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Need a Quick Ship Gift? Visit our Quick Ship Gift Ideas section now. The Postman Cometh Each of us is inundated daily with impersonal sales contacts of some sort. Many of them arrive by mail and have been "personalized" which only means means we've landed on somebody else's prospect list. Sometimes the day's mail includes information we actually requested but rarely. What Do You See? Look at the contents of your own mail box. Besides the obligatory bills, what do you find? A lot of junk mail. It's easy to recognize. The envelopes are a dead giveaway with their "open me now or you'll miss out on a great opportunity" orders. And the mass self-mailers speak for themselves. Most of it lands in the waste basket or recycling bin, unopened and unread. The standard business-size envelopes that are left often contain poorly written or poorly duplicated form letters. (A good look at the automated addressing or pasted on labels gave you a clue to what was in store.) Into the trash they go. That's it until the next day, unless it's your birthday. Congratulations. You just threw away a lot of somebodies' hard-earned dollars without a single twinge of guilt. Back At Work You sit down at your desk and what do you do? Write a form letter so you can mail it to a lot of strangers who can throw it away without reading it. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Note: Direct mail DOES work or the concept would have been abandoned years ago. If only two percent respond, it's considered a successful campaign by the trade. Of course, sending out thousands or hundreds of thousands helps the law of direct mail averages work in your favor. And makes money for advertising agencies, printers, direct mail companies, postal services and anyone else in the chain. Read on for the approach that can get you a 95 percent response. Making Direct Mail Work For You If you want to send something that will get opened, you have two choices: 1. Reactive - Get them to ask for it for it first so you are basically filling their order; or 2. Proactive - Use the birthday card approach What's different about the birthday card approach? It is genuinely personal and always contains good news. When you receive one, you separate it from your stack of junk mail for special treatment, even when you know it isn't anytime near your birthday. You may open it first or save it for last; either way, you are expecting something nice to happen. The envelope clues to recognizing a "birthday" card are: 1. Odd size - either 5"x7" or 4-1/4"x5" 2. Postage Stamp - Usually first-class but actual bulk mail (now called "standard mail") stamps create the same effect 3. Hand Addressed - Whether the handwriting is neat or sloppy is irrelevant, the fact that it came from a "real" person is self-evident to the receiver 
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