B2B Direct Mail Best Practices should be followed to boost campaign effectiveness
In order to have a successful B2B Direct Mail marketing campaign, it is an absolute must to adapt B2B direct mail best practices. These guidelines should be followed to ensure your direct mail marketing campaign produces effective and efficient results. After all, it is a highly competitive marketplace with countless businesses vying for the attention of potential clients, hence the need to adopt these best practices.
Here then are some ‘best practices’ that can take you to the next level and keep you there.
9 B2B Direct Mail Best Practices – Your guide to a successful B2B Direct Mail Marketing Campaign
1. Be one with your sales team
As with most marketing campaigns, Direct mail marketing can be expensive, especially if you are not choosing the best prospects. That is why it is imperative you work closely with your business’ sales team to identify the most updated and accurate list of prospects. This is important because you may have red flags on your lists, such as a person leaving a company or someone who was promoted. The last thing you want is to be wasting your budget to reach out to persons who will not garner any results for your ad campaign. So, sales and marketing alignment is that much more important.
2. Be clear and concise with your call to action
While our focus for this article is direct mail marketing, this best practice is a must for any successful marketing campaign. It is about your call to action. Once you’ve selected the best prospects for your direct mail marketing campaign, your call to action must be clear and concise.
What do you want your customers and prospects to do with the information provided on your mailer? Do you want them to sign up for a webinar, download an e-book or fill out a “contact me” form? Do you want them to take advantage of a sales promotion or a coupon? Whatever you choose your call to action to be, ensure you specify what you want their next tactic to be. The last thing you want is for your mailer to be tossed in the trash as just another piece of “junk mail,” because it lacks a clear call to action.
3. Tailor to your audience
In your day to day workings to achieve your direct mail marketing goals, monotony can step in. You may feel like a one size fits all approach is the most lucrative, but, this is not the case. Just as every face you see daily is unique, so is every account. They come in all varying sizes, have varying goals and represent varying industries. So, it is critical you step away from the drag of monotony and focus on customizing your direct mail to fit your varying audiences as much as possible. Utilize your updated mailing list and identify groupings of accounts that speak similarly to their customers and prospects. Ensure you use their language and avoid errors such as using acronyms and abbreviations. Additionally, utilize any and as many examples that businesses of any size can understand.
A prime example of the importance of this best mail practice is comparing what is needed when creating messaging that speaks to a healthcare institution versus a marketing institution. A healthcare institution is focused on ways to improve relationships with patients as opposed to the marketing institution wanting to improve relationships with clients. This distinction would be very important to these two varying industries and it is these small edits that impact your customer relationships in a big way. These edits show the customer you understand their needs and wants and are willing to cater to them.
4. Make your message as personal as possible
In best mail practice number three, we learned the importance of customizing our messages to suit the audiences but in this step, we will learn the importance of personalizing the message. Personalizing your message is just as important as the actual message. Your aim should be to make each mailer as personal as possible for each recipient. This can be done by adding personalized touches such as the prospect’s name and the account name. You can even go as far as adding a signed letter with the sales representative’s name, email and phone number. These small, but effective personalized touches, can assist in taking the relationship to the next level.
5. Make your mailer distinctive and sharable
Branding is extremely important in marketing, especially direct mail marketing. Whatever you choose to put your name and logo on must make you proud always. So, before sending any mailers, stop and put yourself in the shoes of your recipients and ask yourself several important questions. Questions such as; Are the mailers I am sending going to end up in the trash? Will they be shared on social media? Will they be shared at all? What makes my mailer stand out as opposed to my competitors? Are my mailers unique to my brand and what I stand for? These are important questions to consider and inspire creativity to produce mailers that reflect professionalism, pride and elicit the positive response you desire.
6. Understand that Timing is everything
In your attempt to adopt B2B direct mail best practices, understand that timing is everything. In fact, it can be argued that timing is one of, if not the most important elements in your direct mail campaign as it can affect your audience engagement. Simple overlooked factors such as holidays, opening hours, busy schedules and the weather all deal with timing and can gravely affect audience engagement. While it may be impossible to reach out to your targeted customers and prospects at exactly the right time, it is possible to connect with your audience at the correct medium of time. All it takes is research and learning your customers and prospects’ habits.
7. Always measure the success of your direct mail campaign
What is the purpose of creating and implementing marketing campaigns if you do not measure the success of that campaign? When it comes to direct mail marketing, ensure you take the time to measure and analyze your campaigns’ results while comparing it to the goals you planned on achieving. Take the time to estimate KPIs and what you would like to see from your campaign. In every direct mail campaign, build in a method or several methods to measure and understand the targeted customer responses. It is only by measuring the results can you improve and optimize your campaigns.
8. Always have a follow-up plan
Do not, for a second, think that once your mailer is out the door, your work is done. You and your sales team should have a follow-up plan that includes dashboards and reports. Have systems in place that allows you and your team to gauge the success of your direct mail marketing campaign. Also, ensure you check in on your sales team follow-up activities and hold them accountable. If the follow-up won’t be done directly by your sales team, ensure you have a drip campaign at hand. This drip campaign allows you to send customers and prospects additional content that keeps them engaged. Take the time to ensure your sales team know how to speak to the mailer CTA’s. Also, they should know how to move the conversation forward in an effort to learn more about the business.
9. Have fun!
While this may sound like a weird direct mail best practice, it is not impossible or unethical. Having fun with your mailers actually assist with helping your business to stay relevant. All while helping you to add a personal touch to your engagement with your targeted audience. Simple things like referencing a new movie or a fun holiday on your mailers can show how creative and human you are. In turn, this can help to increase audience engagement.
Conclusion
B2B Direct mail marketing can have an enormously positive impact on your company. It can yield amazing results, but it has to work in conjunction with B2B direct mail best practices. This cannot be understated and needs to be at the forefront of your B2B marketing strategy. In fact, approximately 90% of your B2B direct mail marketing campaign’s effectiveness depends on the proper utilization of B2B direct mail best practices.
