Having thought of the first two leaflets it may seem odd to go on and consider a third.  What is the difference?

This has been a common view in direct mail, until May 2006 when we undertook a series of trials in which mailings all despatched on the same day either had two leaflets or the same two leaflets plus a third leaflet.

What we found was that in some cases the third leaflet made no difference, and in some cases it actually reduced the level of sales.  Until this point the view had always been that this was impossible.  The additional leaflet would either have no effect or it would improve response rates.

In  fact, in one case the addition of the third leaflet reduced the response rate from a highly profitable level to a disastrous zero.

This can only be explained through the theory of direct mail as set out all through this series of articles.   What we have to consider the perception of the pack by the individual.  Clearly in this case the individual will have become interested in the items being sold  through the first two leaflets, but then have all that positive feeling removed by the third leaflet.

What this shows is that the traditional temptation of many mailers to add several extra leaflets just to in case the potential customer is interested in this rather than that is a very dangerous approach.  To do this is is to risk confusing the recipient.  The message, in short, must not be confused.  You must take your product or your service, and produce leaflets that sell just that service within a unified theme.  Nothing else is acceptable, everything else is dangerous.

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The full set of pages covering The Theory of Direct Mail are shown below.  If you want to move to the next page, just click here

Below is a list of the factors that make up The Total Theory of Direct Mail:

1. Why most firms ignore the theory and produce direct mail that fails.
2. When and where the mailing is received - what the recipient is doing at the moment of impact.
3. The personality of the individual you are mailing, and how that affects the mailing.
4. The envelope - it is the first thing you see - does it make any difference?
5. The interaction between the brain and the paper - there are issues of neurophysiology at work which must be taken into effect.
6. The mail is opened - the next five seconds are vital; so what does mailsort do at this point? 
7. Differentiation - now the customer decides, "Have I seen this sort of stuff before?"
8. The customer decides to read - but then colour can get in the way.
9. Using images to try and hold attention - the grabby image problem.
10. Skipping - no matter what you try, most recipients do it.
11. The end - as likely to effect the result as the start
12. The second page - its function and layout.
13. Subsequent page interference - so unexpected most people refuse to admit it exists - but it really does happen.
14. What do you want the reader to do next?  
15. Ordering - are you making it easy?

This article is an extract from the book "Doubling Response Rates: The Theory and Practice of Direct Mail" (c) Tony Attwood 2006