Tuesday Marketing Notes (Number 27 —April 4th, 2006 )

MAKE SURE YOU CONTINUE TO RECEIVE EACH ISSUE OF TUESDAY MARKETING NOTES—CLICK HERE TO RENEW YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION

(NOTE: If you’ve already signed up previously at this link, no need to do so again)

B2B Direct Mail Packages: A Mailing Piece for Every B2B Marketing Scenario (Part 1)

While the buzz these days is all about Internet-based marketing—Google AdWords and e-mail marketing programs—direct mail is still the mainstay of most business-to-business marketing and lead-generation programs: Where there’s a readily-identifiable mailing list of plausible prospects, and a mailing piece to send to them, there’s a profitable marketing project waiting to happen.

Print Direct Mail is Often More Effective Than Online Marketing

A printed mailing piece can often be more effective at generating hard, targeted sales response than Internet-based marketing alone. First, companies who send out direct mailings are perceived as being more “real” by your prospects than a competitor your prospect sees only on the Internet. Second, compared to relying on your prospects to respond to an ad, or click a Web link, a well-produced mailing piece using a compelling promotional offer as its “call to action” is often a more effective motivator for getting prospects to “act now”—that is, to contact your company’s sales rep, visit your Web site, or call your distributor. Third, print direct mail can be used in tandem with online marketing programs—for example, offering a free white paper in the mailing piece, downloadable from your company’s Web site—to boost the sales response of both print and online media.

As we’ve covered in a previous TMN (see our 11/1/05 issue at the index link above), the most important element of any direct mail project is the mailing list. Once you’ve bought or built your list, the next important step is deciding on the type, form, and content of the mailing piece to send to that list. This week (and next), we’ll outline the various kinds of direct mail packages, and which mailing pieces work best for the typical applications found in most B2B marketing programs.

Direct mail marketing projects take many forms, both large and small: From mailings of expensive sales kits to small numbers of highly targeted executives, to high-volume mailings to thousands of potential prospects in your market, spread out over dozens of rented mailing lists.

There are an unlimited variety of direct mail options available to your marketing program, but learning how to use direct mail to address the most common marketing situations will put you on the path to using direct mail most effectively, to generate inquiries and sales for your company.

Putting Direct Mail to Work: A Mailing for Most Every Marketing Situation

Let’s cover some of the typical marketing scenarios where direct mail is used, the types of mailing pieces typically used in each of these marketing situations, and how they’re executed.

Marketing Situation #1: Mailings to Rented Mailing Lists

The scenario: Mailings to “rented” lists, such as subscribers to industry trade publications, trade show and conference attendees, trade association members, industry newsletter subscribers, and compiled lists developed by list brokers. These mailings begin with mailing list tests (covered in TMN #19, 1/31/05), where a small, random sample of the total list (usually 1,000, 2,500, or 5,000 pieces) is mailed. If successful, these mailings are then rolled out, or “extended,” to subsequent, larger mailings to more names on the list. For many trade and industrial marketers, direct mailings to rented mailing lists rival display advertising and trade shows as a company’s major sales lead-generating activity.

Who receives this mailing: An individual who receives a direct mail piece as a result of their name being on a rented mailing list is the direct mail equivalent of the “cold call,” in that this person is receiving your direct mail piece without having first requested it, and in many cases they are learning about your company and its products for the very first time (that is, if the sales copy on the outside of your mailing piece was persuasive enough to get them to open it in the first place). 

Also, recipients of direct mail packages mailed to rented lists have sometimes been “selected” by certain defining characteristics, such as job title, location, company size, or some type of “buyer/specifier” characteristic, such as their past purchase of a product similar to one sold by your company, or a previously-stated “intention to buy” a product such as yours. When using rented lists, you will usually match them against your company’s own customer list and exclude any current customers from the rented list, to avoid sending promotional mailings to your company’s established customers.

Mailing goals: The primary goal of mailings to rented lists is sales lead generation, to “cast a wide net” in the marketplace, gathering a sufficient number of respondents who have been compelled by the mailing piece to contact your company—by phone, mail, e-mail, or fax, to request more information on your company and its products. For trade and business-to-business marketers, sales leads generated from these mailings are then followed up by the company’s sales force, or by outside dealers or distributors.

Mailings to rented lists can also be used to sell a company’s product directly from the mailing piece, if the price of the product is sufficiently low enough. Products having a unit price under $2,000 can usually be sold exclusively by direct mail, or by a combination of direct mail, accompanied by one or more follow-up phone calls by a sales telemarketing staff. Products having a unit price under $500 can usually be sold by direct mail alone, and often in a single mailing.

While you don’t own any of the names you obtain by “renting” a mailing list, once an individual whose name was on a rented mailing list responds to your mailing piece by contacting your company, and provides you with his/her name, company, and other sales contact information, you may then capture this lead and include it in your company’s own sales and marketing database. Your company then “owns” this new sales lead, which then becomes part of your company’s own mailing list.

Package elements and contents: The “classic” direct mail piece sent to rented mailing lists is typically either a letter-size (#10) or 9 X 12 (“catalog” size) mailing piece, containing the following elements:

• One or two-page sales letter (personalized or generic);
• Color promotional sales brochure;
• Postage-paid reply card;
• Promotional card, or “buck slip” (optional)

There are, of course unlimited creative styles and variations of the “classic” direct mail package: For example, outer envelopes can look like your company’s traditional letterhead, or can be boldly emblazoned with big, promotional, eye-catching headlines; envelopes can be printed four-color, solid color, or plain white, depending on your ad agency’s creative approach, and your marketing budget.

The Self-Mailer Option

One-piece, self-mailer options: For many years, direct mail marketers clung to the “classic” direct mail format for mailings to rented mailing lists, because this was the proven, time-tested format that worked on past projects. Also, given the extra expense of mailings to rented mailing lists (about $50 to $100 or more for every 1,000 pieces added to the cost of a mailing), direct mail marketers stayed with this proven format to ensure the best possible chance of success when executing these more expensive mailings.

Over the past several years, however, various types of one-piece, self-mailer formats have proven themselves as effective alternatives to the traditional, letter-format mailing piece. For example, large-format (8-1/2 X 11 folded size) 3-panel self-mailing brochures (approximately 28 X 11 inches in their unfolded, flat size) combine the selling power of the traditional, letter format’s sales cover letter, color brochure and response card into a single, full-color, mailable printing piece that can be unfolded and read more quickly by prospects than an envelope-bound mailing piece. Postage-paid reply cards can also be integrated into these large-format self-mailers, and perforated so they can be readily removed, filled out and mailed in by prospects.

In addition to their sales impact, often equal to or better than a multiple-piece, envelope-bound direct mail package, there are fewer printed pieces that have to be designed, produced and printed with self-mailers (3-5 individual printed pieces for a letter-format mailing piece, vs. the self mailer’s single printed piece). Depending on quantity, postage costs and lettershop expenses are also lower for self-mailers than for letter-format mailing packages.

Self-mailers can be produced in a variety of sizes, from the larger-format 11 X 17 sheets folded down to 8-1/2 X 11 size, or to 5-1/2 X 8-1/2 (folded) size, or to the smallest, letter-size format (#10 size), measuring approximately 4 X 8-1/4 inches in its final, folded size. However, large-format, 8-1/2 X 11 (final folded size) pieces account for the vast majority of self-mailer formats used on mailings to rented mailing lists.

Marketing Situation #2: Tactical Mailings for Sales Promotions, New Product Announcements, and Other “Targets of Opportunity”

The scenario: These types of mailings exploit various tactical “targets of opportunity,” such as new product launches, new sales promotions and special pricing announcements, and tactical mailings designed to contrast your company’s product with that of a major, named competitor.

Who receives these mailings: Sales promotion, announcement, and target-of-opportunity mailings are usually sent to your company’s in-house customer and/or prospect lists, and, depending on the promotion, are sent to other special mailing lists that you compile in-house, such as trade association membership rosters, or specially-created lists of business executives at targeted companies or markets, compiled by the “Dumb Assistant” list compiling technique, which we covered in a previous TMN (see our 11/1/05 issue at the index link above).

Mailing goals: These special mailings are designed to achieve a tactical effect, to stimulate short-term sales for your company. For example, if you know that your company faces a slow selling season during the upcoming summer months, a well-timed sales promotional mailing scheduled to arrive three weeks before Memorial Day can provide a lift to a slow sales period.

A tactical mailing can also boost sales by announcing sales promotions tied to improved product features, or announcing market changes benefitting your company. For example, the addition of a major, well-known company as one of your new customers, or an endorsement by a leading trade or professional organization in your industry can serve as the “hook,” around which a mailing can be created.

Competitive mailings: Tactical mailings can also be used to favorably compare your company’s products against those of your leading competitors. Direct, in-your-face sales headlines work best when you’re putting out a mailing that is intended to stack your product’s major benefits up against those of your major competitors: “Now 20% more efficient than [named competitor’s product X].” Another common feature used in these kinds of mailings is a comparison table, listing key features and benefits of your company’s products, alongside those of your major competitors, in a row-and-column table format.

New or improved product feature mailings: If your company has added a new, significant, or improved feature to its product or service, you can build a mailing around it. A tactical mailing to your company’s own customer and prospect mailing lists, outlining the major user benefits of the new product improvement or feature, along with a reinforcement of your product’s overall benefits, is a tremendous opportunity for keeping your company’s products in front of your customers and prospects.

New and improved product feature mailings work best when you include a special, limited-time promotional offer, such as a percent-off discount, a special quantity price break, an added premium, or some other incentive for your customers and prospects to place a call to your sales reps, in response to your call to “Act Now!”

Package elements and content: Any common direct mail format can be used in a tactical mailing—from conventional letter-size mailings containing a cover letter, brochure and reply coupon, to self-mailer formats of any size—even postcards.

Since these tactical opportunities often present themselves quickly, and require an equally rapid response, self-mailer formats in either 8-1/2 X 11 (folded) or 5-1/2 X 8-1/2 (folded) size formats are fast and easy to produce, print, and mail.

Postcard options: Four-color, self-mailing postcards are also an excellent mailing format for simple, basic sales announcements, or any other tactical marketing event that can be easily communicated to your customer and prospect base. These include announcements of limited-time only sales discounts on products that are well-known to your customers.

Other, easy-to-understand promotional offers, such as: “Buy One, Get One Free,” can also be readily presented in a postcard format, and rapidly mailed to your customer and prospect lists. Four-color postcards in 5-1/2 X 8-1/2 size are an inexpensive, versatile format for many of these one-time-only promotional mailings.

Comments? Questions? Send them to me at: eric@realmarkets.net

_____________________________________________________________

Eric Gagnon (eric@realmarkets.net), is president of GAA (www.realmarkets.net), a sales and business development consulting firm, and is the author of The Marketing Manager’s Handbook, the master study guide for the Business Marketing Association’s Marketing Skills Assessment, Skill Builder, and Certification (MSA/B/C) programs.

For more information on The Marketing Manager’s Handbook, available to BMA members at a special discount, link to:

http://www.businessmarketinginstitute.com/book.html

_____________________________________________________________

Test, Train, and Build Your B2B Marketing Skills for Better Sales Success: BMA Announces New Assessment, Training, and Certification for B2B Marketing Managers

For more information on the new BMA Marketing Skills Assessment, Skill Building and Certification (MSA/B/C) training and professional development program, visit http://www.businessmarketinginstitute.com