We all know what it’s like to come home after work and open up our mailbox and see several pieces of mail that we lovingly call “junk” mail. We take our mail to our trashcan and sort our mail in two categories, save and dump. You will not miss those pieces of mail and maybe even feel bad that paper was wasted on sending you a message that you didn’t even care about.
You take the mail that you decided to save from the trash and carefully read over them. One envelope, in particular, feels heavy in your hand and has visually pleasing print on it. When you open it, you realize it’s a card from your insurance provider, personally thanking you for choosing them over other insurance providers. After you sort the rest of your mail, you throw out the card along with any other letters that you don’t want to keep.
You threw out the card, but you remember the message and the effort of your insurance provider.
This story shows us that “junk” mail and direct mail are two very different species. The previously mentioned tends to be all the same, with messages that cater to everyone, whether the general public wants to hear it or not. The latter is a targeted and relevant message sent to just the right person, even at just the right time. Your insurance coverage was about to run out at the end of the month, but after receiving the card and knowing that prices are competitive, you continued your relationship with the insurance provider. By making direct mail pieces memorable and specific to the receiver, the investment in marketing efforts become much more effective then meaningless mass communication to unwilling respondents.
Comment (1)