Direct mailing as a part of marketing campaigne? Reasonable?

[Altoros]

Hi all,

We have a client that is really interested in direct marketing and combine it with other marketing ways. But I am not sure it could be realised and any results could be achived. Frankly speaking, I do not believe in efficiency of direct mailing at all in our days because of large amount of spam. I am really interested is it reasonable now to use direct mailing as a part of whole marketing campaign?

Thax in advance if any.

[10 Yetis]

I have to go to a meeting in a sec so this answer will be much shorter than my usual ramblings... <phew!>

In short, yes, DM is a much valued part of the marketing mix. Reponse rates will be much higher if it used as part of a larger marketing campaign.

Wow, my shortest ever post..

Shabba

[ebonybailey]

Direct Mail, and telemarketing works very well, im guessing Andy will say the same.
If telemarketing is a requirement do let me know.

Michael

[daveashton]

LOL Yetis

No nice colours either, you must have been in a rush!

DM has many forms; email, text, some forms of telesales (sweatshop and not provided by us) bulk mailings, flyers etc.

So to answer your question. Yes the above do work to a higher or lower degree depending on:

1; How targeted it is.
2: The type of people you are trying to reach (yes this is different. Your target could be corporates with over 100 people in x sector and your type could be receptionist to MD)
3: Method of delivery
4: Type of product / service

So DM does work well for many companies, however it does lend itself more to B2c than B2b.

If you provide some more details we can run it through the system to find the closest match to give your some more targeted and beneficial help.

PS We are all off to Spain on business so ill not be back until Thursday/ Friday.

[chris1317]

Sorry for sounding thick but what is b2c and b2b?

Cheers
Chris.

[Alpha]

Chris B2b is Business to Business
B2c is Business to Consumer


These damn 3LA (3 letter acronyms lol) were getting everywhere and the sales people didnt want to get left out
:D

[chris1317]

Cheers for that, I realy need to brush up on my 3LA's

Chris.

[webit]

We're working through a direct mail shot at the moment, what we're doing is including figures as to how much traffic has been driven to their corporate sites through us already together which their listings on search engines we've created.

This shows that we've done some work already rather then the general spam that arrives in the in-box and the click through rate has been very good.

Also, we batched the shots with a week between so we could tweek the wording if needed.

[daveashton]

UK Sales Acronyms can be found here:

http://www.bizal.com/sales_marketing_terminology.html

we are adding a few more pages to this section this week including:

Commission Plan’s the Basic Rules
Article submission sites
Online PR sites and Tips

[Jayne]

Hi

Why not try them with local radio advertising.

Best Wishes

Jayne

[ebonybailey]

I think Altros has gone!!!

[Altoros]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the late reply, I hadn't enough time to view posts and reply. Michael, do not worry, I am still here!!!

Thanks for your comments. As for the DM - it should be b2b email campaign I suppose for a database of decision maikers who have heard some info earlier - a year ago maybe. They could be interested in services but I am not sure they are willing to recieve unsolicated emails. We would like to use several ways as - snail mailing(flyers), telemarketing and email campaign. But what should be first, second and third in your opinion?
How to increase conversion rate? Maybe it would better work if we send them email commercial proposal as followup after telemarketing campaigne?

How would you react on this if you are a potential client? Would it annoy you?

Thanks for comments in advance.

Dimitry

[ebonybailey]

I would suggest written info to be sent, email marketing without consent could land you in trouble, and swiftly followed up by telemarketing.

Glad to see your still here!!

Michael

[10 Yetis]

Not much can be added to what has already been said, but just to echo Ebony's point earlier in the thread (and it cannot be under-estimated)... the success of any DM campaign would be greatly increased if used in conjunction with a Telemarketing campaign.

<alongside a press release about your service/product in the trade media of the businesses you are targetting...> :D

[Altoros]

Hi all,

I understood that email marketing is not the best way for lead generating process. But you shoud agree with me that it is the cheapest one. Maybe there is a way how it could be used for the best result in limited budget conditions?

Thanx,
Dmitry

[Rob Holmes]

IMHO - why not try a telemarketing campaign that incorporates getting the potential client to opt-in to an email follow-up system or newsletter system as part of what I call the backup response.

Your most wanted response would probably be a sale of further discussion but the backup response is if they don't want to commit to a full blown sales discussion then at least they could opt-in to your 'newsletter' (read automatic follow-up) system if they maybe interested in the future.

The telemarketing consultant simply has to get their email address, add them to the system while they are on the phone and then talk them through opting in (simply waiting for an email to be received and clicking on a link in the email)

Rob

[daveashton]

Email is free (ish) and it does not sound like you are planning to send out to them lots of emails which is what the SPAM rules are really about. Oh you must remember to have an opt out option on the email.

As for the best way forward. I would do both, but in very small numbers so that you can follow them up with a phone call.

If you need help on either the direct mailing ( we can provide this for less than a 2nd class stamp), telesales, or the telesales follow up please call.


PS to get the best results follow up calls need to be between 2-5 days after the letter was sent. i.e. if you send it out on Monday, call days will be Wednesday- Friday

[UKmortageBroker]

Hi, I really think Direct Marketing has a long life span yet my business couldnt live without it!