How to get more B2B sales with direct mail
Direct mail is still a prominent way to raise brand awareness and boost revenue growth. However, your company needs to update its strategies to ensure this channel stays relevant. Writing smarter sales copy and integrating campaigns with digital marketing efforts can lead to better results. In addition, using address validation ensures you aren't wasting your marketing budget on mail pieces that won't reach customers.
Although the ways of reaching business-to-business customers have changed a great deal in the past few years, direct mail can still be a highly effective tool. To get more attention, your mail campaigns need to be innovative, targeted and connected to other marketing efforts. Even if you write a sales letter with compelling copy, if you send it in a plain envelope, recipients are more likely to write it off as junk mail and discard it without opening it, according to Business 2 Community. If you are trying to promote a particular product, it may be more effective to print this on the envelope. The article referenced a company that printed personalized brands with the customer's brand and a targeted leaflet with a link to an online video. This campaign achieved a 53 percent response rate, demonstrating the sustained power of direct mail in modern marketing efforts.
Integrating campaigns for better results
Because B2B buyers have more channels to connect with companies than ever before, it's important to maintain consistency across all campaigns. If your company is generating leads online and sending direct mail as a nurturing tool, your brand language needs to be consistent. Writing sales copy can be a challenge, but taking a conversational approach can make direct mail more effective, Entrepreneur magazine said.
Similar to online efforts, direct mail copy should establish your company as an authority in the industry and build credibility. Prospects need to trust brands before selecting a vendor and a solution. If a direct mail strategy is being employed later in the sales cycle, you need to carefully consider the offer you're going to include and the call to action. The next steps should be clearly outlined to ensure your campaign hits its target conversion rate.
Direct mail gives you the ability to better personalize you campaigns. With variable printing, you can include a prospect's name, title, company and other information to let him or her know you value the relationship. Targeted efforts may prove to be more effective than blanket messaging. Some B2B firms cater to different customer segments or communicate with multiple decision-makers within an organization, and personalization by group makes direct mail more relevant. You may want to split your contacts into different mailing lists based on these segments.
In addition to personalization and segmenting, address correction can help your mail campaigns have the intended effect of converting customers and growing revenue. This software standardizes and validates contact information as you enter it into your database to prevent discrepancies. This helps you avoid wasting your marketing budget.