Types of Direct Mail
by John Eberhard

I recently attended an excellent two-day workshop on direct mail given by a company called Padgett Thompson. I was surprised to learn a great deal of specific technology on how to create effective direct mail, most of which is contained in an excellent book entitled Successful Direct Marketing Methods by Bob Stone.

One topic covered at this workshop was: what are all the various types of direct mail pieces? Although there are many different types of direct mail packages, they all fall into five basic categories. In this article we'll talk about each type, what it contains, and the best uses for each type.

The most important type of direct mail package is called a "classic package", which is sent inside an envelope, and includes a letter and a response device such as a business reply card, or an order form and envelope. It often contains other items too, such as a brochure or flier. The classic package is considered the most effective type of direct mail piece, but it is also the most expensive because of having to print the several items included.

The letter is the most important part of the classic package, and is generally the first thing people read when they open your package. The letter is often personalized with the recipient's name and address printed on it.

The most important thing in writing a direct mail letter is to hit your public's buttons, i.e. the things they want that you can satisfy, or the things they dislike that you can solve. To find out these of course, you have to survey your public.

A self-mailer is defined as a direct mail piece that mails by itself, without being put inside an envelope. These can be anything from an 8-1/2 X 11 sheet folded down to the size of a standard envelope, to larger size sheets folded down to various sizes, to a brochure, a post card, etc. There are many options.

One of the advantages of self-mailers is that they are usually cheap to produce, as they are usually made out of one printed sheet of paper.

Newsletters are a very effective vehicle to sell your products and services. Usually these are used for maintaining current customers and keeping them buying more, although I have worked for companies where newsletters were also used effectively for selling to raw public.

Newsletters are usually inexpensive to print and mail, although they require a lot of man-hours to put together and regularly maintain.

A newsletter has to contain a mix between news-type information and sales-oriented information. The news is the draw that gets people in and gets them to then read your sales copy. Conventional wisdom is that sales copy should not exceed 40%.

Catalogs are excellent for companies that offer multiple products. This category also includes the circulars that are put out by grocery stores, drug stores, department stores, etc.

Bob Stone, in Successful Direct Marketing Methods, states in his "30 Timeless Direct Marketing Principles" that with catalogs you should put your proven winners in the front pages. He also says that a new catalog to a catalog customer list will outpull cold lists (i.e. new lists of people who have not bought anything from you) by 400% to 800%.

A card deck is a collection of 20-40 index-card-size cards, packaged inside a plastic bag and mailed out to a mailing list. Each card inside the deck is a separate ad from an advertiser. Card decks are often put together by a trade magazine, and mailed out to their subscriber list. They are kind of a cross between a direct mail piece and an advertisement.

Whether or not card decks will work for you depends on your market. They work incredibly well in some markets, such as the computer field, but in other markets they do not work at all. A good gauge of whether they would work for you is, are there a number of card decks produced and sent out in your market, and are there a lot of advertisers in them?

One big advantage of card decks is that you can reach a very large group (circulations range from 15,000 to 150,000) for a fraction of the cost of sending a regular direct mail piece to that list.

© 1995-2005 by RealWebMarketing.Net