The art of direct mail

There’s probably both science and art in writing good direct E-mail newsletters.

I do not claim perfection in any way in this discipline – but over time, I guess we all see examples both on excellence and, ermm, not quite so excellent.

In the latter category, I received one today from a leading Scandinavian airline.

This issue of the newsletter - which I receive because I have signed up via my membership of the frequent flyer programme – has as the subject line: “Become a member and get 2.500 extra points”

Huh? Become a member? Sent out to, I assume, the full member list? What percentage of current members might say “OK, this issue is not relevant for me” and discard it directly?

I’d probably say that such a message should go to a filtered list where all the already-signed up members were filtered out. And then tailor an issue with relevant news for members to them. After all, that’s what databases are supposed to allow you to do in marketing. Or?

The sender and reply-to addresses are also worth a study. The newsletter is sent from an “info-(airline)@fly(airline).com” E-mail address. And then, below the sender address, in a nice box, it says: Please respond to “no-reply@fly(airline).com".

Reply to “no-reply”? Would you? Or would you be confused? I am…