This cause and effect relationship brings with it an added benefit. It can tell you how to price your product. One of the most difficult things in business is to know what to charge for your product or service. Most products have fixed setup costs. A typical example of this is in the publishing industry. The cost to acquire the content and layout of say… the New York Times is the same regardless of what the subscription base is. How do they determine the best price for their product? The best way is to target prospects via direct mail, over time...., with different prices...., with different subscription length, etc. Because each mailing piece can include a 'source code'you can make different offers to portions of your mailing list. It then becomes easy to measure the effectiveness of a number of different offers sent out at the same time.

In theory, current technology makes it possible to make a different offer to each and every one on a mailing list. Of course, that would be pointless, since there would be nothing to measure if everyone had a different offer.

It's very easy to determine how effective a particular advertising campaign is because by sending your direct mail out with different offers, price points, etc., you can determine which offer generates the best ratio of responses and your cost to create and mail each piece that gets a response (cost per response).

When you mail, you receive inquiries or orders. Ultimately you develop a ratio of the total inquiries, or orders that correlates to the quantity of mail you've sent. The greater the quantity and frequency of your mail, the more responses you get. The less you mail and the less frequently, the fewer responses. But regardless of the volume and frequency, you always get responses. That's how direct mail becomes predictable and measurable.

Broad-based advertising media needs to reach many "unqualified" prospects in order to find a few good ones. While the cost-per-thousand for broad-based advertising seems low, the total dollar investment to reach each qualified prospect can be extremely expensive if your product appeals to a limited audience. By contrast, properly deployed direct mail virtually eliminates paying to reach the "unqualified." In the long run, this costs a lot less.

Conversely, if you're trying to reach the President of a company, you have a fat chance of getting a CEO to open a window envelope. Typically, window envelopes say check, invoice, advertisement, or solicitation. A Company president probably won't even see it. So if you're mailing an important sales letter to the president of the company in a window envelope, your chances are slim to none that she'll see it. You need to be more subtle and creative to get to and motivate the president of a multi-million dollar business to open your envelope, read your message and consider your proposal.

However, the president does see an almost greeting card....especially if there's a fancy stamp in the corner, no return address, and it's handwritten and marked "Personal." It looks a little too personal for an accounts payable clerk to open, so it finds its way to the president's desk.

The real question in choosing envelopes and developing direct mail strategies is not one of cutting costs. It is one of readership. That's why you see advertising direct mail with 'teaser' copy (the offer) printed on the outside of the envelope. All of the time, effort and expense of getting an advertising piece into recipient's hands are worthless unless he opens it.

With that said, now ask yourself the key questions: "To Whom are we mailing to? What will motivate them to open our envelope?" The thing you don't want to get hung up on is "How much more will it cost?" It doesn't matter if it costs a few cents more if those few pennies assure more readership and greater response.

You always want to do everything you can to assure that your prospect actually opens your envelope and reads your message. The biggest cost item for direct mail is postage. The post office doesn't charge you based on the effectiveness of the mailing piece. They only care what it weighs.

For example, if you're offering a well-known product at one-half the going rate, the message and the attraction are simple. Low price. You may not even need an envelope. Envelopes must be opened to read the message inside. Perhaps a large flat mailing piece that doesn't have to be opened is the best idea. The added benefit is that multiple people can see and read your message if it's not in an envelope. The U.S. government did a study on this (is there anything they haven't done a study on) and determined that an average of twenty-nine people see the average mailing piece before it gets into the recipient's hands. Sounds like a good reason not to hide your message in an envelope, doesn't it?

No, we're not talking about the time it takes your postal carrier to walk up the driveway. We're talking about the time it takes from when you drop the mail into the postal delivery stream to the time you expect it to reach its destination.

Only the mail stream controls the mail. While there are no absolutely reliable ways to know for sure how much time is involved, thanks to more and better efficiencies in the postal delivery system, it's now easier than ever to know.

Obviously there are advantages to mailing first class rather than by bulk. With first class mail, you have a significantly higher level of confidence that your mail will reach its destination when you expect it to. If it doesn't you will get it back and can delete the address from your mailing list (saving you postage on future mailings).

Certain times of the year are naturally busier than others too. Christmas mail is always heavy. You can bank on the fact that the sheer volume of catalogs, sales flyers, greeting cards, and so on, slows the system down.

And now and again there are random bottlenecks--they just appear and the mail stream gets bogged down.

Some direct mailers feel that certain days of the week are better for mail to arrive. They argue that mail solicitations to businesses that arrive on Monday or Friday are less likely to be read than those arriving on Wednesday or Thursday. In most cases, the day the mail arrives isn't nearly as important as the first impression it makes when it reaches the prospect.

You see if it attracts attention, very likely it will be seen and read regardless of the day, hour, or minute it arrives.

Most people speak effortlessly. They know what they want to say and say it. It may not be perfect English but it is effective communication (and that's the key!). But ask that same person to sit down and put it on paper, the English language seems to come to a dead halt.

Writing can be as effortless as speaking--if you don't make it harder than it is.

If you can give us your basic thoughts on what you want to say we can rewrite it so your message will be effective.

Standardization is a good thing. When things are standardized, uniform, and consistent, they tend to look neat and orderly. Uniforms tell us which players are on which team. Uniformity makes the folks in their choir robes look like they're all truly in harmony, even if they don't sound that way.

Postal regulations reward discounts to mailers who stick to standardized sizes and shapes for envelopes, postcards and mailers. For that, mailers like you can be truly grateful--most of the time!

But standardization can work against you. You know, too much of a good thing!

When it comes to direct mail, the first order of business isn't necessarily to take advantage of every postal discount allowable. The first order of business in direct mail is to attract attention, so that the second order of business--the order, call, or inquiry happens.

While the message on the front of the envelope or mailer, and the use of color and design are strong motivators, size and shape make a big impact, too. Envelopes and mailers that aren't traditional in size or shape often attract more attention. In other words, when you offer a big discount...do it BIG!

There are times when sticking to the standardized sizes and shapes are the obvious and efficient way to go. At those times, why not take advantage of all the discounts? But there are other times when it's worth spending a little more per piece to assure that you get the attention you want. The incremental cost of creating, printing, and mailing something that isn't standardized may not be as foreboding as you think.

We're always pleased to discuss shapes and sizes with you, along with all the other elements of postal standardization. Because education is a good thing-- even when it's standardized.