Vol. 7 No. 2

DM News & Tips

Survey says market by mail
The majority of adults say they prefer getting advertising and promotional materials through the mail. In a survey conducted by the Cable and Telecommunications Association, 70% of respondents preferred direct mail or bill inserts. Most found DM useful. By contrast just 5% preferred e-mail and only 1% the telephone.

Scrubbing saves money
Data hygiene services (called "scrubbing") improves deliverability of a mail list. Studies have found that on average 20% of a typical house file is undeliverable, vacant or seasonal. Eliminating undeliverables saves money on printing, production and postage. In addition, 5% of records are small businesses, which may require a different message than for a consumer mailing.

FTC announces priorities for 2004

• Enforce the Do-Not-Call List.
• Amend telemarketing rules to curb up-selling.
• Safeguard data security to continue consumer privacy protection.
• Track down sources of deceptive spam and enforce "Can Spam" Act.
• Pursue marketing fraud in all its forms.
• Require permission for fax marketing

USPS tests Post-It notes on flats
The Post Office has allowed repositional notes (RPN’s) to be applied to the outside of lettersize mail for the past year now. Marketers who have tried it are reporting increases in response of up to 45%. Rules for the RPN, its placement and the mailpiece size are very specific. Some rules could change. The USPS has announced that it will be testing RPNs on flats.

Seven seconds to open the envelope
The primary purpose of the envelope…is to get the package opened. Unfortunately, it has only seven seconds to do its job. That’s the standard accepted by most marketers. The figures came from an eye-camera study conducted by the German professor, Siegfried Vogele. It was conducted and published in 1968. He also found that a total of 20 seconds was devoted to the entire package. The most common order of readership is the envelope, the letter, the enclosures and the response device is last.