Anatomy of a Control: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

This little note from Marlo looks for all the world like the writer had two-fingered it on her old Remington or Royal; signed it (in blue); inserted it into a plain-Jane window envelope along with the BRE and stamp sheet; licked the flap; and stuck it in the mail.

Here, Canadian writer/designer Ted Kikoler’s advice bears repeating: “Anything you can do to a mailing that makes it look like a human hand has touched it should help response.”

This great mailing — or versions of it — has been in the mail for as long as I can remember.

Which means it must be working. Which means that St. Jude is doing something very right.

Contributing editor Denny Hatch is a consultant, freelance copywriter and author of the books “Priceline.com: A Layman’s Guide to Manipulating the Media”; “Method Marketing”; “Million Dollar Mailings”; and “2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success” (co-author). Anatomy of a Control highlights successful direct marketing mailings. E-mail dennyhatch@aol.com.