Hi, thanks for stopping by, don’t mind the dust! Yes, we are back on line and ready to give you all of the tips, tricks, info and of course our opinions on direct mail marketing. To re-kick off our new posting year, I stumbled across a great study done by GAP Research that gave the top 12 reasons that consumers either open or read their direct mail. Some of the stats might surprise you, here we go (cue Letterman, “The Top Twelve Reasons……”):

1) 55% – The mail is from a brand or company that I know.
2) 51% – The mail is personally addressed to me.
3) 50% – I’m interested in the product or service.
4) 39% – I can clearly see that the mail contains a free sample or voucher.
5) 27% – The mail is for local services or events.
6) 21% – Because it’s a “competition” (this group need some help!)
7) 15% – The mail has interesting packaging.
8) 10% – The mail looks fun or humorous.
9) 6% – The design.
10) 6% – The envelope is attractive.
11) 3% – The color.
12) 12% – Other (I can only imagine some of those responses!)

So often we get hung up on the minute details of design, copy writing and such, but as this study shows targeting your mail gets a much higher open rate than the cool design you’ve spent a small fortune on. Have a great week of direct mailing!