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Business to Business Mail

by Matthew Samp
 

You have to make the right assumptions...

Business-to-business direct mail poses certain problems that are quite different than those posed by consumer mail. First of all, it's important to try to reach the decision maker. In some companies, the president makes all the decisions. In others, it might be an executive assistant. Your product or service might be of interest to the vice president of sales, but not to the sales manager. Tough, like I said.

However, there are some fairly simple things you can do to help make sure your mail will succeed.

You'll get better results if you...

Look at your active customers first. Try to figure out if there are patterns in your customer list that can be extrapolated to outside mailing lists. For example, is there one title that appears more often than others? Are your client companies about the same size in terms of number of employees or dollar volume in sales? It pays to take a look at your customer list first. Chances are, you'll find a lot of useful information on it that can be used to make better list selections.

Always mail to a person, not a title or a company. If you can't find a list available with the names of the target buyer on it, you should probably keep looking. Try association lists instead of business lists. Try trade publication lists. The names are out there.

Make your advertising look like business. One surefire way to get your envelope thrown in the trash when mailing to businesses is to make it look like what it is. Advertising. Try a more subtle, businesslike approach. Maybe even a plain envelope with no company name on it. You might be surprised at the results.

Try metering your mail. I just talked with a potential client who was absolutely convinced that putting a stamp on the envelope would always outpull other types of postage. Convinced, that is, until I pointed out that the only people who put stamps on business mail are usually looking for a job. So, if you are going for a businesslike look, use metered postage.

Realize cost is relative. Yes, direct mail can be expensive. The USPS seems to do everything in its power to make sure of that. But, sometimes, spending more will get you more. A lot more. In B to B mail, dimensional mail ... boxes, big fat envelopes, etc. ... containing a "sales promotion" type of message and 3D enclosure will far outpull a standard "message only" package. I've seen mailers costing over five dollars per piece pull response rates of 50% or more. This might make sense for you, especially if you are going for big ticket sales.

Separate the wheat from the chaff. A lot of companies send out the same mail to their active clients as they do to outside lists. This is a mistake. A big mistake. Experienced direct marketers know that the active customer file is a gold mine. The people on it deserve special attention. Special offers. Special prices. And, they expect to be addressed differently than a stranger. Couple these facts with the fact that sales to existing customers can and should constitute a very large percentage of your overall sales and you'll see why investing in direct mail exclusively designed to fill their needs is the way to go.

Get help. Yes, you know your product or service like you know the Cubs are never really going to have a shot at the pennant. And, yes, you know your prospects better than anyone else. No, you should not be the one to create your direct mail advertising. You should use professional help. Look at it this way. If you were suing a big corporation for big bucks, you wouldn't represent yourself in court, would you? And you wouldn't ask your nephew, fresh out of law school, to represent you, either. You'd hire a pro. You should do the same when it comes to creating your direct mail.
 

© 2005 Creos Direct Mail, Matthew Samp
http://www.TheSamp.com