We’re very excited because our new white paper is ready. It’s called Direct Marketing Trends for 2010.

Registration isn’t required, but the 1st page has an embedded form just in case you have a direct marketing project you’d like to talk to us about.

Click Here To Download

P.S. We have 3 more white papers planned for release in 2010. If you’d like to suggest a topic, please email Ryan.

Welcome back. Have you subscribed to our blog's email updates yet? Remember - you also get the free whitepaper pictured left on cutting direct mail costs.

The January 2010 issue of our ‘Sample of the Month’ direct mail case study features our client American Craft Council and their test of new outer envelope creative for their #10 control package.

American Craft Council worked with ProCirc, their circulation management partner, to execute this test with Ballantine handling the printing and mailing portion of the project. Sage Communications handled the copy & design.

Both #10 packages (control and test) contained the same exact 5 components: 2-page letter with perfed reply card, 2-panel brochure, buckslip and BRE. The offer for both was a 1-year subscription to American Craft magazine for $20.

   CLICK HERE for pictures of the #10 control and test.

Test Summary

American Craft Council’s control package was a #10 package with a plain, double-window outer envelope. One window carried the address block and the other window showed a personalized membership card.

In January of 2009, they tested this against a #10 package with the same exact components, but a completely different outer.

The OE had the address block imaged on the back and only one window on the front. This one window showed the personalized membership card and blended in with the creative. View pictures here.

Test Strategy

The strategy with the test was to add more impact to the outer envelope’s design and, more specifically, to make the OE creative work together with the window placement for greater effect. The design was created so it looks like two hands are giving the membership card to the recipient.

Test Results

The small initial test panel included in the January 2009 campaign had a 64% increase over the control verification panel! American Craft Council rolled out to the new package in their next campaign six months later. With the much larger rollout quantity, it still captured an impressive 36% increase in net response over the previous control. The “two hands” package is now the current control and Ballantine just mailed a 3rd campaign one week ago.

Questions & Comments

If you have any questions or comments, please leave your message below. You can also email Ryan Cote by clicking here.

This post is a follow up to our previous video on the new USPS tabbing requirements.

Part of the new requirements is that wafer seals have to now be 1.5″ round on translucent paper. This applies to multi-page, stitched booklet mailers.

This poses a problem for designers because, previously, wafer seals were smaller and clear plastic. The front and back creative of a booklet mailer now has to take into account these larger, translucent wafer seals.

The easiest thing to do is just stay away from using dark colors where the wafer seals are going to be.

Here’s an example of a slim-jim magalog we just produced for a client that has the new wafer seals on it:

You can see the wafer seals top (2) and bottom (1), but the light colors of the creative helps them blend in more. It’s not perfect, but it’s acceptable. Here’s a close up of the top for a better look:

So while we thought these new wafer seal requirements were going to inhibit design, it’s really not that bad. And they open easier than the previous plastic ones too.

If you want to discuss the creative of your next booklet mailer, please contact us.