Does Your Envelope Stand Out in the Clutter?

The world has changed....
Your business has changed, too. There was a time when a letter sent to your
customer was sure to be opened. There was a pretty good chance that a
direct mail piece would be read. Today, people open their mail over a
wastebasket, and 65% of it (if not more) gets thrown away. To top it all off,
the recent scares of Anthrax have people afraid to open anything they don’t
recognize. Letters with bulk mail indicia often hit the trash in seconds. If it
smacks of junk mail, subscription solicitation, changing long distance
service, or a host of other bulk mail barrages, it’s gone. Personal mail
stays around longer. If it looks like an invitation, a personal letter, a check,
or something with a postage stamp and handwritten address, it will
probably get read. If it looks interesting, it might get opened. Boring
white #10 envelopes, even when they get opened, are often tossed without
having really been read.

There are a lot of clever things you can do to draw attention to your
envelope. A plumbing contractor in California puts his return address
down the left hand side of the envelope. In place of where the return
address normally goes, he writes, “I’ll repair your home’s plumbing right
the first time, or I’ll re-plumb it for free!” Think about it: most envelopes
pass through multiple hands before being opened by the recipients. All of
these people need plumbers at one time or another; everyone is a potential
customer.

You can turn your own envelope into a billboard for yourself by simply
printing your business card on your envelopes in the space where the
return address goes. A piano salesperson I know sends every piece of
mail out in an envelopes like this. He handwrites the address and adds
the word “Important!” in the lower left-hand corner. If his correspondence
was in a standard envelope with a bulk mail stamp and a printed label, it
would be less likely to get opened.

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of printing something clever on
the outside of your envelopes, at least handwrite your name above the
company name in the return address part portion of the envelope. Maybe
put your phone number underneath the address. Use a colored pen; blue,
green, or red ink stands out a lot more than black.

When sending out mail, the most important thing you’re looking for is to get
the recipient to open the envelope. With everything going on in the world
today, think twice before you start sending out bulk mail with address labels.
Personalize your mail as much as possible; use postage stamps instead of
postage meters, and write something personal on the outside of the
envelope. If it says, “Thought you’d like to see this, Mike!” Mike would
probably open it right away, particularly if it was handwritten. Try using a
different-size envelope instead of the standard #10, and stay away from
window envelopes—they look just like bills or standard solicitations. Also,
don’t do anything that might possibly lead to misrepresentation. Letters
that look like they contain a check but don’t, government implications with
eagles and law quotes, or anything that preys on people’s stupidity; all go
in this category. You’ve seen letters like these; you’re probably throwing
them away, yourself. The public is wising up to mail making bogus claims,
so don’t pretend to be anything that you’re not.

Take a look at the mail you received this morning. What caught your
attention, and what did you throw away without opening? Compare what’s
in your wastebasket with what you kept. The garbage is probably
overflowing, while the pile on your desk is relatively small. You know the
routine: personal letter, save; American Express bill, save; credit card offer,
trash; magazine subscription offer, trash; long distance solicitation, trash;
catalog, trash; department store flyer, trash. It goes on … probably more
trashing than saving. Some envelopes stand out, while others are tossed in
seconds. Take a tip from your own mail-filtering process. Make sure the
direct mail letters, lead follow-up letters, and sales letters that you’re sending
are not the type that end up in the trash. Be creative, be clever, and be
unique. Before you can get them to read what you’ve sent, you’ve got to get
them to open the envelope.