Here is a picture I snapped of a direct mail kit from Nielsen TV ratings I got in the mail the other day. It had a few cool strategies I want to point out to help you in your direct mail campaigns. The most obvious are the two crisp dollars. This forces the reader to have a connection with the mail piece. The first connection is curiosity. They will ask why did they send me $2? This leads the reader to look at your direct mail more carefully. Most people check their mail over the trash can. You have an extremely short time to grab them by the throat and make them take a few more seconds to read your mail piece. Money can grab just about anyone’s attention. Now you don’t have to use money, you could use a number of things. The point is to be outrageous, different and attention grabbing. There is a really cool book on this by Bill Glazer, you can check it out here. The $2 also created another emotion: obligation. Unless you are greedy and heartless, most people are going to want to give something back in return for a gift, even if its just their attention. The $2 works well here. People are going to feel obligated to fill out the survey and return it. After all Nielsen sent $2 in advance for it (brave souls)!

The second strategy I want to point out is ease of response. The survey was short and had three ways to respond. You could either log in to their website, fill out the included paper survey (with envelope and stamp included), or call on the phone. If your marketing materials are not easy to respond to, they WILL NOT work. It’s like a billboard with nothing but a hard to remember phone number. Worthless.

I would have changed a few things about this mailing. I probably would have changed up the envelope to be a standard first class one instead of a branded one with Nielsen all over it. And most likely done some work with headlines and testimonials. Nonetheless, a great mail piece. A tip of the hat to you Nielsen! I’m curious to see your results!

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