Evergreens you might test for 2003 mailings. (DM Notebook).

Marketer's block? Looking for a new approach for a 2003 test against your venerable control? January drop date looming over you?

Here are 13 tried and tested direct response concepts--winners that have worked over and over again in many newsletter markets.

1. The Invitation. All of the RSVP formats work-everyone wants to be invited. The Kiplinger Washington Letter has used a version for years ("Initiation Enclosed--Complimentary"). A mailing to lapsed members of the National Geographic Society also uses an invitation RSVP format.

2. Direct Benefit. Put the big announcement right on the carrier envelope. ("Get 4 ProfitBuilding Special Reports FREE!!!") The National Geographic mailing (above) also carries this envelope copy: "FREE World Map Reserved for..."

3. Guarantees. Can be used as envelope teasers in some instances. Used Car Profit Service puts "Boost Your Used Car Profits by $5,000 GUARANTEED" on the carrier. Star Publishing puts "Guaranteed, You Will SAVE at least $5,000 in the Next Year" on the carrier for The Wholesale Bargains & Freebies Guide.

4. Testimonials. If you have the one great one--from Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates, or Cindy Crawford (depending on your market)--you can put it right on the envelope. Caution, though, with the one great testimonial, especially from a celeb: What if it were Martha Stewart? I did know a publisher who had literally a million carriers pre-printed with a quote from vice president Spiro Agnew just before he pleaded no contest to a criminal charge and resigned from office.

5. Secrets. Everyone loves to be in on secret. Utne Reader has mailed package stating "We'd like to let you in on a SECRET...." Oil Express whispers, "Shhh ... 87 Oil Secrets Revealed."

6. Quizzes. Another old reliable. Physicians Office Lab News headlines, "If you can answer all 4 CLIA and OSHA questions on the other side correctly, throw this envelope away" (always a risky invitation). The undecided question among practitioners of this technique is whether the answers should be contained in the package or only in something prospects receive when they order.

7. The Question. Similar to "Quizzes." The trick is to avoid a question that prospects can answer "No" and stop reading. Popular Mechanics dances along that line with the teaser, "What Makes It Tick? If you're the kind of guy who just has to roll up your sleeves and find out, come inside..."

But the envelope carries the PM logo and return address, and the prospects who would answer "No" to that question don't open mail from Popular Mechanics anyway.

8. Identification. This includes all versions of the famous "The list upon which I found your name tells me you are intelligent, discerning, etc." I personally happen to like "If you're like me..." (or, when that isn't logical, "If you're like the farmers I talk with everyday...")

9. Fantasy. "Imagine, you could own an island all to yourself." Note that I didn't say "desert island" or with whom because, after all, it's each prospect's fantasy we're working on.

10. Personalization. It can get business-to-business mail opened. Plain vanilla, one-color, "hand-typed" is the best, but I like the approach of the Geneva Corporation on a letter to small business owners that neatly avoids the phony personal approach with a line of type at the lower left of the carrier that reads, "Mr. Fred Goss only, please."

11. Story. Tell a story that intrigues the prospect and leads into the product. Two famous examples are: Bill Jayme's "Do you close the bathroom door when nobody's home?" for Psychology Today (which could be considered a variation on both "The Question" and "Quizzes"); and the "Sun Dagger" package for Science.

Add to those two classics the incredibly long-living control package of The Wall Street Journal: "On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college...."

My story of Andrew Harper's decision to leave his boring congressional staff job to find happiness (and wealth) publishing Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report was one of the newsletter association's most successful mailings for years.

12. Sample issue. There's always a chance to test a sample issue. They work for some titles--usually a compiled issue. Weeklies and bi-weeklies have problems with timely delivery (unless you pay First Class). And monthlies, usually sent Periodical Rate, can run into postal regulation problems over the number of free copies if they contain live samples.

13. Greed. Never forget greed. After many variations of "Receive Profit-Building Insider Secrets from the Most Successful Newsletter Publishers," the newsletter association took off the gloves and established a control with "How to Make a Million Dollars--Maybe More--in Newsletter Publishing."