to the landing page).
• Secondly, of these, prequalify 10% to meet the internal criteria of “sales ready leads”—i.e., a prospect who is ready to sign a purchase order if the product meets their needs. (This goal equates to 0.2%-0.5% of the initial mail/email quantity.)

Actual Results:

• 7% of total target contacts visited the landing page.
• 4% of total targets filled out the contact form.
• Of these, 49% were qualified as “sales ready leads” during the follow-up call to set up their in-person demo appointment.
• Through additional telemarketing, a total of 8% of ALL contacts were qualified as “sales ready leads”— a result 1,000%-4,000% better than the original projection.
• Over $3,000,000 of potential sales have been added to the pipeline and more are anticipated as the leads were being followed up.

Best of all, we won an International ECHO^TM Award for this campaign.

We won an ECHO Award!

The ECHO Awards honor the world’s best marketing campaigns, that have raised the bar in terms of strategy, creativity and results.

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Beasley Direct is a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She is also an instructor of online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

The post How We Beat Goals by 1,000% and Won an Award for Anritsu with a Meeting Maker Campaign appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

IT decision makers are a wily bunch. They tend to ignore most marketing efforts. They’re usually engineers and thus highly skeptical of advertising claims. And they’re so busy that even if you do connect, it’s difficult to keep their attention for more than a microsecond.

Our campaign for a Fortune 500 network storage company was designed to leap over all these hurdles. We needed to reach the executives in charge of backup solutions. Then tell them, in a nice way, that the tape systems they used and trusted were unsafe and obsolete. Our success would be measured by our ability to set up appointments for Sales to present a live product demo.

Fortunately, Beasley had worked with our immediate client at a previous company on a successful strategy to generate sales appointments. This was through a multi-touch campaign built around a high-impact direct mail effort. Such a campaign is not inexpensive. But the rewards are great because of the prospect of a high value sale (in this case in excess of $40K) at the end of the process. We estimated that if we could generate 42 demos the campaign would pay for itself. Our client was able to sell it internally, and we were on our way.

Direct Mail Design

The first step was to design an engaging, memorable, viral direct mail package. We didn’t want to offend their loyalty to existing backup-to-tape systems and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. We needed to convince prospects that backup-to-cloud might be a superior solution and they could learn about it risk-free.

Our direct mail package was built around a “pocket survival tool” mounted on a shelf with verbal call-outs to situations where engineers might need it in their daily job.

Our approach was to talk about “surviving backup to tape” and focus on all the challenges that might make life difficult for the manager using that solution. A dimensional box teased “Pocket Survival Kit Enclosed” with the subhead: “Are you still using tape for backup? Then you’ll need this.” Inside, the prospect found a credit card-size pocket tool with screwdriver, bottle opener and similar capabilities. The gadget was mounted on a shelf with callouts to the functions that tied them to the hazards of tape backup—like weekends lost in the data center fixing problems (use our can opener to enjoy a can of beans).

A letter countered with a presentation of the benefits of our client’s solution, and made the offer of an “even better toolkit” as a reward for a phone demo. Additional flyers spotlighted our client’s backup to cloud technology and the “IT Geek’s Dream Toolkit” which they could get with a demo.

Building a Contact List

While the creative was in development, our teleservices partner built the contact list. We wanted to be sure everybody who entered our contact stream was a prospective buyer. Therefore, we merged several list sources then called storage departments to verify name, contact information and buying authority. As a result, this process had an unexpected benefit: when they were exposed to our message and creative platform, six prospects set demos on the spot, putting us on the path to achieving our goal before we even went in the mail.

Strategizing Your Distribution

The direct mail went out with a staggered distribution so we could control the lead flow. We followed up with two email touches. Even with the high-impact format we didn’t anticipate a large initial response. The reason, because of the many distractions faced by our target audience of overworked engineers. We expected 10-15% of our demos to come from response to the direct mail and a follow-up email contact. Instead, 28% of demos would be generated through these channels: 48 mail responses plus 18 email responses. (If you’re keeping track, you’ll notice we were already ahead of plan.) Six of the inbound responses were from prospects not in the original database. This meant the recipient had taken the trouble to pass along the offer to someone else in their company—a rare phenomenon in tech marketing.

An email followed up our direct mail with the same offer. Once a prospect filled out the registration form, they were called to schedule a demo appointment.

Follow-Up Calls and Closing the Sales Appointment

A few days later, a series of follow-up calls began with the objective of completing a sales prospecting script through one or multiple calls. Telesales reps reported that the executives they spoke with were highly engaged. They remembered the direct mail and offer, and were eager to talk about it. They found the “Ultimate IT Geek’s Toolkit” an appealing reward for their time sales appointment to get the demo. Recipients appreciated the research we had made to match the premium (a set of jewelers-quality tools used for tinkering with electronics) to their interests. As a result, 65% of completed scripts were converted to demo appointments, vs an anticipated 10%.

At the five-month mark, two hundred and thirty demos had been scheduled vs plan of 42—a 5x improvement over our goal. Based on conservative estimates and extensive previous experience with similar campaigns, we project that the sales-to-cost ratio to be $4.62 in revenue for every dollar invested.

Lessons Learned

The lesson: even the most elusive tech target can be found and engaged in a sales demo. If you are willing to make the investment to build an appealing message with offer and gain their attention through a high-impact first effort, then spend the time to follow up.

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Beasley Direct is a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She is also an instructor of online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

The post How We Made Sales Appointments for a High Tech Company: Using a High-Impact, Multi-Touch Marketing and Tele-Prospecting Campaign appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

CellMaster

CellMaster is a multifunction tester used to troubleshoot cell phone towers by engineers in the field. The newest CellMaster was a breakthrough because it packed all the functionality of a 40 pound instrument into a case about the size of a piece of stationery. It weighed just 6 pounds—a critical improvement for techs who often have to climb the towers with the tester on their backs.

A life size die cut was created with minimal copy so the promotional piece would look as much as possible like the real thing. Because many in this audience respond by mail, a triple postcard was tipped on for additional selling copy. Then Anritsu “sweetened the pot” by offering an instant-win drawing for an iPod and inviting recipients to visit a personalized website to see if they had won.

A version of the die cut was created for insertion in trade publications, as well as a partner email for house and rented lists. All made the same offer of entry in the iPod sweepstakes plus a free technical publication when the reader registered to receive more product info.

The overall inbound phone, BRC, and click through responses were 8% for direct mail, 1.75% for email and .1% response for the print ad inserts. We also did outbound teleprospecting to the responders and non-responders, which generated a large group of extremely qualified leads. For a marketing budget of under $100,000, Anritsu enjoyed sales of over $1.5 million—a highly successful result.

Anritsu’s BTS Master

Anritsu’s BTS Master had a similar benefit story aimed at a different link of the mobile communications chain: base stations used to transmit the cell signal. Several competitors were well entrenched with established testing products. So we had to convince the executive suite that Anritsu’s product was so much faster, more accurate and more compact that they should consider it next time they needed a base station analyzer. Again, Anritsu turned to dimensional direct mail as a door opener.

This time the direct mail vehicle was a box. It was the size and shape of the BTS Master with a life-size depiction of its controls printed on all six sides. Inside were a letter, brochure and response card inviting prospects to come to a custom microsite where they could sign up for an in-person demo and receive an iPod preloaded with BTS Master technical material. All components were personalized, not only with the recipient’s name but also with technical benefits which differ from carrier to carrier.

This campaign, with an email follow-up and outbound telemarketing, successfully qualified 8% of contacts as “sales ready leads”— a result 1,000%-4,000% better than the original projection. The campaign also won an International Echo and a MarCom award.

VectorStar

VectorStar was aimed at a completely different audience: electrical engineers who design and test equipment in labs. The VNA (Vector Network Analyzer) was actually invented by a predecessor company of Anritsu but the market had since been taken over by other, bigger competitors. A dimensional direct mail package aimed to turn things around.

Prospects received a poster, inside a transparent mailing tube, depicting the steps involved in the recent Mars Rover landing and the incredible precision required in planning for success. The VectorStar was shown in a corner of the poster, with a description of its features and benefits. The tie-in: “When a single error could mean failure of your mission, count on the VectorStar Vector Network Analyzer from Anritsu.” This was an emotional rather than technical sell, inviting engineers to take pride in the accomplishments made possible by their work.

The Results of our Dimensional Direct Mail Campaign

This campaign produced a 167% improvement in qualified leads over previous campaign efforts. The campaign generated $3.8 million in sales during the three-month campaign window, with many more sales projected down the road.

There are several things the three campaigns have in common, beyond their success. Each engages the recipient with a dramatic story that also ties into the benefits of the product being sold. Each, through the obvious production quality, flatters the prospect as somebody who is worth an investment in education. And each makes a tangible offer (the VectorStar mailing promised a backpack or, for government titles not allowed to receive gifts, a VNA technical manual) as a reward for agreeing to a demo.

If you want to try a dimensional campaign in your own marketing, be sure to start with a high-quality list so you don’t waste your money and your sales department’s time on lookie-loos. And be sure to follow up diligently on each lead you generate.

Laurie B. Beasley

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MORGAN HILL, CA

News Facts:

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. has been selected by RentReporters.com to provide the strategy, lists and creative for a direct mail campaign targeted at renters in major metro areas. The campaign will offer a simple way for renters to access www.Rentreporters.com to build credit and improve their credit scores by reporting the last two years of their rent payments and then automatically reporting their ongoing monthly rent payments to major credit bureaus. The more months of rent that are reported, the bigger the possible increase to a consumer’s credit score.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. (www.BeasleyDirect.com) is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including: content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California.

RentReporters (www.Rentreporters.com) helps renters build credit by including rent payments on their credit report. RentReporters was born out of the belief that it’s time to change the system to reflect the realities of modern economic life for all renters. Today, rent is often a renter’s biggest monthly expense, so it only seems fair to include rent payments on credit reports. Now consumers can use RentReporters to change the course of their future and build credit as a result of responsible financial behaviors.

For More Information, contact:

Laurie Beasley
President
Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.
4080782-0046 x21
lbeasley@beasleydirect.com

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Your DM (Direct Mail) outer envelope is the first (sadly, sometimes last) thing that is noticed on your direct mail. The mystery of the blind (blank, logoless) envelope only gets you so far. To improve your package opening and response rate, you need to start selling right through better envelopes.

Better Direct Mail Envelopes are a Serious Part of DM Best Practices.

In Otis Maxwell’s book, Copywriting that gets RESULTS! (affiliate link) the author shares lessons he was taught early in his career about how important the outer direct mail (dm) envelope tease was, and he shares the point espoused by (possibly) Direct Marketing great Herschell Gordon Lewis, that the majority of a copywriter’s time on a package should be used creating the outer envelope.

If you’re using direct mail and looking for ways to up the impact of DM outer envelopes without blowing your budget on custom printing and converting, read on to learn about eight techniques that boost DM outer envelope effectiveness through little tweaks and add-ons.

8 Little tweaks and add-ons that are proven ways to make better envelopes.

Teasing works.

If you aren’t using an outer tease line, tell me why not? Unless you’re getting satisfactory results from the mysterious blind package (and if you’re reading this, the answer is probably ‘no’), I have bad news. Most people don’t care about company’s name or logo in the corner, unless they 1) feel like they have a relationship with your company, 2) are a company that owes them money, or 3) happen to be the IRS.

The strongest thing you can do to for your envelope is adding a great tease line. Don’t go cheap on time used to develop an envelope tease. It needs to be well-crafted. The tease line’s job is simple, but it has to work hard. It needs to get the person curious enough to open the package, while also setting up the next relevant content area. Like the beginning of a great overture, it should prepare the audience, grab with emotion, and keep their attention. It should not go on and on. I said it before, but it bears repeating: It must build curiosity for what’s inside the envelope.

Color is cheap. Use more crayons.

20 years ago, getting more than one color on a pre-converted (pre-assembled) envelope was pretty much impossible. A marketer’s only option was to have envelopes custom printed, die-cut and converted. It was a pretty penny. Today, with the availability of small conventional presses and inkjet and laser printers that can print on pre-converted envelopes, you can add a lot of color to an outer envelope.

This envelope uses red, black and dark blue inks.

You may not be able to print edge-to-edge, but that isn’t always necessary to achieve some great impact. Your uses of color might include line illustrations, photos, or simple graphics to get attention and help the envelope stand apart from other mail in a person’s hand.

Class up your postage.

If you currently use an indicia for your direct mail, it is SCREAMING mass mailing to your readers. While most people understand that a lot of mail they get might be direct mail, there is still lift achieved on many mailings by using metering or a stamp (or several stamps) instead of a preprinted indicia. Consider changing to live postal metering or adhesive stamp applied to your envelope. For more information and guidelines about which type of postage to use, read my other post about which postage to use for different types of direct mail.

Get personal with good old-timey preprinted handwritten messages

Many people tout the use of personalization technology and how cool it is. But that’s not what I’m referring to. What I mean is adding a static message in handwriting preprinted more economically on the outer envelope.

Example of a pre-printed handscript tease line

If done right, you don’t need to pay for personalization technology to make a better envelope. The key is matching well-written tease copy with a very convincing natural font (or even scan someone with good penmanship’s handwritten message) to display as a tease line on the outer envelope. The style of handwriting, imperfections in strokes, the weight and character of the pen or pencil used, and the color of ink all contribute to the overall effect. Cool, low-tech stuff.

Make stress your friend.

Add urgency embellishment to your envelope. The classic rubber stamped red graphic with “URGENT”, “FINAL NOTICE”, OFFICIAL MAIL: TO BE OPENED BY RECIPIENT ONLY” or similar type of outer envelope graphic can be added at very little production cost.

Stress is a universal emotion. Even in a foreign language, the urgency comes through.

But here’s my take on this technique based on experience: When you get the person inside, after you’ve raised their blood pressure, you’d better be able to be authentic and consistent inside. If all of a sudden your inside message changes personality from the outer, readers will smell a rat, or should. Don’t be ‘that guy’ who ruins things for the rest of us direct marketers.

An example of using the stress of compliance. The marketer grabs attention momentarily heightening the importance of this mail with a command of compliance with some unknown rule. All I can say is, it is a technique that works.

Get sticky. Get weird.

This outer envelope technique adds graphics AND tactile engagement. If you add a “slap dot” or square angled sticker with added special message on the outer envelope, it’s an attention getter that creates curiosity. I have seen direct marketing packages that have what look like orange supermarket code stickers with only numbers and letters in them set at different angles. While I don’t know the ROI, I can tell you I’ve seen the same package and treatment often enough to form the opinion that it works.

A bright add-on sticker can draw more attention to your envelope.

Routing info boxes, bar codes, and scrambled eggs

You can add small graphic boxes and areas to the outer that give the impression of special ‘offer codes’ or look like the mail went through some registration or warranted special handling. In addition, the use of black or grey safety/non-read-through patterns (sometimes referred to as ‘scrambled egg’ patterns) create a sense of official packages with confidential information inside.

The pattern in grey is referred to as a ‘scrambled eggs’ safety pattern.

Don’t forget, you have a second side (almost)

Use the back flap, or rear of the envelope, to add messaging to your envelope. Even on conventional envelopes, there may be enough area on the rear upper flap or panels to support stickers, rubber stamp effect graphics, and more.

Remember: when people open envelopes, they commonly turn the envelope over. Use the flap, and other space on the back of your envelope, to build more curiosity.

Don’t be bland. Envelopes come in more than just white, and more than just wove finish.

Use a color stock for your envelope instead of white. One of my favorite options to get better envelopes is using manila (kraft) stock envelopes — the color and texture gets attention and looks very serious and official. Envelopes in this stock are widely available. You can also find popular colors that are pastel and bright from a variety of sources.

In addition to color, you can also try different paper stock finishes. If you are looking for a high-end, executive impression in your outer envelope, use a laid, linen or vellum finish envelope.

There’s no reason not to go for better envelopes for your direct mail. Test and test again.

If you already have a baseline ‘control’ package, make little changes, slowly, and conduct testing to see what works best. While there are other factors affecting response, your outer envelope should not be ignored. I’ll repeat it again: the job of the outer envelope is to create curiosity and get the person inside the envelope and in the right frame of mind for what they will find inside. And these eight techniques to create better DM envelopes are valuable, time-tested ways to improve your DM performance.

What do you wish you could change about the outer envelope of your current DM mailings?

This article first appeared on the PerezWorks blog.

Carlos Perez, Creative Director, Beasley Direct & Online Marketing, Inc.

Carlos Perez has 28 year’s experience as an advertising art and creative director, with more than a decade concentrating on direct marketing and branding. Carlos Perez enjoys working on both general and direct creative projects, and he frequently acts as a consultant on the marketing strategy development team. His clients have ranged from automotive and financial to hi-tech, including American Isuzu Motors, Bank of America, CitiFinancial, Diners Club, eHealthInsurance.com, Intuit, Microsoft, Network Associates, Pacific Bell, Southern California Edison, 3Com, United Airlines, and CBS Television. Carlos has worked for major general and direct response advertising agencies including Grey Advertising, Brierley & Partners, Bates Worldwide Advertising and J. Walter Thompson Recruitment Advertising.

The post 8 Affordable Ways You can Create Better Direct Mail Envelopes in a Hurry appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.