B2B Direct Mail

Were You Looking For A B2B Direct Mailing Company?

Many businesses use direct mail companies for their marketing as B2B direct mail is still effective. 

Even in the internet age it still has its place as an essential service and also as a sales tool.

Think of the number of direct mailings you get to your house every week.  This can be multiplied by at least twice in the business world.  Not necessarily from pizza companies or cruise companies, but targeted direct mail campaigns to named individuals within a business.

Many companies use B2B direct mail for invoicing or sending confidential documents that cannot be e-mailed. 

This runs into the millions every day and is critical for companies to operate.

Businesses also use mailing to promote their services either in soliciting new business or in keeping up to date with an existing customer base.

B2B direct mail is a fairly inexpensive way to get a shot gun approach of a target market all in one go. 

Many companies will either use a targeted approach (by sending tje mailing to named individuals) or in just sending a mailing to ‘the office manager’.

Unsolicited B2B Direct Mail

Recruitment companies are possibly the most well known users of sending unsolicited mailings to businesses alongside office stationery companies.

Both of these industries are highly competitive and as such firms are battling against each other for brand exposure and the first choice.

Most businesses that send unsolicited mailings do get a response in some way.  Despite 95% of the mailings being put into the bin the mailings do work either just for brand exposure or for direct sales.

Solicited B2B Direct Mail

Many companies do get mailings that are expected.  From sources such as banks, suppliers, customer’s B2B direct mail is used to communicate solicited information to businesses on a daily basis.

Many companies ran into major problems in December 2010 when the snow hit the UK and brought alot of B2B direct mail to a halt. Shops suffered as deliveries were not getting through.  

Businesses suffered as cheques were not getting through.  As a results, the Christmas period was not a joyful one for many as a result of mailings being halted for many days (certainly up in Scotland).

Ideas For Effective B2B Direct Mail

Many companies are using B2B direct mail for sales and as such, want to stand out in the crowd and solicit a response.  It is difficult as so much is outside of your control. 

You have not control over who first intercepts the mailing and whether it will actually be opened.  Many mailings go straight into the bin as they are blatant mailings.

There are some ideas for getting a better hit ratio and having more readers and less binners:

• Personalise the mailing – send it to an individual
• Enclose a gift of incentive that will be of interest
• Be creative in your packaging/envelope

The main thing is to get your mailing the right person, get the person to open the mailing and to spend a few seconds/minutes digesting the message. 

Getting a reaction is then in their hands – but can be influenced by you.

Best Practice For Businesses Using Direct Mail

Direct marketing when done right can be a very powerful marketing tool for businesses.  Here are some points to consider of what we feel you are supposed to do:

• Wasted Mailings – People move around within companies and they change companies.  Imagine you send a mailing to 10,000 prospects and 90% of them go to people who are not there any more.  You efforts were wasted and your mailings went into the bin.  It is important that you get up to date information and work with your sales team to ensure that any mailing goes to a names prospect.
• Call To Action – It is important that any mailing is simple to read and has a clear call to action or CTA.  Very often marketing information can be overly complicated where you need to sit down with a cup of coffee to help it sink in.  Your mailing needs to be browsable so that your target prospect can see what it is within a second of looking, because after then it is tossed into the bin.
• Be The Customer – Step into your prospects shoes for a moment, imagine you were them receiving the mailing.  Would it grab your attention?  You should know all about your customer, their age, their interests, their lifestyle habits.  If you do not, you do not know if they are likely to respond based on a number of factors.
• Personalise Your Mailings – Sending a mail campaign to a named prospect is day 1 of direct mailing school.  If you do not send it to your target prospect, then the secretary that opens the mail each day is just going to file it under BIN.
• Be Creative – Bear in mind that most companies have been receiving mailings for years, decades.  This is the call to get creative with your mailing.  Marketing is all about getting peoples attention and your competitors are most likely talking to the same prospects.
• Follow Up – Sending a mailing and hoping for a response is a rookie mistake.  Follow up on any sales campaign is essential.  This can be done via either an email or a phone call as part of a telemarketing campaign.

Enhanced Response

B2B direct mail works really well if there is a follow up. 

Rather than just hoping to get a response, if it is followed up by a telemarketing campaign this should produce much better results than just the mailing on its own.

Rather than going through Bing to find companies, just fill in the form.

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