A good marketer understands that when sending unsolicited direct mail you’re trying to get people’s attention. Presentation is important, but the most important thing is to be generous, and to be generous without strings. “Free” is great. “Free – if you sign a two-year contract” isn’t being generous. It’s an incentive but it’s not generosity. Putting your brochure into ten thousand envelopes and sending it to me is not giving me anything, in fact you’re stealing my attention from me.
Lil-lets are getting it right in their new direct mail campaign. They’re being properly generous by giving out samples of their product and their rival product. The details of the Lil-lets campaign are here.
There are very few companies who have brands and competitors large enough to make this a successful strategy. If you’re reading this an considering buying a list and sending out a brochure please, think twice. Every 21 year old customer Lil-lets converts they could easily retain for another 25 years. Is your customer lifetime anywhere near that? Unless you sell something you can buy in the smaller branches of the supermarkets I seriously doubt it.