How to Get Your Letters Opened

!: How to Get Your Letters Opened

Think about last time you received a stack of letters. Which ones did you open first?

Was it the letters you knew were bills? Was it the letters which had advertising 'guff' plastered around the outside. Or was it the letters which looked like they were from a friend or colleague?

In this busy world, your letters are generally opened over a wastepaper basket.

So half the challenge is in getting the damn thing opened.

Yet what do many people send out? Mail which has their company name and address plastered all over it. Or worse still, mail with sticky labels on it. This sort of stuff usually spells "I am trying to sell you something."

And it tends to lower the percentage of people who actually open up your envelopes... and read them.

Consider the alternative.

A handwritten envelope arrives at your doorstep with nothing but the name and address of the sender.

You think: "I wonder who is writing to me?" and you rip into it.

On the top of a letter, there is a yellow post it note which says: "FIRSTNAME Friend, Read this. It's great"

When you peel off the post it note, there's a headline at the top which appeals directly to your needs.

Let's imagine your first child has just been born only a couple of weeks ago, and the headline says...

"Which of these mistakes are you making when feeding your baby?"...

You'd be hooked, right? You'd want to know more.

You see, you can have the best copy in the world. But if your envelope doesn't get opened... and peak the client's interest...then it doesn't matter.

So next time you send out a stack of letters, consider hiring someone to hand write the envelopes. Test it out and see how it works for you.

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You will notice many experienced direct marketing firms actually use a lot of 'teaser copy' on the outside of the letter to hook people's interest.

My thoughts on this are the more promotional your envelope, the less chance it will actually get delivered. Especially in business to business. Think about it. It needs to get past the mailroom, the secretary, and whatever else filters the incoming mail.

Another thing to remember here is these large direct marketing companies have the luxury of using a number of creative people... and sending out a myriad of tests.

If you test 45 different types of teaser copy, there's a good chance at least one will pull in a better response. However, my guess is the average business is not in that position. So the chances are a boring old hand written envelope will work better in 95% of cases.

What sort of difference could this little tip make to your next direct mail campaign? Truthfully, it could put thousands of dollars in your pocket.