Table of contents for

Open Me Now
Direct Mail Envelopes That Work … and Those That Don't

 
by Herschell Gordon Lewis

 
Acknowledgments
Foreword
 

SECTION ONE  The Battle for Attention: If They Don’t Open It,
We’ve Lost the War

• The Cardinal Rule and the Clarity Commandment Stand Supreme
• Makean Informed Decision
• A Provocative Question Always Is Reader-Involving
• Don’t Say Too Much
• The Database Quandary
• Minefield Mind-Reader
• “Important”? To Whom?
• Obfuscation Is Out of Fashion
• In Advance of Chapter Four

SECTION TWO  Muddy Subject, Muddy Conclusion, Muddy Applications

• Generally, What?
• Muddy Testing in the Internet Era
• First, Some New Creative Trends
• What to Do and What to Don’t
• They Don’t Want You to Know (Whatever)
• Seals on the Front, Seals on the Back
• Some Obvious Ploys
• Gimmickry in Action

SECTION THREE  Will Promising the Moon Make You a Star?

• How Free Is “Free”?
• Misuses of “Free” and How to Avoid Them
• Mild Promises, Mildly Fulfilled
• How Easy It Is!

SECTION FOUR  Is Your Envelope a Salesperson or Just a Clerk?

• Benefits Galore
• The “I Like It, They’ll Like It” Risk
• Be Careful with the Old Standbys
• “Effective” Means Convincing, not Clever: Three Principles
  • The First Principle
  • The Second Principle
  • The Third Principle

SECTION FIVE Fund-Raising and Non-Profit Envelopes

• The Three Kinds of Fund Raising Envelopes
• The Ubiquitous Address Label
• What Could Be Simpler?
• “Oh, if It’s from Them, I’ll Open It”
• The Oh-So-Easy Determining Factor

SECTION SIX  Envelope Eye-Catchers, Experiments, and Trends

• “Official” Is a Magical Envelope-Opener
• Mixed Messages
• Speed Formats
• Polybags and Foil Packaging
• The Circle Is Complete
• Closing Thought

SECTION SEVEN  A Couple of Imperatives

Appendix
About the Author
Index