I got a direct mail the other day from a shipping service, selling their wares. The mailer came in a brown C5 envelope with a big white crooked label. My name wasn’t quite right but the address was ok (you can’t have it all). The print inside looked like it was designed (if that’s the word) in Word, bitmapped logo, Times as the font. It was printed badly in black and white on a bad photocopy. You get the idea…
The direct mail purist would hate this mailer on so many levels. Cheap and nasty equals no response.
I kind of see things a bit differently. I read the mailing and did not bin it. By reading the mailing it had achieved its first aim. If the mailing had been sent using email marketing (spamail as I call it) I doubt I would have even got to see it. By having a physical presence it was hard to ignore and easy to refer to in the future.
Sure if Harrods had sent me a mailing like this, I would question their marketing nous. But this was a small business selling their services on a small budget and as such it should be commended. I reckon this company would have got a good response for their efforts. The mailing was targeted. It wouldn’t have cost much (for reasons stated) and it would have had a high chance of being read (how many Junk mails do you read?)
My mission in this blog is to prove direct mail isn’t dead and that it’s a cost effective alternative to spamail for SME’s. I’ll be sharing tips, techniques and stats which hopefully will enlighten and inspire you. My website Real Print has been built to give SME’s their own online system to create direct mail.
I’m always happy to see examples of good of direct mail that SMEs are producing and feedback on my mission of flying the flag for print!