B2B Direct Mail Guide With Use Cases & Examples
B2B Direct Mail: A 2021 Guide for Small Business Owners
Attention is the primary goal of every business owner indulged in marketing. However, with all of the companies launching digital marketing campaigns, it’s getting difficult to get people’s attention.
Plus, most people now opt for apps to block ads on their devices.
It makes the ultimate goal of your campaign even challenging to achieve, as people don’t want to see digital ads in the first place. Let alone engaging with them.
Hence, you got to go for an option to get your readers’ attention and get them to read the message you want to convey. B2B direct mail marketing can help you achieve it.
So let’s understand every detail about it.
B2B Direct Mail Marketing: An Introduction
B2B direct mail marketing is a marketing strategy that involves sending tangible direct mails to potential and existing clients. The direct mails you send include letters, postcards, brochures, catalogs, 3D mailers, etc.
- Most businesses choose to include this marketing method in their overall omnichannel marketing strategy because:
- It delivers a better open and response rate
- Clients who receive the mailer on the other end seem to like this method of communication more than digital ways
- It provides better account-based marketing results
However, one must take into consideration that direct mail marketing may be expensive at times. And the businesses on the budget or just looking for ways to save funds are advised to look for better alternatives than in-house direct mail campaigns or outsourcing to the agencies.
One of the best ways to use them to increase your ROI is by getting direct mail marketing software, like PostGrid. More on this later.
Let’s first understand how you can use direct mail for your businesses in different ways.
B2B Direct Mail Use Cases
Knowing that, with your direct mails, you’re landing right in the hands of the decision-makers, you must try different methods to make each interaction count. You can use the following ways to ensure that your direct mails do get read.
- Always target the right people. Only send direct mails either using PostGrid‘s mailing list or after researching your audience demographic details.
- Align your customer support team with the sales and marketing team to communicate everything effectively.
- Always keep your direct mail envelope enticing enough to get your readers to open it up. Plus, your direct mail copy should be compelling to hook the readers and keep them engaged with your mailer. So, your mailpiece succeeds in delivering your marketing message and get them to the final CTA.
- Must include a clear and way too easy-to-follow call to action to get more people to respond to your mailer.
- Always write in the language your clients are used to hearing.
- Always be creative in your direct mails, and don’t forget to follow up.
Track Your B2B Direct Mail Campaigns
Later on, you can simply track the results of your campaign performance and repeat the ones providing better returns than others.
Here’s how you can track your b2b direct mail campaigns:
If you’re using in-house methods, then you may need to count or know the exact number of direct mail pieces that you’ve sent. Then once, you’ve launched the campaign, you can deduct the number of responses you’ve received from the total mailers sent.
This way, you can find out your response rate. And based on that, your conversion rate.
For outsourcing your b2b direct mail marketing to agencies, you might need to ask them about the details of your direct mails. Based on that, you can calculate your results. However, charges may differ.
On the other hand, if you’re launching your direct mail campaigns using automated API, like
PostGrid, you can get the full analytical details of your launched campaigns right on the device you’re using to operate the software.
You can also enable the system to send it to you via an SMS on your cell phone. Or check it yourself from the dashboard.
Understanding Effective Ways to Use B2B Direct Mail Marketing Funnel
Now that you have understood how to start practicing your b2b direct mail campaigns and know how to track them, you should understand a little bit about how to enable prospects to engage with your brand throughout their customer cycle too.
Here’s everything you need to know about B2B direct mail marketing funnels.
Top of Funnel (ToF)
Let’s begin with a definition first. It’s basically the largest audience you target in your marketing. These are the potential clients who are far away from making any buying decision.
Now to make the most of your direct mails in this stage, you should try to engage with them in a way more personalized way than you would otherwise. For instance, consider including a hand-written note in your direct mail pieces to get them to request a demo. Then follow up with them using their first name on the envelope and referencing your last direct mail message in your letter.
This way, you can engage more people with your company and increase your brand awareness considerably.
Mid of Funnel (MoF)
This stage is the one where people are already looking to solve a problem actively on their own.
Hence, the chances of these people are more than ToF to invest in one of your products.
While targeting your MoF, you should consider using your direct mail pieces to describe your prospects and how you differ from your competition. For instance, if they visited your website, downloaded some of your resources, or engaged with your brand in any way, you can start by sending them a highly personalized thank-you postcard.
Bottom of Funnel (BoF)
This is the smallest group of audience you market your product to; they’re too close to making a purchase. Even your existing clients also fall into this category, as you keep on trying to increase your customer life.
So, when you interact with your clients in this stage of the customer lifecycle, you’d need to send them direct mail pieces and gifts continually.
After all, these are the people who know about your brand more than others.
Some of them have even bought from you in the past. Hence, the chances are that they will buy from you again if you keep on reminding them about your brand.
B2B Direct Mail Ideas for Your New Campaigns
After understanding your customer’s cycle and how you should be operating for each one, it’s time to get some great ideas about b2b direct mail.
This way, you can get started with snail mail marketing instantly. Even though you know that you’re sending these mailers to businesses, still, you should never forget the fact that behind the big computer screens, the ones operating are humans, just like you and us.
And hence, you should send personalized things that they can relate to. Plus, it should hook them from the beginning and get them to take action.
So here’s a list of a few ideas that you can use for your direct marketing.
Send them personalized portraits
Not most people think of it, but you can send your potential clients their portrait to hook them with your direct mail without much effort and investment.
You might think that it will cost you top dollars. But it won’t. All you need to do is hire a freelance designer from content mill platforms like Upwork or Fiverr.
You may not believe this, but you can get pretty good newbie freelancers from these sites who don’t have much credibility but a lot of talent. Plus, the upside of this method is that it won’t cost you much.
The freelancers on these sites usually charge a minimum of all.
So, with a little bit of creativity, you can get your prospects to read your marketing message. And thus, get a good lead for your company.
Show them what they want to see
Another thing that you can do is send your prospects a news article based on their company. It should say the great results that they can achieve by solving a problem related to your product.
This type of message will hook your prospects with your direct mail instantly. And it’ll make them read till the end, where you can say, “these results can be true. Your company may show up in the next press release with the same article if you do so and so.
And eventually, you tell them how they can achieve those results in real with the help of your products or services. And add your call to action with it.
It’s more likely to get you a good number of leads.
B2B Direct Mail Real-World Examples
After discussing the great ideas for your b2b direct mail marketing, let’s head on to the examples succeeding in the real world.
The first example we’ll discuss is from Google. They’re one of the biggest companies in the world, targetting businesses for their advertisements.
They used direct mails to entice small business owners to show free advertisements up to $75.
All they sent was a simple letter. Their heading went like, “Your best new customers could be searching for you right now.” And it was followed by their marketing message.
In the end, they signed off with the signature of the head of small business team operations.
So simple, yet creative. Here’s how it looked like:
The next example is from intel. They used enveloped postcards to convey their marketing message. Plus, they designed the envelope to raise their brand awareness.
It was simple yet effective. Here’s a picture of how it looked like:
The third example comes from Barclays. They used a 3D mail to show how the growth explodes when it’s combined with the dynamic funds.
Here’s the image how the direct mail looked like:
The 3D mailer may cost businesses a little more than the regular mails. But they can get your leads to read your marketing message.
We advise you that if you’re on a budget and have your customers’ cycle defined for you. Then, you should use it at the bottom of the funnel. It’s likely to bring better results that way.
And to do it with ease, you can integrate the automated API, like PostGrid, and get your mailpieces created, printed, and mailed at a reasonable cost.
This way, your final ROI is always the best. Because at the end of the day, that’s what every business wants.
B2B Direct Mail Marketing Best Practices for Effective Results
After knowing a lot about what you can do to get started with your direct mail marketing and what’s working in the real world. Here are a few more good practices to include in your snail mail marketing.
This is basically for businesses just starting out with direct mails. If you’ve already been involved in marketing for longer than you can remember, you can skip this section. Or you can go through it to freshen up your knowledge a bit more.
So without further ado, let’s get started.
The number one thing that we want to discuss here is always to build your audience first. No matter which direct mail practice you’re going to use, it’s always good to have a targeted audience at hand.
You can either start from scratch, do the research, and build your audience list or get a ready-made, highly targeted mailing list based on your customers’ demographic details from platforms like PostGrid.
The other things to keep in mind are:
- Always understand your prospects’ emotions before you write your copy.
- Always list the benefits that your audience will get from your audience instead of talking about its features.
- Use your content to spread your brand awareness, solve your prospects’ problems, and generate leads.
- Show off your credentials to build their trust in your brand.
Get Your Direct Mail Game up And Running
If we’re being honest, direct mail marketing can take a little extra time and effort, but the results you get at the end pay off.
By constantly using direct mails, measuring your campaigns’ performance, and keep on improving the next campaign, you can escalate your new clients’ list.
And it’ll skyrocket your results.
However, you can either go by the traditional methods and spend tons of money and time on it or use platforms like PostGrid. The automated API is not only present at reasonable rates but helps you get your campaigns up and running real fast.
PostGrid helps businesses boost the ROI with address verification and direct mail automation.
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The post B2B Direct Mail Guide With Use Cases & Examples appeared first on PostGrid.
source https://www.postgrid.com/b2b-direct-mail/
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