At the heart of the XZ theory is the fact that most B2B advertising (and quite a bit of B2C advertising) is awful.  At the heart of the overload theory is the fact that we get far too much advertising each day.   For these reasons people throw direct mail away.

But they don’t throw it away immediately – they throw it away after looking at it for about five seconds – because they believe that it might, just might, be something that is helpful or positive.

This strange set of affairs was set out in the 70% Theory which was first introduced in the book “Educational Marketing: The Theory and Practice of Selling to Teachers” by Tony Attwood.     It says this:

• 10% 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, because the mailing list has errors in it, or for some other similar reason.
• 10% 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.
• 70% of B2B direct mail gets to the right person, is opened and looked at for up to 5 seconds before being thrown in the bin
• 10% of B2B direct mail gets read.

These figures are only approximate of course, but assuming you buy into this theory then logically the only group of people worth focusing on is the 70%.  You can try and 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 group 3 – wherein it gets thrown into the bin after five seconds.  (Of course sometimes great envelopes can make a difference – but this is normally where the copy is really good anyway, and the 70% group has already diminished to 50% or less.  You have to get the copy sorted first before you play with the envelopes.)

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.

In particular if your rivals are using announcement adverts or grabby images you must be sure not to use them.  Not only are they poor methods of advertising, but also, by travelling a different route you are already ensuring that you are putting your response rate up by looking different.

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.