This past Saturday I received two direct mail pieces. The first, an oversized postcard from Manhattan Mini Storage, was particularly memorable. It was an offer for $18 storage with free pick up and it showed a picture of a portable closet, of sorts, filled with winter coats. I wasn’t sure if it was way ahead of time, season-wise, or just dumb luck on their part, but on Saturday it was an unseasonably warm 65 degrees in Manhattan.
It actually got me thinking about how much room my heavy coats were taking up in my closet. ‘Hey, I’d pay 18 bucks for an extra two feet of closet space!’ But by this morning, when the temp was back down to 40, and I was bundling up for work, that piece of mail went promptly in the trash.
The second was from Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). As I expected, it was their quarterly (or so) shipment of about 100 return address labels, and a letter asking for a contribution. It should be known that I have been receiving these for years. And while I am a member of HRC and was at one point a subscriber to The Advocate—one of which may or may not be where GMHC got my name and address—I’ve never given directly to GMHC.
The moral of the story is twofold: timing is everything and list cleanliness is next to godliness. On top of that, with today’s online bill pay, I use approximately two return address labels a month. Get with the times, direct mailers!
P.S. Oh, and Manhattan Mini Storage, if you could try me again in April, that would be fantastic.
