Posting to Companies

[ridders]

Guys,

When you send a leaflet or a promo or a speculative letter to a company - who do you address it to? - especially if you do not know who the right person is that you should be sending it to?

Thanks

Ridwan

[gapgb]

If you can't get a name I guess your product should go to the finance director

[Janebert]

You should be doing your targeting/list buying such that you do know who to send it to. Otherwise, call them and ask for the name of the person in the position you wish to reach.

I'd love to hear about the success rate of this kind of campaign - so can you keep us posted?

Jane

[OakApplianceTesting]

Don't necesarily take this for fact, but it is my way of thinking that if you address it to Sir/Madam in the letter, and address the envelope to the company name itself, then it will get passed back up the chain of command to the appropriate person, until somebody sees it that will act on your info...

I suppose it depends upon what you are selling/providing, and the kind of companies you are targetting.

Only Directors have the right to make decisions within Limited Companes, but many sole-traders also require our services, and if its opened by the receptionist, a member of staff or the owner him/herself then it will still reach the right person.

In a smaller company a member of staff probably wouldn't open company mail or throw it away for fear of getting into trouble..

What they do with your leaflet after opening the envelope depends totally upon the design and look of your leaflets.... Get a great designer who know what they are doing, so many people overload the first page, which makes the customer thing 'i cant be bothered' and throw it in the bin...

What do you guys think about what I've just said?

Jon.

[Janebert]

Jon,

Only Directors have the right to make decisions within Limited Companes

If this were true, then nothing would ever get done!

I don't agree that mail addressed to the business name and then opening with Sir/Madam will inevitably reach the right person. It is the job of whomever opens the mail to filter out extraneous, irrelevant communication, which includes phone calls and junk mail.

Why take the risk? Direct mail can be an expensive way of marketing and depends on factors such as:

- quality and targeting of list (including getting the right name)
- copy
- offer
- and to a lesser degree, design, if you need it

What they do with your leaflet after opening the envelope depends totally upon the design and look of your leaflets.... Get a great designer who know what they are doing, so many people overload the first page, which makes the customer thing 'i cant be bothered' and throw it in the bin...

My own opinion is that direct mail is far too expensive to just be inserting a leaflet. If you want to go for visual impact, you might be better off sending a postcard - this will get read no matter what.

At the end of the day it depends on what you're marketing and to whom, and whether the response rate, plus profit per sale is enough to outweigh the cost of the marketing.

Jane

[OakApplianceTesting]

thanks Jane....

I seem to be getting one customer about every 150 leaflets I send out, and most of them have other companies throughout the UK, as well as wishing repeat business next year.

Some even ask for business cards whilst on site to give to their friends and other companies on my behalf which Im really greatful for.

It usually does cover the cost of my printing/mailing expenses at the moment, but your points are well worth pondering over for the near future when I have to be more careful with my expenses due to office rental/staff hire, etc..

Also, if I go for any large contracts then I hire a nice car, don my suit and make a personal visit upon making an appointment of course. Once again, depends on your type of product/service.

thanks :)

[Janebert]

I bet I could get you 15 responses per 150 leaflets with a different hook, copy and offer!

:wink:

Jane

[ridders]

Is this going to be challenge?????

[OakApplianceTesting]

You should be doing your targeting/list buying such that you do know who to send it to. Otherwise, call them and ask for the name of the person in the position you wish to reach.

I'd love to hear about the success rate of this kind of campaign - so can you keep us posted?

Jane

Hi again Jane,

I recently bought 852 company contacts from a list which cost me about £150.00, but if I'd have just wanted the phone numbers as well as the addresses for those companies it would have cost me an extra £170.00 just for the phone number alone... I dread to think what it would cost for the names of the people I need to reach.

I am curious that you say you could get a 1 in 10 response... could you elaberate more, or tell me how much it will cost me to find this out please.

Thanks,

Jon.

[Janebert]

Hi Jon,

Firstly, £150 for 852 company contacts without names or phone numbers sounds expensive to me. That's 17.6p per record which sounds like a lot, unless the list was very highly targeted to people who buy this kind of service. Where did you get the list from?

Anyway, I have a couple of ideas for "hooks" to get your target market interested in what you provide and to get them out of their apathy and procrastination.

The success of any direct mail campaign is dependent upon:

- targeting
- offer
- copy
And a couple of other things we don't need to go into here

If I were advising you, I'd advise that you go for a lead generation strategy using a "bait piece" and use a sequential mailing, rather than only mailing once, or mailing the same piece over and over again. I definitely wouldn't recommend sending leaflets, and design really isn't an issue because you should probably be sending a letter.

If you use a "bait piece" then whomever responds has qualified themselves as being a potential client and interested in what you offer (so long as you use the right kind of bait). Even if they don't buy today, you can stay in touch with them over time and eventually a proportion of them will become clients and that's when you start to see good ROI on your marketing expenditure.

But you'll need a good offer and good copy to the right people if you want to get high response and high conversions. It may be worth investing in getting help from a marketing consultant and copywriter to set this system up, and then you can run it for years at no further cost to yourself.

If you'd like to discuss this in more detail, then please email me at jane@attractioneers.com to setup an appointment to discuss your situation.

I hope this is helpful,
Jane

[WakingDragon]

Guys,

When you send a leaflet or a promo or a speculative letter to a company - who do you address it to? - especially if you do not know who the right person is that you should be sending it to?

Thanks

Ridwan

Get someone in your company to call each company and find the name of the right person. Often this will get redirected through a "gatekeeper" such as a PA or receptionist. Make your mailer to that person and follow it up with a call the day (or day after) the mailer lands. You need a good reason to speak to someone and they need to feel it is worth their while - so you need to be offering something different in your mailer.

How do you feel when you get junk mail addressed to nobody in particular? I usually don't even open such post.

In response to the person who said "get a great designer", I would say that a great designer cannot rescue an ill-executed communication campaign. Otherwise I would have 10 accountants, 6 banks and so on.

I would advise that you speak to someone who can tell you how to structure the best campaign for your budget. You may find the best solution involves just a letter on company headed paper, or something with a CD demo in.