Who should use direct mail right now.
And, who shouldn’t. 

Generally speaking, direct mail does not fare well between Thanksgiving and New Years Day. 

Note the use of generally speaking. Advertising-glut notwithstanding, you can do quite well if you’re selling Christmas merchandise — especially home-deliverable products that can spare consumers a trip to a crowded mall or rescue a procrastinator in need of a last-minute gift. Upscale gift food items like candies and, of course, anything that looks like it came from Harry & David, along with fund raising concerns can also do well. So can promotions for dental and medical visits, since people with cafeteria plans lose unused funds at year-end.

For those of you who enter into a year-end direct mail hiatus, spend the next few weeks getting ready to hit direct mail hard in January. There are two reasons you should do this. 

Reason 1: With the New Year comes resolutions. Though the majority of people do not keep their resolutions, they mean them when they make them. Thus any offering having to do with personal change and self improvement has its highest odds of success in January. That’s why you see a lot of marketing for diet plans, education, exercise devices, savings accounts, etc.

Reason 2: Post-holiday, advertising noise levels drop dramatically. Which means your direct mail will have a better shot at drawing notice.

Side benefit: A January launch entails printing and postage in December. Just in time to knock down the current year’s taxable income.

—Steve Cuno