The toughest job you face as a B2B direct marketer is reaching
your prospect with your message. Reaching C-level executives is
particularly difficult because they employ mailroom staff and
executive secretaries who screen their mail, or your mail,
depending on how you look at it. So unless your direct mail lead
generation letter or postcard or self-mailer stands out from the
rest, it won’t reach the desk of your potential client.

That’s why dimensional mailers are one of the most effective
ways to reach elusive prospects with your sales message. A
dimensional mailer is simply one that has more than two
dimensions. Unlike a letter, postcard or self-mailer, it has
three dimensions. Dimensional mailers are usually boxes, but
they can also be sturdy envelopes that have something
three-dimensional inside. These kinds of packages are also known
as “lumpy mail.”

Dimensional mail is effective because it stands out. It gets
attention because it doesn’t look like everything else that the
executive is receiving that day. Dimensional mail is also
effective because it always gets opened. I am confident in
predicting that no one who receives a box 36 inches long, 9
inches wide and 5 inches deep, bearing the prospect’s name and
job title on the top and an intriguing headline, is going to
pitch the box in the trash unopened. Innate human curiosity is
too powerful for that.

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