The problem with most Direct Mail is that it ends up in the bin as junk. The main reasons for this is all poorly constructed Direct Mail looks the same. So here are some things you can do that won’t cost you much, that will increase your chances of being read.

1. Ask your printer about using a different stock. Most junk is printed on 150gsm cheap gloss. For a few pennies more you could use a card, or recycled linen. The second something looks different, you will get a chance to be read.
2. Try purchasing an address list, and stick the mail in an envelope and posting it to individuals. If the cost of production per piece goes from 10c to $1, and you do 1000 instead of 10,000 the cost is the same, but the response rate will be higher.
3. Send something other than paper. Even just a piece of string with something attached to the end(a key for real estate agents?). Most distribution places will post anything that fits into a letter box, try sending something other than paper.
4. If you have to send something on paper, use different fonts, colour, even ask to emboss the paper. It may be cheap to print in one colour on a slip of paper, but that will get no one’s attention.
5. Make the offer a no-brainer. Make it risk free for the reader. “Try us for 30 days free” etc.
6. If you are doing a special, think of something other than money off. Try giving away a $50 redballoondays voucher instead.
7. Instead of making your mail a single sheet, look to print a booklet with more information about your industry. You could collaborate and create a booklet of important numbers that households can keep.
8. Use one big bold picture that shows off the experience people are expecting to feel. Avoid “clip-art” at all costs.
9. Partner with a few allied businesses who want to advertise on the same piece. Extend the range and reach of the mail. Something that looks more substantial is more likely to avoid people’s “junk detector”.
10. Double the potency of any direct mail campaign, with a small spend on advertising elsewhere. You could advertise online, or in a local paper while you hit the area with your mail piece.

The bottom line is you dont have to just do the same as always, the same as anyone else. Talk to your marketing agency and printers and do something different.