- Talk directly to your recipient
In reality, most mailing campaigns are sent to thousands of people but that doesn’t mean that every envelope has to look the same. With individual envelope segmentation, it is possible for you to print the first name of each of your contacts onto your envelopes. This makes the recipient feel like the communication is speaking to them and them alone. A refreshing lack of formality here will also allow your letter to stand out against the rest of the envelopes on the mat, ensuring it is opened first.
- Write a teaser line on your envelope
You can sell your proposition and increase the open rate of the mailing with the perfect teaser line. For example a holiday company could incorporate the following line onto their mailing envelope – “Your adventure awaits…” This exciting line would entice the audience to open the mailing and peak their interest in what the business had to offer. You could also incorporate both the front and the back of the envelope in a two part teaser line to introduce and create a buzz about your offering.
- Get creative with your envelope imagery
Another way to increase response using printed envelopes is to use creative imagery. If you create an envelope design that stands out against the rest of the post sitting on the doormat, you are guaranteed that it will not be ignored. Using emotive imagery in this way, you can even stir up a certain feeling in your audience before they have opened the envelope. In the case of the fish and chips example, that feeling may well be hunger. The fish and chips restaurant that used this design successfully catapulted the desire for food into their contacts mind immediately prior to them reading their communication.
- Sell your offering on the envelope
If you are presenting a great special offer to your audience, let them know on the envelope. That way, from their very first glimpse of your mailing, your contacts are aware that they have something to gain from the communication. If your offer is hidden in the contents of the envelope, it could be discarded before they even know a deal is on the table. A bubble on the front of the envelope is the perfect way to raise an immediate awareness of your special offer.
- Provide a deadline for a response
Don’t allow your communication to be relegated to “the later pile”. The sad thing about the “later pile” is that it often gets forgotten about, buried under magazines and newspapers or simply transferred to a waste bin. If you are presenting a special offer, why not put an earlier expiry date on this and print an “offer ends soon” message on the envelope. This element of urgency could compel many of your recipients to act sooner and will help prevent them from forgetting about your proposition.
- Test various elements of your envelope design
As your printed envelopes can be segmented into multiple versions, why not experiment to find the most effective envelope that your audience react to most. You could test the colour of the print, the wording of your special offer bubble, the type of imagery used or even the type of envelope you send. Simply put in place different offer source codes or website landing pages for the different letters, so you can establish which one provoked the best response. Be wary that you only test one thing at a time though, otherwise the process gets confused. When you’ve established the best teaser line, use the winning line for your next campaign and test something else for your second campaign.
Pillarbox is a privately owned company specialising in the manufacture, printing and personalisation of envelopes and packaging. Many of our products are made either from recycled materials, or wood pulp which comes from timber grown in sustainably managed forests.