Judith Jansen, marketing manager at Workbrands, shares her tips for a successful direct mail campaign
With many of our working lives now revolving around the internet, the marketing landscape has evolved considerably over recent years. With social media and email campaigns targeting tens of thousands of prospects in one fell swoop, digital marketing is more popular than ever.
Despite this, there is still very much a place for traditional DM in B2B marketing. In fact, the current status quo actually presents itself as an opportunity to really get yourself noticed and send something out that’s altogether different to your competitors. After all, receiving an inventive, beautifully-designed piece of DM would make a nice change to the plethora of unimaginative emails that plague your inbox.
Here are eight great tips for creating a print DM that delivers results:
1. Objectives
Set clear objectives upfront and ensure you are clear on how you will measure these. Outlining exactly what you want to achieve will help you to narrow down the message and vehicle. What will be the call-to-action? Do you want recipients to sign up to a newsletter, register for a free trial, or just remember your brand when they are next in the market for your product or services? Make sure that whatever it is, you will be able to measure the results.
2. Audience
Define your target market. Set clear criteria for the companies you are targeting, as
well as the people within these companies. Who are the decision makers? If you end up with a huge amount of data, consider a way to split the companies into tiers to make it more manageable, for example by location or company size, investing most of your time and budget in tier one and a little less in tier two. This will help you focus your efforts on those you want to work with most.
3. Research
As Abraham Lincoln once said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” It’s all in the preparation. Carefully researching your target audience is the key to success. Undertake a marketing audit of your audience. Do they get DMs? If yes, how often? What grabs their attention? What are their most pressing concerns at the moment? Does this present any opportunities for you to address?
4. Engage
Make sure your DM is engaging. Use a powerful opening line, going straight to the heart of the recipient’s most pressing problems that you identified in your research. For example, lead with a fascinating fact or provocative question or play on their fear of missing out on something. An invitation to a free workshop is a great way to offer to fill their knowledge gap and an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise while getting to know your leads face-to-face. Other engaging DM ideas lend themselves nicely for follow-up opportunities such as a grow-your-own plant or a lottery ticket.
5. Wow them
A great DM is one that stands out and that your audience will want to share with their colleagues. The crazier the better. It’s not easy to come up with a clever idea that gets people talking, however, the time spent on brainstorming ideas will pay off. If you’re really struggling, get a creative agency on board. They will not only have a mindset for coming up with ideas, but can also provide an outside perspective that can prove invaluable, let alone bringing your idea to life with attractive visuals. Use intriguing packaging if you can, 3D mail has proven to get a much higher response rate than standard flat mail.
6. Personalise
Effective personalisation goes far beyond addressing your recipients by name. Treat them as an individual. Your research will help you make your DM more relevant. The more bespoke you can make it, the higher the response rate. Make your audience feel good, for example, congratulate them on a recent award win. Show that you have done your research and they aren’t just one of a thousand recipients. Always be careful, however, not to make any assumptions, this can reduce your DM to rubble.
7. Integrated campaign
A DM is most effective when it’s part of an integrated campaign. It’s merely the first brand touchpoint of many, or perhaps the second or third, depending on your campaign. Key elements of an integrated campaign include a landing page, content, social media, advertising and events. There are plenty of ways to follow up the leads your DM will create for you. As tempting as it may be to try to convert these leads at the first opportunity, if this is only the beginning of the client journey; appropriate, subtle communication methods are more likely to bring home the bacon and secure a long-term relationship.
8. Not all at once
So you’ve got your data, your idea is fully implemented and ready to go out the door with a detailed follow-up campaign planned. What’s stopping you from sending all your mailers out at once? If this is the first time you are executing this idea, it’s probably wise to send it out in batches. Should there be any problems, for example, The Royal Mail hasn’t been overly careful and your well thought-out DM arrives in pieces, you will have the opportunity to tweak it as necessary. Also, smaller numbers will make it more manageable to follow up.
