4 Questions to Ask About the Self-Mailer

December 17, 2008 By Ethan Boldt, Editor, Inside Direct Mail

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2. Why is self-mailer usage going up in some markets?
"Postage rates. It's the cost. It is, I think, that simple to a large degree. In consumer mail, the trend has usually been to mail smaller but smarter because of the volume. It can be a tremendous cost to large mailers," explains Penn, who says it remains to be seen whether increasingly smaller formats can perform as well in B-to-B situations. "A fair amount of real estate is often required to tell complicated stories ... especially when it comes to selling big-ticket purchases like machinery or technology."

Ryan Cote, director of marketing at Ballantine, concurs. "I look at self-mailers as a simplified mail piece. They're easier to produce and generally cost less (depending on many variables of course) ... but they still allow for a variety of response vehicles: toll-free number, Web site address, PURL, tear-off reply card. We even have some publication clients testing a double postcard self-mailer with a BRE glue-tacked inside," he reveals.

For Kern, he's witnessed a trend to use self-mailers where variable data printing comes into play. "Thus for mailers who have audiences under 500,000 and can afford a 15-cent to 25-cent cost per package given their profit margin, they are using self-mailers," he illustrates.

3. In what markets should the self-mailer format be kept to a minimum?
Anywhere letter packages remain the norm, self-mailers have a tough road to haul in terms of both response rate and, certainly, longevity. "I far prefer letter packages to self-mailers, and so do most prospects," says Nancy Harhut, senior vice president/managing director of relationship marketing at Hill Holliday, a full-service marketing company based in Boston.

Kern says, "For direct sale, drive to the phone, I'm not a fan of [self-mailers]. I'm just an opinion of one, but having the responsibility to mail over 500 million pieces of mail and seeing hundreds of tests a year, I can't say I've seen self-mailers be a workhorse for any of my clients. Maybe it's because we have such scale [that] we can produce a letter kit cheaper than a self-mailer."

In fundraising, for example, one would expect to see a rise in self-mailer usage because of postal costs hitting that sector so hard. Accordingly, Save the Children sent out a successful triple postcard back in November 2007 (profiled in the February issue of Inside Direct Mail). But no shift has occurred in the sector, yet, with the percentage of efforts that are self-mailers actually sinking to its lowest level in the past five years in the Who's Mailing What! Archive to 4.1 percent this year.

4. What are the best ways to maximize this format?
Just as there are many new players in the self-mailer game, there are equally many new ways to play it. "Where self-mailers can seem to work with our clients (notably telecom[munications] and finance) is with retail-like offers, where the message is simple ('do this before X date' or 'go to this URL for a special offer') and the format underscores it," says Harhut.

For the B-to-B market, Bly agrees, partly because he says marketers are convinced that executives have no time to read. "Their self-mailers have minimal copy—typically a headline, three to five bullets and a Web site URL—with an emphasis on creative color graphics," he describes.

That design emphasis is key, of course, for self-mailer success. "It must have an arresting mail panel, a cover that makes you want to open it, then a clear presentation of the offer, which crescendos into the call to action. All easier said then done!" admits Kern.

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