Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Please Critique Our Direct Mailer :)

Posted by Anonymous on 250 Points
Hi everyone. I've enclosed a direct mailer peice that we are planning on sending out to a VERY VERY select group of high-end new movers surrounding our lighting showroom (our target niche market). Hold your horses! The $100 gift card idea has worked for us countless times with our local real-estate agents, so we are expanding on that theme by selecting 1000 houses every week to mail this out to for 6 weeks during our busy season. Our markup covers the $100, rest assured - as our avg ticket sale is over $1000. That info aside, I would like suggestions and critique of the wording, the layout, and the taglines. I'm doing the graphic aspect myself so please keep graphic suggestions to amateur level. What can I do to increase my rate of return on this offer?? Thanks ! (sorry for the low-res pics...I had an issue with photoshop)

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RESPONSES

  • Posted byJay Hamilton-Rothon Accepted
    "We invite you to discover..." - why not simply say "Visit..."
    which will also allow you to make "FREE $100 gift card" stand out on the second line. Or, "Hurry to claim your FREE $100 gift card from..."

    "Complementary" should be "Complimentary"

    In your bullet points, add the web URL after the mention of your web catalog.

    "www.Plaza-Lighting.com" can be changed to "Plaza-Lighting.com"

    I would consider using the website's logo to indicate of the plain text for the store name - with the sunburst behind the name).

    Can the card be combined with other cards (to create a $200 discount, for example)?

    The phone number on your website 732.536.5535 differs from the card's. 732.536.5536

    你的网站不应该使用a gmail address - it should be using something like info@plaza-lighting.com
  • Posted byilanon Accepted
    Sorry to disappoint you, I think you have to do some extra work on this.
    Creatively, it doesn't stand out in a sea of similar post cards flooding our mail boxes these days.All of them 6X9...
    It looks quite bland overall, which Will work against it.
    There is no single focal point to attract my attention to the message.
    At this point, I would pay attention to the remarks made prior to my comments on the copy, but would get the designer/art director to focus on being single minded in his/her design.
    Focus the consumer eye on one thing, don't make him glaze over too much "stuff"
  • Posted on Accepted
    I would add to ilan's remarks. I think you're making the mistake of trying to tell your customers too much, therefore they'll get nothing.

    The first thing I would do is change the headline to get the attention of your audience (new movers) so that they know a reason for the free gift. $100 is a very generous gift, and people will be naturally skeptical that there is a major catch (even when you tell them there isn't). If you indicate that the gift is because they're new in town, then you remove that skepticism from the start, as well as get their attention when leafing through their mail.

    如果我是做这一块,我至少删除哈lf the copy from the back. Way too many 2-sentence focal points. Find a way to be concise. For me, $100 free should be enough to get me to take another look. I doubt I'd be on the fence and think "well, I don't know...but look! They've got 200 manufacturers! Ok, well let's check it out." In other words, if the $100 didn't get me, 200 manufacturers won't swing me. In my mind, 200 manufacturers and 13,000 sq. ft. of display space is redundant. Both say "large selection". Boil your sales points down to least common denominator bullets and you'll be a lot better off.

    And truthfully, if you were my client, I'd remove all those sales points anyway. They take away from the main point, which is "We're giving you $100 cash to buy something in our store!" Everything in your copy should reinforce that.

    My .02.
  • Posted on Accepted
    I'll think on it today and get back to you. You're on the right track as far as thinking outside the box, but not everyone is buying new, so the pain point won't be the same as someone who has a new home with crappy builder's grade fixtures, so I wouldn't want to limit my appeal right off the top.
  • Posted bylathanson Accepted
    In addition to the above stated:
    Overall: You state your target is VERY VERY upscale, but this mailer clearly is not. Design is critical, as this is the visual representation of your showroom and business. If the best you can do is amateur level, I highly suggest paying a professional to accomplish this for you.
    To really stand out in the mail, I suggest your postcard be a truly unique size and/or turn it vertical. You should also consult someone regarding paper; the tactile quality of a mailer also represents an upscale image and stand out among the many pieces of mail people get every day.
    Ideally you should have a compelling image on the front (the squiggly lamp is great!), cropped in an interesting way, with your logo and website smaller, and all the supporting verbiage on the back.
    When you have a bunch of text to deal with, organization and hierarchy are critical. I think you can cut half this copy: if the purpose of the mailer is to have people use it as a $100 gift card and come to the showroom, get rid of the online catalog stuff. Bullet point the rest of your offerings, and make the map about half the size. And please, PLEASE, make sure this is proofread before it is sent! I think if you just rearranged this stuff and created hierarchy your design would be much better organized, received, and acted upon. If you'd like to contact me directly I'd be more than happy to redesign this for you as a freelance project:)
    Good luck, and I hope that the suggestions collectively made here can help you.
  • Posted byDeep Janardhananon Member
    Here is my two cents.

    In cases where my clients give away something for nothing, I insist on making sure its "next-to-nothing" and not nothing.

    For eg. "Bring in a light bulb, any light bulb from your home, and get a $100/- gift card."

    Now there is the curiosity factor. Instantly people are wondering what you are going to do with old bulbs and how it can be cost-effective for you.

    If you give away $100/- for nothing, my experience has been scepticism comes in and they say "Oh, he covers it with his markup".

  • Posted on Accepted
    这是definitely much improved. Make sure to correct the spelling of "ugrading".

    I still think it's a little off, though. The headline is too long and could be pithier. I don't want to read that much to find out what you're offering. How about something like ,"Lose the 'builder's grade' fixtures in your new home. Here's $100 to get you started." Using the term "builder's grade" simultaneously gets rid of a whole sentence (fixtures your builder left behind) and also has the proper "air of contempt" for the junk that they put up, and reminds people that they have sub-standard fixtures in their brand new home.

    I'd also make the headline a little more prominent. The nice big photo of the lamp is nice, but I don't like the headline being in a box. A designer would do great things here. If you can't do it this time, I'd consider it next time. Even if they just arrange the text of the headline in a more pleasing way, where the text leads the eye around, instead of having to read a sentence that's just centered at the top of the page. Trust me, it'll make a world of difference.

    Overall, kudos for taking advice and making the changes you've done so far. Your piece is much improved for it.
  • Posted byChris Blackmanon Member
    What a great experience to follow this thread through and see the improvements being implemented at each stage.

    If there was a "thread of the week award" on KHE I would nominate this question! Thanks for being such a participative question-asker, and thanks too for making the images available for each iteration - there is so much that many people will learn from this.

    One thing I don't get is the grey rectangles on the back view of the card. If they are simply space fillers, why not lose them and make everything else use the space better? Or are there supposed to be images there?

    I also have a question about the offer.

    Maybe your lighting fixtures are all very much more expensive than $100.

    But if they are not, and you had a fixture priced at $50, $85 or even $99.99 would the purchaser walk out with it for no payment if that was all they wanted?

    Is that what you wanted to happen?

    It just seems exceedingly generous to me.

    ChrisB
  • Posted on Member
    hi!


    I'm a professional graphic designer.

    I like the ad and the concept, but, your ad needs a visual of some sort. this is very text-heavy. You need osmething that will catch people's eye, and I don't think the little map cuts it. You should drive people to your website for directions, and use a better visual.
    I also think that you use a few too many exclamation points.If used to frequently, the emphaisis is lost

    That's my 2 cents!
    terrie

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