What’s in the Box?

Not the box from Seven, but I am horrified at times when I look through my own mailbox.  There a lot of great pieces I receive as well, which is why Going Postal will now be doing a weekly review in mail.  We’ll sort through it all and pick the best and worst of the week as a way to provide insight on best practices in regard to design, content, list hygiene and overall mailbox presence.  This week we will focus on postcards and how they are all not created equal.  I received 3 postcard sized pieces this past week and one stood out form a design perspective.  They designer did not leave adequate room on the address section to fit a barcode and therefore did not receive automated rates.  Now maybe the piece received such a response that the extra postage did not matter, but savings of $0.04 per piece would have been nice I’m sure.  In contrast the other postcard pictured here tweaked the conventional design a little and therefore left room for a barcode and reaped the rewards of postal savings.  My point with comparing these pieces is not to pick on one particular mailer, but rather point out that in a time when invested marketing dollars are being scrutinized for effectiveness, every penny counts and could mean the difference between a successful campaign and a failure.

I had to bring another piece to task just because of all the attention QR codes have bee receiving recently.  This piece comes from a large mailer, which is what makes it even more puzzling how this happened, but it did.  My most recent Costco mailer had the great coupons that I always look forward to, but on the front of the piece it had a QR code.  I thought this was great and could not wait to scan it, so like a kid ripping open presents on Christmas I quickly get out my phone to scan the image only to find a lump of coal instead of a shiny new toy.  The scan produced an error, but why?  Maybe it was the app I was using, but wait, there was a link to get a scanner right underneath the image, hot dog!  So I go to the site to download another scanner app and – oh no:(  The link is a web page with an error code message.  Now I am deflated, I will never know what great grilling recipe or whatever it was supposed to be behind that QR.  This is what gives this technology a bad name and will keep the end users form fully adopting it.  I hope this gives every mailer the message that we need to test, test and test again.

Please feel free to add your comments and share your own mailbox stories with us.

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