Sneaky, but Smart Scam: Hand Addressed Junk Mail

Direct mail marketers have hit on a new way of getting their offers into the hands of the public. They are sending out direct mail in hand addressed envelopes. This is more expensive than mass printing, but promises to pay off in boosted response rates. Nothing builds trust like trickery.

As we go through the stack of mail for the day, most of us sort through it with lightning speed, throwing anything that even looks like junk mail into the 'shred and discard' pile. Suddenly, our fingers stumble across a textured envelope, and the speed sorting ritual comes to an immediate stop. Is that vellum, wearing a hand inked cursive address? This is clearly Important Mail, likely from a friend or family member. This piece of mail demands our full and immediate attention. It turns out to be junk mail! Instead of causing offense, these letters are generating new business and strengthening ties with regular customers.

Many companies, large and small, are using this new approach to get customers to open and actually read their direct mail offers. They are sending out hand addressed envelopes with regular first class stamps as postage instead of the laser printed presorted mail marks. Some are also using a higher grade of paper, of the type most often used for graduation or wedding invitations.

What prompted this junk mail facelift? A large number of direct mail offers are thrown away unread, whether they would be of interest to the consumer or not. On the other hand, personally addressed envelopes rarely get sent directly to the garbage bin unopened. In our experience, a handwritten envelope usually contains correspondence from friends or family, perhaps an invitation or a letter catching the reader up on personal news. Junk mail in disguise flies under the consumer's cynical radar. Once opened, the offer is then considered and might get a response.

Is it worth the extra money to try a handwritten mail campaign? One company that provides this service as well as other personalized services, Write On Results, states that direct mail responses can be increased up to 400% this way. The site also mentions that the use of handwritten mail should be incorporated into a more traditional mail campaign instead of replacing the tried and true methods of telemarketing, emails, and regular laser printed direct mail envelopes. We can still expect regular junk mail along with the fancier breed.

This new tactic may seem sneaky to some, but it might be a smart way to reach the public. We may start noticing a higher grade of direct mail in our mailboxes, and perhaps in our garbage bins. It may be difficult to call it junk mail anymore with a straight face.