Junk Mailers Getting Smarter

Now that more of you are ignoring, shredding, or opting out of the junk mail that arrives in your mailbox every day, the Direct Mail departments in companies around the world are having to get smarter and sneakier in order to survive.

Here are a few examples of what they’ll do to get you to open up that steaming piece of junk mail:

From the blog, Joel on Software “How Many Lies Can You Find in One Direct Mail Piece?“

Joel dissects a direct mail piece from Earthlink, disguised to look like an overnight letter from FedEx. He quickly finds a dozen lies and distortions without even opening up the package!

From the excellent Signal to Noise blog “Fatalist Junk Mail“:

Jason shows off a new direct mail piece with a fake credit card showing through the envelope window along with the words “REMOVE CONTENTS before you discard.”

Apparently they’re trying to exploit the training you’ve received to shred credit offers in order to get you to open their lame offer.

Sounds desperate to me…