The Following are some highlights of the advantages and disadvantages of self mailers; you should take them into consideration prior to choosing a self mailer as your direct mail marketing method.
Advantages
The greatest advantage of using self mailers is the lower overall printing cost. They are generally less expensive than printing personalized letters but more expensive than printing postcards. Typically self mailers cost less to design and can be graphically pleasing with ample use of photos. Self mailers also offer a wide range of printing and mailing flexibility based on a variety of sizes available as shown above. Additionally, since self mailers are folded multiple times they create panels or sections; these panels can be used wisely in a design to group vast amounts of information in a manner that will be easy to follow and understand for the reader.
Disadvantages
By design all self mailers clearly appear to be some type of promotional material, therefore, some people may consider self mailers to be junk mail and simply discard them without paying much attention to them. Self mailers also appear less personal. For instance, in a business letter you can address the recipient personally and set a different tone. Self mailers lack the personal touch and professionalism of a business letter. For this particular reason, we discourage using self mailers if you are targeting a market where you may be offering a higher level of professional services. It is safe to assume that self mailers are less effective when being mailed to individuals in organizations. Most large organization's mail is received and reviewed by the support staff prior to being delivered to a decision maker. Self mailers are not a good marketing choice to target people with private issues such as, medical, financial, criminal, divorce, bankruptcy, foreclosure, or any issue that one would not feel comfortable making a matter of public knowledge.
