Scary Outer Envelope Messages And Photographs

It happened to me. And I’m sure that, at some stage in your life, you have been confronted with the same problem too… a fearful looking envelope.
In my case it was a charity appeal. And I remember at the time wondering to myself: ‘Who on earth would want to open this?’ You see, the picture on the front of the envelope was downright scary. And the promise in the tagline of the envelope was that there was a lot more scary stuff inside.
So I kicked for touch. I gently put the unopened envelope to one side and told myself that I would come back to it later when I had more time for reading scary stuff. Huh! And, of course, I never did!
That was once!
But I can’t count the number of times when a dreary, lack-lustre or depressing looking envelope arrived on my desk and I very deliberately delayed opening it because I just wasn’t in the mood for reading dreary and depressing things right then. Of course, my plan always was that I would open it later. But sometimes I never did!
That happened more than once.
The problem with so many direct mail and charity appeal envelopes nowadays is that they try too hard to achieve too much and they often end up failing to achieve anything at all worthwhile. Time and time again I have been told by agency executives who should know better that the purpose of their clever tagline, or the exotic or unusual photograph that they are recommending for the outside of an envelope is to set the tone, or create the right mood for, or prepare the reader for reading what is inside.
Hey! That’s not right.
The purpose of having a picture or a message on the outside of a charity appeal or a direct marketing offer is to actively encourage a recipient to open the envelope as quickly as possible and read what is inside it. Simple!
Of course it’s simple. And yet it’s something that so many charities and businesses get so very badly wrong! My advice to you before you sign off your next charity appeal pack, or new business product offer is to ask yourself this very important question:
Does the message and/or picture that features on the outside of this envelope actively encourage me to open it immediately and read what’s inside?
If it doesn’t, don’t hesitate for a single moment – change it immediately!
Sometimes all it takes is one extra word to increase the likelihood that the envelope will be opened. For example if you get an envelope from a charity with a message on the outside which reads: ‘Please Help us.’
There isn’t really a great incentive for you to open it.
But if you changed this message by adding one single extra word, followed by three dots like this: Please help us by…, you immediately turn a passive, and somewhat tired, call to action into an active, interesting and intriguing one.