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B2B Direct Mail Lead Generation Success Needs Planning, Testing, Measuring.
Is Direct Mail Useless for DMers?
Is direct mail useless at helping direct mail businesses
generate leads?
That's the question I was asked last week by a reader of Alan
Sharpe's B2B Direct Mail Tactics newsletter. Here is her unusual
challenge, and my response.
"My biggest challenge in generating leads from direct mail is to
convince our marketing people that direct mail should be used.
This is a completely ironic situation given that we are a DIRECT
MAIL HOUSE. Yes, that's right. I've been told that 'direct mail
is not good for our business.'
"Apparently, direct mail was tried once long ago and had a bad
response rate. Our other lead generation methods include sales
outreach activities (prospecting, networking, etc.) and
community involvement - charities, boards, councils, etc. Our
word of mouth reputation is excellent - we've been in business
for 18 years, our turnaround time is excellent, our customer
service people are top notch, our team really knows their stuff
. . . . However, it seems to me that a larger outreach should be
done as well . . . am I barking up the wrong tree here?"
Myth #1: Direct mail doesn't work for us
The only way to convince management to use direct mail over the
long term to generate sales leads is to prove that direct mail
either outperforms other methods or increases the effectiveness
of other methods. You can only do this through testing and
measuring results.
After all, the telephone, not the letter, is the number one
tactic to generate leads according to the Direct Marketing
Association's 2005 Response Rate Report.
Your firm sounds like it is content to do business in your city
only. That's why they rely on "networking, community involvement
- charities, boards, councils, etc." These methods of meeting
prospective clients are not sustainable nationally or even
regionally. They are too expensive.
Unless your management wants to grow the business outside of
your city, or grow the business in an aggressive way in your
city, you may have a hard time convincing them to try DM. This
is especially true if your city is small, since your prospect
pool is so limited.
Myth #2: We tried it once and it didn't work
You say, "Apparently, direct mail was tried once long ago and
had a bad response rate." Business-to- business lead generation
using direct mail is a program, not a campaign. It consists of a
plan, a year-long series of mailings,
and a way of testing
methods and measuring results. I would suggest that if you have
not tried direct mail consistently for at least a couple of
years, testing different packages against each other, testing DM
against your other lead generation methods, and measuring your
results to see which method is most cost-effective, you have
abandoned direct mail prematurely.
Myth #3: Direct mail delivers poor response rates
You say, "Apparently, direct mail was tried once long ago and
had a bad response rate." Direct mail response rates are
misleading if you read them incorrectly. Your response rate only
tells you part of what you need to know. It tells you the
percentage of people on your list who responded and nothing
more.
Your response rate doesn't tell you how much you had to spend to
generate one lead. Or how much you had to spend to make one
sale. Your direct mail response rate does not tell you if the
sales people who followed up on the leads closed any sales. Or
if you broke even. Or if you made a profit.
So don't be fooled by a low response rate. Unless you measure
these other things (cost per lead, cost per sale, break even,
return on investment) and compare your results with your
face-to-face prospecting, community involvement and other
methods, you will always be relying on feelings and not facts.
One of the things that I like about B2B direct mail lead
generation is that it is empirical. The numbers never lie. You
can bank on it.
Recommendations
1. Show your boss a compelling business case for testing direct
mail lead generation at your firm. Calculate cost per lead, cost
per sale, break even and ROI. Show your boss the numbers
2. Start with a list of prospects that have been unresponsive to
your other methods, or people that you cannot reach
cost-effectively any other way
3. Think niche. Target a narrow group of prospects and go after
their business with a year-long campaign, reaching them more
times and in more ways than your salespeople ever could in a year
I wish you every success!
About the author:
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and
lead generation specialist who helps business owners and
marketing managers generate leads, close sales and retain
customers using business-to-business direct mail marketing.
Learn more about his creative direct mail writing services and
sign up for free weekly tips like this at
http://www.sharpecopy.com.
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