WHO’S MAILING WHAT!

EVERYDAY
HEALTH HINTS

When you spot a new technique being used by a mailer... and then see that technique repeated over and over again in subsequent efforts... you can be almost certain that it raised response.

Then, if you test this technique in your own efforts (in other words, (“steal smart”), chances are good that you will have increased response. And you learned it on someone’s else’s test dollars.

The Rodale Press mailing you see here (9105RODALE0988PAX) was created by Manheimer & Wise. In a letter to designer David Wise, Kathi Fry-Ramsdell of Rodale wrote: The “Trigger” package now tops our winner’s list--as the best-ever package for Rodale books with results 2 to 1 over the standard--which was written by a long-time Rodale writer. Your package is a real breakthrough for Rodale...In fact, response was so high we had to change the print run for the book as well.”

The mailing is brilliant. But Manheimer & Wise did not accomplish this breakthrough using the CPP (Clean Piece of Paper) approach. Rather, they astutely built on proven techniques--some radical, other traditional--devised for Rodale by some of America¹s greatest copywriters.

WHO’S MAILING WHAT! Has followed—and written about—Rodale book mailings ever since we started publishing, and many of the breakthroughs we flagged have been incorporated in this hugely successful effort.

For example, in January, 1985, we noted a 9”x12” envelope full of bold promises and a 6-page letter jam-packed with “tease” copy by Gene Schwartz offering the raging best-seller (1.75 million copies up to that time), Encyclopedia of Natural Healing.

Manheimer & Wise refined this down to two big promises on the OSE: “Trigger your body’s own natural immunities” and “FREE.”

In March, 1986, Alan Friedenthal (now with Grey Direct) came up with an extraordinary “lift” device—a business reply book return label and a letter affixed to the back of the 9”x12” outer envelope.  The message: “Read this first.  If you don’t like the book, use this label to return it at our expense.”  It raised response by 30%.  This “Trigger” package has a lift letter affixed to the back of the OSE.

Denison Hatch
Who’s Mailing What!