Time-sensitive material. Does camouflage marketing work?

Nobody reads direct mail anymore. They get trashed right away. In order to increase open rates, some sales experts have developed and proposed an approach often labelled camouflage marketing or disguised marketing. You send mail that does not look like promotional material but has the appearance of professional documents. Some seem like the documents the IRS or the government sends you. Then, they write claims such as “Important Document Enclosed” or “Time-Sensitive Material.” Similar techniques can be used both for mail and electronic mail. You can add other interesting sentences that make the envelope look important, such as “Anyone interfering with the delivery of this envelope will face imprisonment.” This intrigues you. What could there be inside such an important envelope?

Nothing. You open the envelope, and they talk about the importance of exterminating termites in your home. It’s just an attempt to establish the first touchpoint of a sales conversation and increase the open rate.

Is camouflage marketing effective?

Well, it does reach its goal. It tangibly increases the opening rates of mail or email. So, you implement it, and you likely see an increase in calls. However, after clients open the letter and find out it was not the important document they were expecting, undeniably, they get disappointed. Sales professionals would say this is not a problem for the business. Those who get disappointed are likely those who would not buy anyway, so their disappointment comes at no cost to you. Those who find interest in the product won’t be disappointed. So, you piss off non-customers while getting the attention of potential customers. It works.

Should we use this tactic then?

No, we should not. It is legal, but its ethical premises are questionable, and the tactic is inherently manipulative. We should always avoid manipulative tactics, even when they are potentially effective in the short term. First, while you increase the opening rate of the letter, you might decrease the closing rate. Customers see that you have employed a manipulative tactic to reach out to them, and it does not help build rapport. Obtaining attention by deception is never an effective way to start building rapport. Second, and most importantly, when your business starts embracing manipulative tactics with customers, it loses trust with employees. Then, how do you believe management when they come and tell you the company values integrity? When they tell you that serving customers is the top priority? Whenever you deceive people, you cannot build a strong corporate culture, and with a weak corporate culture, you cannot expect results to be sustainable in the long term. Believe in and champion sales processes that are clean, professional, transparent, and never manipulative. Like I say multiple times, sales departments are always criticized to be the least trustworthy function in organizations. Let’s work to make them trustworthy.

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