Check Out These Historic Pictures
I was in the midst of some Fall cleaning when I came across this direct mail brochure from approximately 27 years ago, when I was living in an apartment in Baltimore, right after graduating from college. It's pretty incredible how much this brochure is a precursor to a website. The theme was a takeoff on the board game, Trivial Pursuit.
It's geographically targeted; Sinai Hospital was the closest hospital, so they likely weren't mailing to people living on the other side of town. It communicated relevant and differentiating information about the facility in an easy to read manner, resembling the About US or FAQ sections of websites today.
The brochure provided contact information, included a call to action (form to send back for additional information) and it even had a little map that could be mistaken for a Google map.
A strong case could be made that this 1985 mailer was a much more progressive representation of the hospital than their website is today. What do you think?
If you haven't done so before (or ever), try to get your hands on some old marketing collateral from your company (if it existed pre-internet). It will be instructional from the standpoint of seeing how marketing for your organization has evolved, and may also give you ideas that you can translate into your website.
I am curious whether Sinai Hospital was tracking the number of responses they received and modifying future mailings as a result.
