E-commerce has not replaced direct mail, and it Never will!. There are thousands of computer savvy people out there who aren’t ready to buy on the web, or they don't want to. They are sticking to catalogs, direct mail offerings, and similar snail-mail approaches. Plus, there are those who don’t have computers and aren’t going to get one soon! The question you need to ask yourself is: How can I design a direct mail piece that will get opened, read, and result in an order?” This is about all that.

GETTING THE ENVELOPE OPENED
The first requirement of any direct mail campaign is to get your envelope opened. If it looks like junk mail, it will be pitched in the round can without opening, so let's go over some of the basics:

• If you’re mailing to people who like sailboats, put a graphic of a sailboat in the return address area. Use a drawing of golfer, airplane, soccer ball, football, or similar eye-catching logo for other specially targeted prospects.
• Placed just under whatever logo you use, put something like: ‘Something special just for football fans!’ The idea is to catch the eye of the addressee such that he or she may open the envelope. Does this personalized approach take effort? Of course it does!
• Purchase your specialty list of golfers, sailors, etc. from a list broker. (Ask your business librarian to help you find these.
• You will need a source of inexpensive pre-printed envelopes.
• Either hand-address your envelopes or print the recipient’s name and address right on the envelope using a laser printer. Use a typestyle that looks professional, not cute. Labels are a dead giveaway that the envelope contains ‘junk mail’.
• Since it takes at least four and maybe five direct mail letters spaced one to four weeks apart to collect all the possible sales from a list, you will need four or five different style, color, and size envelopes. Sending the same thing twice is a waste of money.
• An indicia (that thing up in the corner that replaces a stamp) is a dead giveaway of bulk mail. Use stamps. There are stamps for bulk mail just as there are for first class mail.
• If you don’t have many prospects on your list, use first class stamps. (As an eyecatcher, try using several stamps to make up the postage. You can even do this with bulk mail stamps . . . ask your postmaster how.)
• Another idea is to print an ink smear, coffee or lipstick stain, or something similar on the envelope. For some reason, people feel letters with flaws are more personal, and personal mail gets opened.

CONTENTS
The contents are important, but more important is what the person sees first when they open the envelope. Here are some ideas:

• The main letter should be folded such that when the person turns the envelope over, slits it open, and pulls out the packet, the headline on the letter should be the first thing they see. Like most everyone else, you probably open mail upside down (with the glue-down flap up)! Try it! The headline should state a specific benefit the reader will receive if they read the rest if the material. An example could be: “How to outfit your child for soccer at half the usual price.”
  Note that you are talking about soccer, the recipient’s child, and saving money . . . all in one sentence!
• A second item in your packet should be a one-third page size list of testimonials from people who have purchased from you. Use both sides of the paper, small print, black and white. The testimonials probably won’t get read, but the fact that you include them is important in the mind of your prospect.
• Another page, again odd sized, should answer typical questions such as: product uses, guarantees, delivery time, and all those questions you know people want answers for. Your prospect will read this page, so do a good job.
• If you include a mini-catalog page, don’t bore the reader with facts. Think for a moment. You don't want facts, you want to hear that the purchase will be good for you! Be sure you don’t just spout features. Use lots of pictures or graphics. Text is boring and will be mostly ignored if it’s full of what you want to sell as opposed to the benefits the user will gain from using your product.
• Try ‘bulking’ your envelope with a give-away such as a letter opener, pen, ruler, or other token. It won’t add materially to your cost, and people seem to always open envelopes containing a ‘goodie’. Watch the weight!

CONTACT CARD
The contact reply card should contain order information and the customer’s address. Keep this simple but complete. It’s important to get name, address, etc., but it is more important to list your toll-free phone order number! Once a prospect decides to become a customer, they lose patience. This means they probably won’t mail back your card, but will call you with a credit card number. Be ready! You might also include your web address, but the chances of the customer using this method are slim at best.

OTHER FACTORS
Space your mailings as follows:

Send #1, wait one week, send #2, wait one week, send #3, wait two weeks, send #4, wait one month, end by sending #5. The reason: The first mailing could get thrown away. If it doesn’t, and if the recipient is a good prospect, he or she may say to themself: “I’m interested, but too busy right now.” Your offer gets stacked on other things, and probably gets thrown out in a couple of days. When #2 comes, you could get an order, or the same thing could happen as when #1 arrived.

Mailings #1 and #2 will get approximately 60% of the possible orders, #3 and #4 around another 30%, and #5 gets the last 10%. These figures are general, and may not apply to your offer. Keep records for yourself for future reference.

You MUST change the contents for each of the mailings. Envelopes, information pages, catalog page, reply . . . change the paper color, type style, logo on the envelope, everything! Your goal is to find some combination that works better than any other, so experiment!

Note that responses are running anywhere from 0.5% return to 3% return. This means a 0.5% return may have to provide enough income to pay for everything! Plus it should make at least some profit! FOLLOW-UP
If you have the prospect’s number, a phone call is an inexpensive way to follow up any mailing. If not, vary the offer details and format of each mailing. You never know which mailing or what colors, text, size, and other factor is the deciding one that results in a sale unless you keep records, so do it!