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Every New Year\u2019s Eve, my family gathered together to enact one of our favorite traditions: ranking all of the Christmas cards we\u2019d received that season. The three winning cards were displayed on the mantle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the losing cards usually weren\u2019t actually cards at all; they were those long form letters outlining everything that had happened to the Jones or Smith or Chan family over the past year. These felt very impersonal and not worth reading. When we saw the salutation \u201cDear Friend\u201d we didn\u2019t even continue reading. Any type of personal communication that began with such an impersonal greeting, we reasoned, couldn\u2019t be all that personal after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s really no different with business communications. I throw away anything that\u2019s addressed to \u201cOur Neighbor,\u201d \u201cHomeowner,\u201d or \u201cResident\u201d without even bothering to open the envelope. I open the mail that\u2019s addressed to me by name, but if the content isn\u2019t customized to me specifically, it tends to go right into the recycling bin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, even the most rudimentary personalization (\u201cDear Ms. Wooster\u201d) means that I\u2019m likely to at least skim your mailer. And when I skim, sometimes I see something that makes me want to buy, which is the goal of the direct mailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to Get Started with Personalization<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the easiest ways to personalize your mailers is to use a mail merge. A mail merge integrates data from a mailing list with a standard letter, postcard or trifold so that both the address and salutation line of the mailer is customized to a specific customer. If you want to include additional pieces of personalized information\u2014such as the name of a customer\u2019s child or pet\u2014a mail merge will allow you to do that as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mail merges are great because they let you personalize the content of your direct mailers quickly. Just imagine how long it would take to manually type each customer\u2019s name into the salutation line of 1,000 pieces of direct mail!<\/p>\n\n\n\n