Determining Your Package Format
If you've been following these columns faithfully (bless you!), some of this may be repetitious, since these decisions enter into phases of direct mail planning and creation treated elsewhere, but it should be useful to pull them together here and put them into the writing and design context.
1. Self-Mailer or Envelope Package?
Many small business newcomers to direct marketing would prefer to use self-mailers simply because theyâre usually less costly to produce and mail. Remember however, that if theyâre cheaper for you to produce, theyâre likely to be perceived as cheaper by your prospect or customer as well, an image you donât necessarily want to project.
The term "self-mailer" denotes any format that doesnât require an outer envelope. An oversized postcard is a self-mailer. so is a double postcard. Beyond that, self-mailers can be designed in any format which, when itâs in its final folded form, is legally mailable. An 11" x 17" flat folded in half to 8 1/2 x 11 is a common format. Another is to take that piece and fold it in half again to 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. The USPS requires self-mailers to be wafer-sealed at least once, and other specifications apply to addressing areas, etc.
Self-mailers are "look-at" pieces, not "read carefully" pieces, so if your product pitch and information is at all detailed or complex, youâll need to support it with the more robust real estate of a direct mail package.
Also, keep in mind that direct mail works as a selling medium precisely because it is "mail!" It is essentially a letter. And it borrows from the letter, all the personal attention and meaning, the business importance and/or official significance that letters hold in our culture. (On recent speaking trips to South America and Asia, I found that this is not necessarily the case elsewhere.) The further away one gets from the look and feel of the letter, the more we reduce the impact of the piece. Self-mailers, of course, donât have letters - except for one you might try to simulate on one of the panels. (Iâve also seen a single-page letter folded inside a self-mailer, but I have no idea whether that works as well as a regular letter package. Like everything else in this process, it depends on the product/offer/market mix.)
Because of their "throwaway" and impersonal look and feel, self-mailers generally have a credibility problem. You wouldnât want to use them for fund raising, for example. They canât carry the depth of feeling and sincerity that successful fund raising requires, and which is achievable with a letter. Likewise financial services, which are considered too personal. All other factors being equal, a self-mailer typically pulls in the tenths of a percent response while envelope packages pull between one and five percent. The self-mailer will likely be more cost-effective, however, and naturally, there are always exceptions. I had a self-mailer pull three percent for a professional book.
Further, since there is no reply envelope, any offer requiring payment will be significantly more difficult to achieve with a self-mailer than with an envelope package.
So what can you use self-mailers for? Lots of things. Impulse buys like books, especially with a 30-day Free Trial offer, sell well with self-mailers. Seminars and conferences can be impulse buys as well, particularly for attendees, and they sell well through self-mailers. Newsletters, where a Free Trial issue is offered, can be marketed effectively to middle management, but not to top management.
Some surprisingly pricey software products have used self-mailers successfully, but mostly for lead generation.
Try self-mailers for products and events where your lists are not well-targeted where others in the company might be equally good prospects and might see the self-mailer around the office.
You can also leverage the visibility of self-mailers by planning them as a campaign of 3 or 5 pieces. The repetition can help offset the credibility problem I mentioned above.
A self-mailer can work to a customer list, to cross-sell, upsell, or for aftermarket sales where the same offer to a cold list would bomb.
In certain circumstances, you can also use a self-mailer to test lists cost-effectively, in advance of a more expensive direct mail campaign. The self-mailer "stalking horse" can help you get the package targeted right, especially where the list universe is large and uncertain.
2. One-Step or Two?
If youâve decided the envelope package is the way to go, the next consideration is whether your product (including "service" as a product) will require a one-step or two-step process.
Will you sell the item directly from the direct mail piece, or will you use your direct mail to obtain leads or inquiries to be followed up by phone, sales force or more direct mail (or all three!). Or to put it another way, whatâs the offer?
If the offer is the product itself, and itâs under $100, youâll want to keep it to a one-step process. Using a two-step or lead generating process for a low-cost product simply costs too much to be profitable. Remember that, especially in lead generation, we sell the offer, not the product -- so the decision to go two-step will inform the makeup of the package.
A pure product sell may dictate a "full" package: four-page letter, four-page, four-color brochure (or larger), lift letter and order form. A business-to-business lead generation offer may not need a brochure at all, or may be kept to 2-color. Often a letter and reply form is all thatâs required.
3. Consumer or B-T-B?
Consumer packages tend to be larger and flashier, with more "push" and therefore are more expensive than business-to-business packages. Consumer package range from slightly oversized #12 and #13 envelopes to 6" x 9" and 9"x12". Business-to-business packages tend to be #10 "business" sized, or on occasion, a 9" x 12" First Class business type envelope.
In business-to-business, your level of push will depend on what part of the food chain youâre aiming at. The higher up the chain, the more conservative your look and feel should be, and usually, the less costly the package. The vice is also versa.
A rule of thumb I've basically followed over the years is, the greater the commitment or involvement or purchase I'm expecting from the recipient, the more "format" I have to deliver to him or her to help them decide. A $5,000 direct purchase is going to require a series of mailings, and unless I'm basically augmenting a salesperson's efforts, I'll need to put much of what a salesperson would deliver face-to-face into the package.
I'll have to show the product with a full-color brochure, sell the product with a 4-page letter, and support both with testimonials or other proofs (maybe in a lift letter). I'll need a response device and a reply envelope to make ordering easy.
But what if I am augmenting a salesperson's efforts between sales calls? Then I want him or her to do the heavy lifting (and he does as well). I'm going to keep my mailings quick and to the point with 1-page letters, maybe no brochure at all and at most a fax-back form or reply card in case of a response. Remember, the salesperson is doing the selling and will issue the call to action when he or she thinks the time is right.
What might I send the prospect in the case of a long sales cycle?
• A white paper
• Updates of product data sheets
• Press releases related to the product/process environment
• An article reprint w/ a short note
• A reprint of the new ad campaign
• A special, limited time price or bonus offer
These would be treated lightly with a single page letter, or note attached.
Sell the Offer
In direct mail, we sell the offer, not the product. The free trial, the no-risk 30-day preview with money back guarantee, the free in-house consult or survey, the limited time 2-for-1 deal, whatever.
We support the offer basically with benefits, product information and "reason why" persuasions urging the prospect to act now! We support that with testimonials, research and/or test results, wrap it all in a credible guarantee and call for action.
For most products, that's going to require what we call a "full" package; outer envelope, letter, brochure, order form, perhaps a lift letter, and reply envelope. The size of each of those components will depend on how much real estate you need to get the job done. In many cases, you won't know the answer to that going in, so you should plan some tests.
Do you need a brochure? Maybe, maybe not. Test it.
2-page letter or 4-page letter? Test it.
Lift letter? Test it!
But be sure you test the key elements first: lists and offer.
If for some reason you can't test all those components, then you need to give yourself the best shot out of the gate and include all the components in your early mailings. What you don't want is to spend $x to launch a product (or to try direct mail for the first time) and end up with more questions than answers. (Would it have worked if we'd included a color brochure?)
Hot or cold lists?
Another important consideration is the list you're using. If you're mailing house lists, you may not need as much "push" as you would for cold lists. House names know you and, presumably, trust you to some degree. I once sold a software program add-on to a house list with a 2-color, four-page letter/brochure. The 2-page letter was on pages 1 & 4, and brochure copy with screen illustrations were in the center spread, pages 2 & 3.
But I'd never try that to a cold list. For a cold mailing, I'd want a separate color brochure and a 4-page letter, if I'm selling it out of the package, or a 2-page letter if I'm getting qualified leads. The offer in that case might be a white paper, if the software is pricey, or a no-risk trial if it's
under $200.
Complex or simple?
If your product needs to be demonstrated via photos with callouts, etc., naturally you'll need a brochure, probably 4-color. The function of the brochure is to "show the product in use," which is often essential to robust sales. If you're selling a directory — something everyone understands — you may need only show a typical listing. You still may want a brochure (8 1/2 x 11, 2 folds to #10) to give the company some presence, and to show the listing with appropriate callouts.
(A "callout" is a line drawn from a product element out from the illustration to a brief blurb describing that element.)
Industrial products can usually benefit from "how-it-works" or "how it's-made" illustrations. Also performance charts and test results, maybe a case history or at least a testimonial, all of which indicates a brochure, and hopefully something more interactive than the usual deadly dull data sheet.
As you can see, there are no hard and fast rules for these decisions, just general guidelines, and lots of exceptions Test as many options and variables as you can, and continue testing your package's elements going forward.
When you've tested your way to a profitable list, offer, and format, you'll have, in effect, a business-in-an-envelope. It's a business that will take care of you for as long as there's a market for your product. And remember, direct mail is back-end business. However successful you may be, you'll be building a list of responsive customers. Be sure you have something else to sell them.
