2 Big, Revitalized Opportunities on the Outer Envelope
September 9, 2009 By Ethan Boldt, Editor-in-chief, Inside Direct Mail
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Another mailer taking this creative tact is the nonprofit World Vision, which splashes the front of its 6″x 9″outer with the copy "URGENT UPDATE," followed by a secondary message that the prospect's donation will be multiplied by 15 to provide even more relief to Sudanese refugees. Copy on the back of the envelope reinforces the message of urgency and also provides a URL to bypass the mailing contents and give online immediately—a gamble that could work in World Vision's favor or against it, thus the need for testing.
2. The Big Window: A "Sneak Peek" That Gets Envelopes Opened?
Two and even three windows are common on envelopes, but coming back into vogue is the oversize window that stretches across the entire front, or back, of an outer envelope. In fact, in the Who's Mailing What! Archive mailstream, it's been used recently by a wide range of mailers, including GEICO, KAEHALL Estate Planning Coordinates, Southwest Airlines and The Wilderness Society.
GEICO and KAEHALL showcase teasers as well as the prospect's name and address. The Wilderness Society shows another envelope inside the OE, which stresses the "contents: Petitions to Congress and the U.S. Forest Service prepared for Ms. Prospect's signature." And Southwest Airlines uses the big window on the back of the envelope to display a blue sky, jet, and "new arrival" road sign with the prospect's first name personalized and formed by clouds. Other efforts also have shown the first line in the letter, or even the Johnson box.
All represent another way to give the prospect a sneak peek of what's inside the envelope, says Friesen, and hopefully enough to convince them to open it. "This is the same idea behind making it look like there's a check in the envelope ... safety paper background behind the addressing with the words 'Pay to the order of' to entice people to open the envelope," she describes.
Again, this technique should be employed with caution. "Don't do it just because you can. People get excited about doing it and including it in their printing bids ... but they have no strategy behind the added cost. It's different. It's clever. But does it work?" asks Friesen, who says the nonstrategic use of unique windows in direct mail is easy to spot.
Companies Mentioned:
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