The SoFi personal loans direct mail kit features a tip-on card. If you’re not familiar with the term tip-on card, think of a credit card glued in an area on the letter. Tip-on cards make a great addition to a direct mail piece to build up the sense of intrigue when they are implemented correctly.

First, if you want to add a tip-on card to your direct mail piece, you need to implement it correctly. What I mean by this is there needs to be a purpose why the tip-on card is there. In the case of SoFi it features key items about the offer: loans up to $100,000, no fees and the call to action – SoFi.com/WhyWait82. The call to action is very small in this piece, but I’m okay with that.

If you do use a tip-on card for your direct mail piece, make sure the call-to-action is large and key points about your offer are called out. Tip-on cards make for great additions because if people are interested in your offer, but not at that moment, they can remove the card and hang onto it for a future date. Instead of your offer getting tossed in the trash, the reader can keep a small card as a reminder.

Tip-on cards are also a great tactical element to a direct mail piece. When the envelope is sealed, readers can feel a card inside, but they don’t necessarily know what the card is. Typically, the go-to approach when using a tip-on card is to make your envelope blind in a graphic design sense. This gets readers to be very adamant about opening the mail piece up because there is a card inside.