Steve Sellwood is from selectabase.co.uk, leading UK suppliers of quality direct marketing lists for all uses, and for both business-to-business, and business-to-consumer campaigns. Selectabase also provide a range of affordable list cleaning services to keep your in house lists up to date and ready to use.
Direct mail is sent to businesses and consumers every day and is used by a very wide range of organisations and industries.
A mailing, often accompanied by a letter, in the post has become a proven and accepted way of targeting your audience, with consistent conversion rates of about 1-5%.
However many direct mail users don't realise just how much of a friend it can be to many other marketing methods and tools. And combining more than one marketing tool together in the same campaign can also reap bigger benefits and increased response rates.
The experts might call it ‘Integration' but to everyone else its just common sense - marketing activities work best when they are used to support and complement each other. Carried out in isolation, marketing activities just don't have the same impact or resonance with the target audience.
Here are just a few examples of how you could use direct mail alongside, before or after other marketing communication activities:
- Before you exhibit at an event or exhibition, send out targeted invites to your stand to your own list of contacts, prospects and existing customer. Or rent and mail a mailing list of previous visitors from the event organisers to attract plenty of new business, especially if the mailing is combined with an offer or incentive.
- After you return from exhibiting at an event or exhibition, use a direct mailshot to follow up on your new list of stand visitors, leads and prospects about a week or so later. Thank them for visiting your stand and ask if there's anything else you can help them with
- Push new traffic to your website by mailing a list of prospects. One big advantage of this technique is that you can increase direct traffic to your site without having to worry about losing potential visitors to natural or paid search activity by your competitors. This strategy works equally well for gaining b2b leads online as it does for gaining b2c ecommerce sales.
- Use direct mail to follow up on telephone or coupon enquiries you may have received as a result of above the line promotional activities such as press advertising, radio advertising, competitions or public relations. You may need to mail these lists several times over a period of time before getting a response.
- When you are running a sales promotion or incentive campaign, perhaps in your own outlets or in retailers, make sure you also promote it with a mailing to potential or previous contacts and customers as well. This will help drive traffic to stores and ensure the success of your merchandising campaign.
Before you start a field sales or telemarketing campaign, do a mailing first to soften up your prospects and open doors. Depending on your market, you may also want to give recipients a chance to decline receiving a sales call in advance.
Likewise, after your telemarketing or direct selling campaign is over, follow up on your lukewarm prospects with another mailing - often it can take several contacts using different forms of media before a lead turns into a customer.
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