Sale Increasing Envelopes

How To Get Your Envelope Opened

Perhaps the most critical moment in a direct mail campaign is when the letter arrives at the prospects address.

You have to make the cut. Most people sort their mail over the wastebasket. If you don’t make the cut it doesn’t matter what’s inside the envelope. You could have the most phenomenal copy in the world, but “if it don’t get opened, it don’t matter.”

How To Choose The Right Envelopes For Your Direct Mail Campaigns

It has been my experience that the more personal you can make an envelope the better. But I have tried a variety of things that have worked when I couldn’t justify the cost of really personalizing an envelope.

Think of how you react when you pick up your mail. You get the stack and start flipping through it, bill, junk, junk, bill, bill, bill, advertisement, coupon mailer— oh wait,what’s that? It’s got a real stamp on it, my name and address are typed and I don’t recognize the sender. Hmmm, wonder what this is? So you open it right!

Well guess what, almost everyone does it the same way.

There are a lot of different options available to you. For most applications standard size envelopes work great. Here are the tips to make your envelopes get opened.

For a personalized looking letter:

1. Use real stamps — you never got a letter from Grandma with a metered postage print on it did you?
2. Use unique stamps, Daffy Duck, dinosaurs etc. — this is an additional little technique that will make your envelope stand out from the rest.
3. Hand address them or use a handwriting style font or a typewriter font — this creates curiosity and will get the letter opened.
4. Don’t put a company logo or business name in the return address— this doesn’t apply in EVERY situation, but in most cases putting a company name or logo screams “sales material!” A name and address is sufficient; there’s plenty of room inside the letter to put all that stuff.
5. Use customized stick on return address labels—this can give your envelope a much more personal look, it’s the kind of thing that you don’t see businesses doing right! You get envelopes from friends with those kinds of stickers on them. That’s how we want our prospect to perceive us, as a letter from a friend.
6. Avoid metered mail to new prospects— businesses use meter postage and that indicates the letter probably is trying to sell you something. You need to get your envelope opened first.

If you are going to use third class mail, try to use a bulk rate stamp, it will give the envelope more of a first class look and the recipient may give it more importance and not throw it away.

If you are sending out a series of letters, as in a sequence, make each envelope different. If you are doing a large campaign, it might make sense to custom design an envelope specifically for your mailing.

Utilize free envelopes whenever possible. For high dollar products or services, it is worth it to use the post offices priority mail envelopes. They will be perceived as something special and will bring you to the top of the pile.

There is also a company that makes “fake” priority envelopes, which have a dramatic look to them and can be used for regular or bulk postage. This is a powerful way to lower your mailing cost without sacrificing impact.

The company is called Response Mailing Express. The lady I worked with there is named Cindi Probst, although I don’t know if she is still with the company.

Here is their website http://www.responsemail.com, when you get there click on envelopes and forms, or you can use this URL which is their direct link to the envelope info http://www.envelopes.com.

I still believe Response Mailing Express is the best vendor for the fake priority envelopes, but if you’d like to compare, here is another provider http://www.actionenvelope.com.

Yes, I have used them very successfully in the past. They got opened and the offer was responded to.

Of course, getting the letter opened is only part one of the battle.
Part two is making sure you’ve put something compelling inside and mailed it to the right target.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with and I wish you all the best with your efforts!