In an increasingly noisy world, direct mail has made a significant comeback as a critical channel for business to business (B2B) marketers. Marketing teams are under immense pressure to shift from a high volume, inbound lead approach to a more strategic account based marketing (ABM) outbound system that better aligns with sales goals and target accounts. This means ways to drive engagement within a small universe of companies is a critical task for marketing teams.
Enter, direct mail and it’s tried a true tactics to drive engagement. Market with the precision of a surgeon by:
- Monitor Social Media and Leverage Business Reply Cards
Watch for updates on social networks like LinkedIn or Twitter for key contacts that have departed and landed at your target accounts. You’d be surprised at how many of your champions will shift roles at some point and become a key prospect for you. When this happens, send a direct mail piece to drive engagement. For example, congratulations on a new role is a nice approach. Be sure to design your mail piece with a specific call to action, like visiting your website or include a business reply card (BRC), and prepaid, pre-addressed postcard that makes it easy for a response. - Utilize Marketing Automation to Trigger Postcards or Booklet Mailers
Entice prospects at the right time by employing an integrated direct mail strategy. If you leverage a marketing automation system like Salesforce Pardot, Marketo, or Hubspot build triggers to send direct mail pieces based on prospect behavior (e.g. downloads website content) or fits a certain criteria (i.e. title is CXO). You’ll need to send/test various direct mail pieces to see which works best for your target audience but a branded postcard or booklet with your logo, value proposition, and a strong call to action is a good place to start. - Personalize and Make Mailers Fun to Increase Response Rates
Personalization across marketing channels typically drives higher response rates and this is no different with direct mail. We recommend starting with simple personalization tactics such as learning which college a person attended and reflecting this on a fun direct mail piece. For example, one of our leaders graduated from Chico State University and we’ve decided to reward all alumni from CSU with discounted banners through the end of August 2019. The banner — shown in this article — has the CSU logo, colors, and call to action to make it fun and effective.
In closing, direct mail tactics are an extremely effective approach to rise above the noise and drive engagement for B2B marketing teams. Start with simple, yet effective tactics to create engagement in account based marketing programs.
To learn more about ABM tips using direct mail contact us, send an email to [email protected], or ring us at 510-505-1100.