Stamp of approval

Living in a city conservation area isn’t always easy.

Yes, there are beautiful buildings, trees, and birdsong to enjoy – even a local badger in my area (so I’ve heard).

But there’s always a slight feeling of anxiety that you’re just one-misplaced-item-in the-bin-away from committing a humungous social and ecological faux pas.

Such is the community tension around waste management, parking, the sea view, noise etc.

This must be why I felt a cold wave of fear come over me this week on receiving an envelope through the door addressed to ‘The Wood Burner’ (second class stamp).

It was the second class stamp that worried me almost as much as the moniker actually.

This, I thought, was surely going to be some anonymous complaint from a mealy-mouthed neighbour about the fact that I have an open fire.

They were probably about to accuse me of poisoning the delicate north Edinburgh air and the community as a whole, triggering allergies, wiping out species and generally bringing the place into disrepute.

So you can see why I laughed out loud when I opened the envelope and found this:

‘Reservoir logs: consistently good firewood’ plus a 10% off coupon code.

I wasn’t just relief

It was also delight at the marketing ingenuity. This was a company making full use of:

• Humour
• Personalisation, and
• Direct mail

To get their message heard.

Direct mail is one of my favourite marketing tactics because it’s:

• Relatively cost effective
• Offers true personalisation
• Allows you to get really creative

But it’s also completely unexpected, and therefore likely to get noticed.

Getting post used to be so much fun

Remember that feeling of excitement before opening a letter? No one writes to each other anymore. The odd birthday card might make it through of course, but most of what we receive in the post is unwelcome and irritating:

• Pizza flyers / ugly local council handouts
• Bills
• Out-of-date missives from HMRC that you resolved about 100 years ago on the phone, but which they’re telling you about in a letter as if it’s just happened, their communication being about as coordinated as a sloth running a marathon.

So don’t neglect DM as a bona fide marketing tactic. In a world chock-full of bland digital communications, something tangible like this can make a real connection and perhaps even spark joy.

This could set the tone for the rest of your relationship – who was it that created that feeling of surprise and delight because you weren’t harbinger of doom they were expecting on the mat?

Just make sure you get it printed on recycled paper 😉.

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