See a penny, pick it up … So goes the familiar saying. It’s also part of a successful direct mail package strategy for the folks at Mystery Guild Book Club, part of New York-based direct marketer Bookspan’s family of book clubs.
In December 2004, the Mystery Guild first tested its new penny package, a 6″ x 9″ outer envelope featuring two windowsone for the address and one revealing a penny affixed to the reply card inside. The idea is simpleuse the penny as a way to entice recipients to open the envelope. “We figured giving money to someone … would just attract people’s eye and reinforce what we had to sell,” says Eileen Alterbaum, vice president of Mystery Guild’s new member marketing.
