Most Marketers have heard this statistic.

“78% of all people read their mail over a trash can.”

My source for that statistic is a USPS/DMA Survey. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that number. I’m pretty sure they didn’t go around and watch people open their mail to verify it. One thing I can guarantee is that I am one of the 78%.

We all get a lot of “Junk Mail”. That’s almost all I get any more. I probably average less than one significant piece of mail a week, usually a bill. The rest of my mail consists of sale ads and special offers, credit card offers and insurance offers, even cleverly disguised offers designed to look like important legal documents or even checks to pique my interest. I generally sort through this garbage on the short walk from my mailbox to my Kitchen trash can and dump most of it without giving it a second glance. I usually know when to expect important mail and keep an eye out for it.

Tuesday is my big mail day. I get a big wad of sale inserts like the ones that come in the Sunday Paper. Some of them come from stores I shop at all the time so I usually look through them for bargains. There are usually several direct mail pieces in the bundle as well. Last Tuesday I got an offer to buy life insurance from a company that had used by bank’s letterhead to entice me to open the envelope. I got a rebate offer from a car dealer that looked like a check. I got a card sized envelope addressed with a hand font soliciting donations for something and another offer from a financial company that looked like a check. I pulled out what I wanted and dumped the rest.

Later that night as I was preparing for bed, I realized that I was expecting a benefit check from a financial company that I did not usually deal with because they are benefits that are handled by HR at work. It was trash night and I got an ugly feeling about my usual mail routine and went out to the curb in my pajamas and started digging through my trash. I’m sure my neighbors thought I had lost my mind. Sure enough, the “direct mail” piece from the financial company was actually a $3500 benefit check I had casually thrown in the garbage.

While I understand that I made a careless, stupid mistake, if I will throw away a $3500 check, what are the chances I’m going to read a piece of advertising just because it has my name on it. Consumers are wise to all of our little tricks to get them to open our direct mail. We’re not fooling anybody anymore. If you want your marketing to get noticed it has to speak directly to each recipient on a personal basis. If it doesn’t, it will end up out by the curb with my benefit check.