Direct Mail Gone Wrong

I happen to love direct mail. It’s a very powerful vehicle when done correctly. However, I still see A LOT of bad direct mail marketing being done. And more often than not, it comes from the big guys.

Consider the image on this blog (above right). It’s direct mail from US Bank, sent to me promoting their FlexPerks Visa Card. This was a test, as you can see from the outer envelopes and how different they are. The insides also varied, significantly, so I will tell you that they were testing two different packages.

Can any of you seasoned direct marketers tell me what’s wrong with this test before clicking the more button on the right? Hint: It’s a trick question — sort of.

Before I give away the answer, a few things to note. I have no affinity with US Bank. I have a Mastercard for personal use and a Visa for corporate purchasing, neither with US Bank. This is a prospecting piece in it’s truest form. I am not sure of the lists in which they identified me, but the name and address were identical in both pieces — addressed to me at my home residence.

So what was the problem? Both pieces were sent to me at the same address on the same exact day. So, unless this is a new form of testing — and very expensive at that — or unless there was some sort of data mix up, the folks at US Bank are doing direct mail testing incorrectly.

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