Screw Junk Mail Senders

Everyone gets junk mail and basically everyone hates it. I’ve written in the past about how they’ve done studies that show there is a large enough percentage of respondents to make mailing all these junk offers worth it to the company so it’s about time we fought back.

Respond!
Ever hear about the story of the guy who taped one of the postage-paid business reply envelopes to a brick and mailed it? I don’t know if it’s true, but I do know you can pack that letter full of whatever you want and mail it back… with the company footing the bill. I started doing this about a month ago after I read this article. I’ve been cutting up all sorts of catalogs and old magazines and being surprised how much actually fit in an envelope. As you send this junk mail back, you’re supporting the US Postal Service so the cost of stamps won’t go up as frequently. Sometimes I get lazy and don’t feel like ripping up catalogs with my barehands so I just seal the empty envelope and mail it back as is - still, a 37 cent ding is better than nothing.

Don’t Respond!
If you’re not going to do that, just recycle the wasted paper. Don’t respond to the offer even if you like it - go to a website, call them using their general 1-800 number, do anything except respond to the direct mailing. Companies know the rate of return on junk mail and they adjust their marketing budget accordingly, just let other methods of advertising be more beneficial and direct mailings will decrease.