If you’re planning on sending mailpieces to your home care marketing prospects, here’s one direct mail marketing mistake you don’t want to make.
It’s dropping your mailpieces in the mailbox without checking to see if your mailing is up to specs.
My son and I spent a good hour at the post office stuffing and sealing 27 envelopes with a gift inside – a small golf pencil. (Not the cheap kind, but a Dixon Ticonderoga with an eraser.)
Yes, I’m teaching the 14-year-old about hard work and being smart in business.
Turns out I was the one who had to get smart.
Direct mail marketing mistake
Two days later my mailbox was stuffed with 14 envelopes that didn’t make the grade. There was a bright red ugly stamp on each one – $2.79 due on each envelope.
Years ago, I had seen the giant envelope-shredding – er, sorting – machines in the downtown post office. The envelopes zip through a small optical gateway that reads the envelopes at lightening speed. If the envelope thickness is over 1/4 inch (the thickness of my pencils), the mailpiece must be hand stamped.
For 27 pieces, my postage would total not $19.17, but $94.50. That’s a lot.
Of those 14 that didn’t make it through, I picked three to send at the higher rate. The postal lady was kind enough to cover up those big ugly red warning words with the postage tape.
My mailing involved the gimmick of the pencil, and my letter inside explained why I enclosed it. This “lumpy” mailing attracts curiosity, and gets the recipient to open it.
Direct mail is a great way to reach your home care prospects. Don’t want to make a direct mail marketing mistake? Check the US Postal Service’s price calculator first.
Now we wait to see the results.
Read this related article of ours: “Home care client retention – one print idea that works.”
