Written by David James – Bethesda List Center, Inc.
Direct marketing can support your online marketing effort. It is a great way to contact clients you are not able to reach online and repeat the message of your Emails. Often, one and one does not equal two, but three or more as repeated messages from different mediums make an impression.
Emails may be an effective medium for selling and communicating with customers. In business-to-business marketing cold prospecting using direct marketing is more effective. A direct mail list, lets you determine the best prospects and capitalize on that.
Common list selects include:
- Job Title/Job Function
- Company Size
- Company Type (NAICS or SIC Code)
Depending on the list many other selections may be available.
What to Consider Before Launching a Direct Marketing Campaign
Business-to-business direct mail can be expensive. It’s important to consider your offer, your list and timing before you send out anything.
Before launching a direct mail campaign, you should first ask yourself why you are sending it. Your purpose for doing the campaign must be clear if you want to avoid wasting time and money.
Among the reasons marketers use direct mail is to:
- Introduce a new service or product
- Drive Traffic to Your Website
- Get the reader to take an action – call, click or Email
With high dollar business offers, many companies call a few days after receipt of your mailing.
Knowing who you are sending your campaign to is also necessary. You will need to filter the recipients of your campaign. Be as specific as possible. You can send your campaign to your target audience based on common interests or geographical area. Of course, the best type of offer is to prospects who look like your current buyers. But, do not over select your mailing list to filter it to just your current buyers.
Smart promotions start out small. It’s not uncommon to try various offers, testing price and features. Consider these standard test items: different photos, calls to action and other standard direct mail tactics to see which draw the most response. When the testing is complete, it will be easier to control your project and determine should draw the best response. You can also avoid spending your entire budget on one target market or idea.
Direct mail, used creatively, is a cost effective and powerful marketing tool. If you make your direct mail pieces uninteresting, it is the biggest and most expensive mistake you can make. In order t o make your direct marketing campaign work harder, follow these techniques.
Make your offer interesting
To get people interested in what you are selling, you have to catch their attention. Make your offer interesting by offering something new. Be creative. Don’t do something that everybody else is already doing. Keep it concise – tell a story, keep on track. Direct mail pieces should be interesting. The reader’s will be gone if you go on and on about something.
When telling your story, touch on only those points that are important and use as few words as possible. Talk about how it can benefit the reader, why they should accept it and what they need to do to grab it. Make sure that it will be easy for the reader to respond by providing various options like by visiting your webpage, by email, by phone or by mail. Emphasize their action deadline. Getting a fast response means action or a sale, not waiting.
An Added Tip: Monitor your own mail and see how many of them have been personally addressed. This can be Dear John, or Dear Mary. But it’s the start of getting your prospect engaged.
Be unique
There is no rule that says direct mail should always be inside an envelope.
Take advantage of people’s curious nature. If they see something unusual, they are much more likely to open it to know what is inside.
Consider mailing pieces that can attract people’s attention. This includes postcards, lumpy mail to deliver your message in an interesting way. The goal remains, open, read and take action.
Before trying something a bit different: Contact your local postal representative. It hurts to get something done and discover it is going to cost extra because of a missed rule.
Put something on the outside of the piece that will instantly grab the reader’s attention. Teaser copy is important on an envelope. “Keep Up with the Jones Family” will get you to pay attention. When people receive your piece, they should want to see what’s inside.
The outside of the direct mail piece should hint at what they can find outside and make them want to check out the content.
Testimonials
Base your direct marketing on testimonials from satisfied customers. If local, or well known, even better. If people purchased your products and told you that they had a good experience with it, you can take advantage of that. Testimonials don’t always need to come from famous individuals.
Offer a package of benefits
“Besides the kitchen knives, you get..”
Your offer should provide the reader with a lot of benefits. Point out the top two or three benefits of your offer as interesting as possible. Think of it from the reader’s perspective. Consider what they really want from your product and state the benefits they can get from it.
On really great resource not to overlook when selecting a mailing list: Association Memberships
Many paid professional organizations know how difficult it is to pinpoint their members. For certain types of selections, the only reliable way to get qualified prospects is with an association list.
Many companies work with a reliable partner to help you pinpoint the best mailing lists. Often these experienced list brokers have intimate knowledge of lists that comes with many years of use. Using a broker often does not cost extra, you get the benefit of years of experience.
Whether you are looking to rent mailing lists or get unlimited use of a mailing list, a broker is more efficient. Bethesda List Center has experienced business list brokers and list managers.
An Added Tip: Your existing in-house mailing list can have more information added. Often adding company size or business code helps you enhance your sales. Of course, it is also possible to custom build a new list from scratch.
Going this route requires an experienced team. All the research and technical work often requires experts. Whether you are building a list by telephone, data overlay or other methods, work with an expert.
For more information and tips, watch our video below!
http://www.bethesda-list.com/lists/list-brokerage
