Making Your Mail Work for You -- The OE

Most nonprofit direct mail packages are fairly simple: an outer envelope, a letter, a reply form and a reply envelope. Four components.

Sure, you may include an insert of some kind, maybe a decal or other front-end premium. Or perhaps you print your letter and a detachable reply on one sheet of paper. But the essentials are the same. And each of those components must work for you.

For the next few posts, I’m going to talk about what each of these components does for your mailing. Yes, each one has a purpose beyond the obvious. Curious?

First up: Outer Envelopes.

The Outer Envelope – or OE – is, arguably, your most important element, at least to start with. Nothing’s going to happen unless you get the outer envelope open. So the words, type, pictures and other design elements you put on your outer envelope need to aim for one thing: getting the recipient to open their mail.

Here are a few things you might find on a typical non-profit mailing’s Outer Envelope:

Name

This can be the organization name, the name of the letter signer or both. But you should make sure some name appears on the OE. People don’t want to open mail if they don’t know who sent it. Besides, these are supposed to be personal letters from the signer to the donor.

Address

I always advise clients to put their actual, physical address on the back flap. Again, since it’s a personal letter, your donors want to see where it’s coming from. And while you may get your mail at a PO box, a street address gives them something more concrete.

Teasers

As I mentioned last week, a lot of direct mail and fundraising professionals will tell you that teasers are old-fashioned and scream “direct mail”. Maybe it’s because I work primarily with activist organizations, but my experience has been that a strong, intriguing teaser will still beat out a blank outer envelope much of the time.

But if you can’t come up with a strong, intriguing teaser, go blank. A blank envelope will almost always beat a bad teaser. (And try mailing a blank closed-face envelope for an even better open-rate. Nothing says personal mail like a closed OE.)

Photos and Other Graphic Elements

We all know that a picture’s worth a thousand words…so why not include one on your OE? Photos and sophisticated graphics have become increasingly common on OEs in the last few years, as design software has become more accessible and printing costs have come down enough to make graphics affordable.

But remember, you want people to OPEN the envelope, so make sure your photo (or graphics) are intriguing, compelling and emotionally resonant. Don’t scare your donors by using something too graphic or unpleasant.

Above all, tailor your outer envelope to your mailing…and test, test, test. The OE’s sole job is to get opened -- so make sure you test different techniques to see which approach gets the best response from your select group of enthusiastic supporters. While one organization or mailing theme can use photos and splashy teasers, another will need to go subtle and sedate. The only thing that matters is that you get your donor moving on to the components on the inside of the package.

Next up: The Letter.