The 70% theory of direct mail says that around 70% of people who receive direct mail at work glance at it for a few seconds – and then throw it in the bin.   The other 30% are divided into three roughly equal groups.

• 5% of B2B direct mail never gets to the intended company because the delivery service lose it, because the recipient company has moved or gone bust in the last few weeks and we haven’t removed them yet (we do work hard at making the mailing lists 100% accurate, but perfection is tough to achieve), because the a burst water main soaks all the mail, because of a fire in the sorting office...  or for some other similar reason - you get the idea.
• 15% of B2B direct mail never gets to the intended person because he/she has left, doesn’t exist, has decided never to open any direct mail, or is on holiday, has a secretary who doesn't like work and so throws the mail away, or because the mailshot got to the recipient's desk, and then he/she spilt coffee all over it, and so threw it away.
• 10% of the mail however gets read for more than the first few seconds, and the recipient then decides against further action, passes it on to a colleague, sets it aside for action later or, amazingly, decides to place an order.

So what's the point?

The point of this analysis is that most people don’t throw it away immediately – they throw it away after looking at it for about five seconds.  To put this another way around, they start to look at it because they believe that it might, just might, be something that is helpful or positive.   But they are really only going to give you a few moments - if your message hasn't hit them in the face within those first few seconds, then you have lost your chance.

These figures are only approximate of course but everything I know about direct mail suggests they are more or less right for most campaigns.  So, accepting the figures as roughly correct, then logically the only group of people worth focusing on as you contemplate how to raise your response rate is the 70%.  

You can try to deal with the first two groups by having pretty envelopes and better mailing lists, but quite probably all you will end up doing is putting another 1% of your mailing into the 70% group  – but in the end the mailshot still gets thrown into the bin after five seconds.  (Of course the issue of envelopes is more complex than this, and I'll look at this another time, but let's leave that aside for now.)   

My point here is that the simplest, easiest way to up your response rate is to persuade the 70% of recipients who get your mail shot and bin it after five seconds, to carry on reading.   To me, the only question worth asking here is, "how do I get people to read my opening statements, and so stay with me?"   

Keeping the reader beyond 5 seconds

The way to deal with the 70% is to ensure that your advert is immediately (and I mean immediately) seen as being quite different from all the junk that your poor recipient is getting each day from your rivals and everyone else who mails them.  You must differentiate your advert from that sent out by everyone else – and that differentiation must be immediately obvious.   No subtle differentiation will do here – you have to stand out from the crowd.

Which means you need to

1. know what the opposition is up to – get on their mailing lists, read their websites, and collect everything they do by way of advertising
2. make sure that the very first thing the reader sees when opening your envelope could never be thought to have been created by any other company in your industry sector.
3. speak about your potential customer and his/her needs, wants and interests, not about yourself.  (Again this another of those areas where there are exceptions - but if, as with the issue of envelopes, if I go into every issue we'll be here all night.  Most of the time this statement is true.)

So you need a headline at the front of your brochure, or on your letter, which grabs the reader by the throat and does not let the reader go.

Of course there are many other things that can help - but without that headline, that attention grabbing and holding statement or question, everything else falls apart.   You will still get sales of course, because we all know that 10% of the recipients will read on, no matter what.   But if you really want to get exciting sales - if you want to double your response rate - you need to get that opening statement just right.

The update

Charities and mail-order firms fare less well, getting only 70% opening, as we predicted,

In a commentary on this some observers suggested that this was because financial mailers were better at the job than anyone else, but this seems unlikely to me.  I think it is more likely that financial-services brands are more successful in their use of direct mail as they don't use see through polythene envelopes with just the catalogue underneath.   Even using just my own observation of my office I can see a lot of catalogues going straight in the bin because they are clearly not relevant today to the person to whom they are sent.  If they are in polythene you can see this at once.

This does not mean paper is better - because all paper will achieve is the opening of the pack, and then having it thrown in the bin.  Nothing is gained by the use of more expensive paper in this case.

But leaving this side issue aside, it is interesting that our figure of 70% that we have quoted for 3 years is perhaps an under-estimate and that the real figure overall might be closer to 80%.  All of which heightens the importance of what might be the now rather badly named "70% theory".

Tony Attwood

Free analysis of your mailshot

This article is written by Tony Attwood, Chairman of Hamilton House Mailings Ltd.  If you would like to discuss the writing or design of your mailing campaign, or indeed a single mailshot, with Tony, without cost or obligation, just call 01536 399 000, or email Creative@hamilton-house.com   You can also send Tony a copy of your latest advert and he will call you back with his thoughts on how your response rate could be raised - again without cost or obligation.