Letterboxing

This article was contributed by Geoff Clynes. Geoff is a partner is Business Line, a Warragul-based marketing group offering help and advice on business development issues. This article is the fifth in a series of eight.

This is the first of a series on channels of communication. Underlying all of these papers is the assumption that this channel is right for you: that’s to say, it gets you in touch with the right people, at a suitable time, and for a reasonable cost. That decided, these notes are about making most effective use of a channel.

Market communications is a moving target, but we just have to keep shifting and improving our aim because the target is such a rich prize: we get our buying messages into the right hands!

Letterboxing is putting promotional material in the street (or Post Office) mailboxes in an area: all the residences in a suburb, all the businesses in a town or Postcode, all houses with scraggy gardens or broken roof tiles - there are dozens of possible permutations. Australia Post will deliver for you within certain negotiated guidelines (not scraggy gardens, I’m sorry), but if you do-it-yourself, selections like scraggy gardens, this side of the river, on three consecutive sunny Mondays in September, they’re all possible.

Do-it-yourself letterboxing is perhaps the least expensive promotion method around. That’s undoubtedly why it’s been so abused and consequently is under-rated for its effectiveness. City and country, about 10% of mailboxes are now labelled "No junk mail" or similar, so our fame (or some damned amateur’s infamy) precedes us.

So what’s it good for? Why use it?

Apart from the

1. Comparatively modest cost per message, it
2. Suits the local retailer/consumer service provider, and is
3. Ideal to saturate a small area - for example, as a test market

Even so, in a snowstorm of junk mail, you still need to get noticed: how does it work, well, without annoyance?

For consumer products, where EVERY receiver could genuinely get value from your offer, it’s vital to break away from the routine:   Initiatives YOU MIGHT TRY

- Material:  paper fridge magnets, cloth swatches

- Shape: page, rectangular origami, a round "circular"

- Size:  A4, folded bigger, smaller, in envelopes

- Colour:  black ink on white some colour, for Heaven’s sake

An origami crane might keep working for three weeks, (and for some businesses, that’s enough), a colourful fridge magnet for a couple of years.

Using an envelope trebles the cost, but it really impresses some people.

Most important- don’t waste people’s time: make your offers commercially attractive.

Try this:

Find an aspect of your business that might appeal to people who live or work in some defined local area. Develop an offer, make sure it’s about the best around for the market you’re in.

Package it to catch attention and make a good impression on the folk who usually buy this kind of thing. Make them WANT to find out more. Make it easy for them to respond – include at least two ways they can advise their interest back to you.

Then put it aside. Revisit it every few days for a week or two – look for little ways to improve it.

Now put it to use:

Choose a small area, say 100 mailboxes, to try. Use Australia Post to help with area selection and delivery if you want.

Deliver your precious message one morning, taking care to respect "No Advertising Material" preferences.

Log the results: - How many people responded, when - What was misunderstood - How many made a commitment, and why - Any complaints, about what Review the test: what should you change, where should you try next, when?

Next Topic - Advertising

© Copyright Business Line 2003: This text is for use and publication by the Gippsland.com web portal, and may be reproduced and distributed without charge. It remains the property of Geoff Clynes & Associates (trading as Business Line), and may not be sold or distributed for profit without the owner’s express permission