In this year's first issue of its newsletter, Hotline, the Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Association issued some predictions for the newsletter business for the year ahead. The editors also took a look back at "What did we predict just ten years ago?"

And one of the past predictions that caught my eye was "The most popular concept in business-to-business marketing will be the wrap-around" (an 11 x 17" card card stock saddle-stitched to "wrap" around a sample issue and mailed flat).

It caught my eye because I wrote it.

And, so, okay, the wrap didn't become the greatest innovation in the history of newsletter b-to-b marketing--but it certainly had its moment in the sun through a lot of the '90s. I saw the technique used successfully for newsletters targeting accountants, direct marketers, PR people, graphic artists, hospital administrators, and many more.

And, as a marketing package, the wrap had a number of things going for it:

* It was inexpensive (compared to a full-blown package)

* It has great "open-ability" since you put the whole thing in the prospect's hands

* And, perhaps best of all, it enables you put a sample issue--live or compiled, depending on your theology--into the prospect's hands.

And, if the wrap wasn't the final answer to b-to-b newsletter marketing, the few years it spent in the sun actually illustrated a great truth: Nothing in newsletter marketing works forever.

The business newsletter came on the scene 40+ years ago in the U.S. The "standard" promotional package then was a sample issue with order form or a combination of letter and order form.

People then learned "more about direct marketing, the sample issue gave way to the promotional package increasingly jammed with bells and whistles: envelope teaser copy, long letters, premiums, iron-clad triple guarantees, glowing testimonials. This package in all its variations worked well for many years for many titles.

Then in the late '80s, we saw a return to the sample issue mailing in various formats: the traditional sample--live or compiled--forced free trials, and wraps. They did very well. My theory was, for mature products especially, they reached market segments that couldn't be sold by anything but by putting the product into their hands.

Now perhaps those techniques are losing their luster. Remember, nothing always works but a number of tested formats work sometimes:

* Sample issues

* Full-scale envelope packages--and there are many variation of this which can be called tried and true, including predictions, invitations ("Try 4 issues with no obligation"), secrets ("12 things they don't want you to know"), and official-looking Kraft envelopes.

I'd suggest you use some or all of these in a rotation pattern.

A launch or a new list is a different matter. You will be reaching people with an offer for the newsletter they never realized they had always wanted.

But for mailings to established good lists for a mature newsletter, giving your offer a new look frequently may be the key to getting that reluctant prospect into the envelope. Who knows, ten years after my fearless prediction, a wrap format might be a winning format for you.