Thursday, July 16, 2009

Direct Mail Piece Components

Are you familiar with the elements of a direct mail piece? Here is a list to help you out.

1. The outer envelope: This is a critical piece of the direct mail package. The way it looks will determine if your recipient will open your envelop or not. Remember you only have 8 seconds to engage your recipient. You can put a teaser at the front, an offer at the back, information, a private message. Make sure that what you put there counts!

2. The letter: Here is where you can convince people to give. This is where good storytelling is important. It does not matter if the letter is short or long, two or three pages, it does not matter. I've had letter written in four pages and it did not bore me a bit. You can put highlights, margin notes, underlines. There so many options but you need to use the tool which is appropriate.

3. The reply device: You need clealy tell people how to give. The reply device should spell out pertinent terms and condition and how it will benefit the non-profit. IT should show there where to send money. If you offer a premium, they need to know how and when they will get it. Make the reply device sound exclusive. You also have the option to put deadlines. Someone also send that we should design the reply device first before we write the letter so that it will be clear to us what the goal of the direct mail piece is.

I hope that this has been of help. God bless!

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