If You Don't Read This I'm Gonna Croak!!!

Next to the Valley View Ferry

Richmond, Kentucky

What would you do if you sent someone an envelope in  the mail, and you would die if they didn't open it?  Would you just send the letter in a plain envelope?  Would you disguise it as a piece of junk mail?  Would that be a good idea?

I think a good idea would be to disguise the envelope in such a way, that people would be so curious about what was inside that they would go crazy if they didn't open it!  That is the challenge that business people face everyday when they create direct mail letters.

What usually happens when you send an advertisement in the mail is that a person gets the mail out of the mail box, glances at the envelopes, and then starts chucking the envelopes that look like junk mail and advertisements right into the trash.  This happens a lot when you are selling to or courting a company that your company is trying to do business with. People in business get tons of junk mail, so it is imperative that an enterprise like yours gets the other guy to open your envelope and start reading about your opportunity or product.

How can you do this?  Well, you just have to get creative. The most important thing that you can do is to make sure that you use handwriting on all aspects of the envelope, including the return address.  If you make it look very personal, whoever you are prospecting with your letter will think it is personal correspondence and more than likely open it.  (Once it is opened, you will need to keep their interest in the letter you sent them, but more on that subject in another post.)

Another way is to use some outrageous advertising techniques. Here is an envelope from  a company called "Doodleopes" As you can see in the picture, Doodleopes have unique designs on them that makes the envelopes look like they were "doodled" on with a blue pen.


These envelopes are designed so that they look like someone scribbled all over the envelope and is designed to pic the receiver's curiosity so much, that they will definitely want to open them.   This way you don't have to draw on the envelopes yourself and they will definitely get opened.

There are tons of other techniques like this that you can try at your business and you can see more of them right here tomorrow!

-Mark "Elmo" Ellis