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As we said in our last blog post, direct mail is still very much alive and is a great tool to get your customer’s attention and drive up your sales. Here are some great examples of how a creative direct mailer can be transformed into a really cool piece of paper.

People are tactile creatures and despite our love for virtual things enabled by the latest technologies, holding an object in your hands provides a different experience, just think of a toddler reaching and wanting to learn through touch. This is what more and more companies are starting to realize and building this experience into their direct mail campaigns.

Picture receiving a brochure in your mail with a peel off that reads “For the smell of a healthy spring lawn, peel here” and actually smelling the fresh grass once you do peel of the plastic cover. This is what folks at TruGreen did to promote their lawn care products - a great way to transform a direct mail campaign into a unique experience for your customer. Quite often reading your brochure is their first contact with your company, so make it a memorable one.

Here are a few more great examples of companies doing just that:

FirstFlavor, a Philadelphia company that specializes in taste marketing, found a creative way to get feedback on a new softdrink flavour and designed a flavoured filmstrip that dissolves in a person’s mouth and included it in the survey it mailed out to their customers.

Ever thought of a TV made out of paper? Fusion 92 in Chicago has been incorporating videos into direct mailers that are activated once opened, or by pressing a button. Now that is a sure way to grab someone’s attention.

Paper doesn’t need to look like paper. To promote a restaurant, Curley Direct, a direct mail company has sent out a package containing a credit card: a treated piece of paper designed to look exactly like a credit card and offered a $10 rebate. I don’t know about you, but I would certainly make sure to use the “credit card”, and so did the 30% of people who received the package.

Direct mail marketing is a great way to build brand and product awareness. Adding a sensory element to your mailer is almost guaranteed to generate some kind of emotional reaction. And once there is an emotional reaction from the person holding the piece, you have achieved your goal of generating awareness and staying in the reader’s mind.

Do you have any examples of great direct mail pieces? Feel free to share in the comments below.