The odd-shaped mailings are called CMM (Customized MarketMail). We’ve done several odd-shaped die-cut pieces and they’re really neato!

There are higher postage rates & size limitations, though. BUT they lowered the postage considerably last year on these.

Info from USPS site here:
http://www.usps.com/customizedmarketmail/welcome.htm

I know this is a general statement, but I think direct mail can work wonders if its don’t right and you don’t abuse it by sending advertisments to people on your list every week.

As a consumer I don’t mind receiving flyers announcing sales and such from places I actually shop at, but I do get annoyed when credit card companies send me offers multiple times a week.

So I think its a fine line between whether something is considered junk mail or not, but I do think direct mail campaigns can be important for certain types of businesses.

I also think the quality of the paper you use can really make a big impact a well.

I found a flyer yesterday that was printed on some really nice matte card stock and it had a really nice texture to it and it just felt more expensive and looked higher quality which I think can work wonder in terms of branding and what people associate with the companies name.

In regards to actual size/proportions of the mailer itself, odd or non-rectangular sizes can create quite an impact visually and can create a better ROI than a traditional postcard…for a price.

Often the most significant issue with a square or oddly shaped mailer is often the surcharge and/or extra postage the USPS charges for the non-machine-able size. You can mail just about anything via USPS as long as you pay enough for postage and any additional surcharges for them to handle odd or different sized pieces.

One other rather inexpensive idea I’ve come across is to round corner the mailing piece, which the USPS in the last year newly allowed as a machine-able mailer with little or no add’l surcharge. One of our largest direct mail clients has found this to be a good way to make their pieces stand out from the crowd of direct mail pieces that end up in your mail box and gladly pays the extra bindery cost to have this done for most of their campaigns.

there’s my 2 (and possibly more) cents. enjoy!

It’s good to know I’m not alone on this I tend to get weird looks from friends when I get excited over killer piece of “junk” mail.

Back in my freelance days, I used to give clients a breakdown of their direct mail campaign cost. Then I’d go on to ask if they really wanted to spend $5,000 in postage to send out a 4×6 postcard that would basically get lost in the pack and get tossed out without a chance. The answer was obvious.

On the printing side, I’ve definitely noticed that a lot of designers submitting square pieces. This is one of the reasons why we launched our custom U-Page product. I hate to see gang printers charging an arm-and-leg for custom sizes. In reality, you’re actually helping them fill up the gang with your odd size print, which may fit in a piece of a sheet that would otherwise go to waste.

I swear I could fill a room with the amount of mail I have gotten from credit card companies.

I also want to start collecting really cool business cards. I think I’m going to go into New York City some weekend and just do nothing but collect ephemera from big offices and design studios. =)

It’s amazing as designers how we can be the only ones that really “like” getting junk mail. Ha!

And actually the Postal Service has allowed for unusual shaped pieces to be mailed. so expect to see really weird shaped direct mail campaigns in the mail in the not so far future.