The mailbox: that most ruthless of marketing environments. One false move, and your promotion is consigned to the pit of advertising oblivion: the trash can, from whose bourn no order form returns! If you're lucky, your prospect may first reflect on the value of the paper your promotion is printed on -- in which case, your promotion will end up in the recycle bin instead: a consolation, it is true!
In direct mail, you can do everything else right and your outer can STILL sink your promotion. It's your first chance, most likely your ONLY chance, to catch a prospect's attention and convince him that your package is worth his valuable time. And so I spend considerable time figuring out how an outer should look, what it should say AND how it relates to the person who takes it out of the mailbox. In some cases, you bang the gong and break out the bells and whistles. In others, you seek to float quietly in on a raft of discretion and restraint. But you can never, ever forget the simple single over-riding point and purpose of every direct mail envelope which has ever been created: to get opened!
Here are a few of mine. Would you open them?
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Sample 4
Sample 5
Sample 6
NOTE: Roll over the image samples to see their reverse.
Outer from Family Circle sweepstakes mailing
Outer from BMG Music Club new business mailing
Playboy Magazine holiday gift subscription mailing
Sports Illustrated for Kids Polybag package
Polybag Outer for gift subscription promotion
ESPN The Magazine new business promotion
Many of the samples on this site are reductions of the actual color composites which Marketpoint presents to its clients to show copy and layout in place (though a few are digital scans of printed pieces.) Because our presentation composites are taken to such a high degree of refinement, clients are better able to evaluate our creatives. Moreover, the approval and production process is greatly facilitated.