Your First Direct Mailing?

Speak to the decision maker:-

Named Individual

Put yourself in the position of the Salesman. Who would you have to speak to in order to win the business? Would you try to get hold of the Managing Director ? Probably not. Write down a list of the types of people, their likely job responsibilities and job titles.

Companies

Consider the types of companies who represent your best prospects. Are there certain industries that are particularly suitable for your products or services? Do they need to be of a certain size and if so, how would you measure size - Turnover? Number of Employees? Number of Company Cars?

Geography

Are there areas where you specifically do or do not want responses from? Are you really a National or International company. If not, don't waste money on mailing people you won't service. How do you find the right list?
There are directories available which itemise most of the available lists on the market. One for the UK is called LADS (List and Data Sources). This may be helpful however it only gives the bare minimum of information and doesn't tell you much about the background of the data. Probably the best route is to find a reputable List Broker. Give them as much information about your project as possible - whilst you may feel some information is confidential they can only work with the information you give them and their job should be that much better. For each of the lists suggested you should ask how the data has been compiled.

• Has it been fully telephone verified?
• What percentage are Named Individuals (often records will have a stylised Job Title instead)?
• "Desk Research" can mean a lot of things including capture of a relevant directory. Whilst this may be appropriate, how old was the directory?

You will generally not benefit financially from "shopping around" for a list, as most have a market value whoever rents the data and you are likely to get the same list from any number of different brokers. What you should look for is a broker who seems genuinely interested in your products and proposition and who knows the market.

Directory Information

You should always check with a Publisher if you wish to use the information within a directory for direct mail purposes. Directories suffer from not being updated once printed (!) and they may have taken a year or more to produce so the information is not the most current - however it can be a very good way of targeting some vertical market sectors.

Compiled Lists

Often compiled by "Desk Research", exhibition attendees, sometimes telephone verified. If they are updated frequently AND mailed frequently, these can be good lists for targeting vertical markets, not least because someone has done the work for you and is likely to be able to supply the data in a range of formats - labels, disc, e-mail, lasered letters.

Magazine Subscriptions

These can work very well as readers have an interest in a subject, which could be appropriate to your products and services. Because most magazines ask for a variety of questions to be answered on their registration cards, you may also be able to target people with specific responsibilities such as "Purchasing Responsibility for Photocopiers" - the sort of thing you are unable to get anywhere else.

Acquisition of Data

Most lists are "rented for one-off use" rather than being "sold". The list owner will have invested a lot of resources and money in their list and they will not be anxious to give this away. Indeed, there will be a number of stipulations regarding the use of the list that you are bound to follow.
Most importantly, a one-off use means just that. There will be a few "seed names" hidden in the data, which will belong to the list owner. They will know if you use their data more than once so don't try it. The least you will have to pay will be for another rental at full price. If you want to rent a list more than once, agree in advance and you are likely to get a substantial discount.

Formats of Data Available

Whilst it is unusual now for list owners to be physically unable to supply data in any format other than labels, there may well be restrictions on who can receive their data in electronic format. However it can normally be supplied on disc or e-mail. You may be forced either to use their own Database Bureau or Mailing House or to use another recognised one. Warnes enjoy the benefits of being well-regarded in the industry and in particular QMP-accredited and are normally able to handle data from list suppliers. You will be able to brief us on your mailing and have full control over all production aspects and Data Processing.

Deliver a clear and simple message:-

It normally pays to enlist the services of a Direct Mail copywriter, even if you don't use a creative agency to design the whole mailing. Whilst we may all like to think that we can write a good sales letter, we are normally too close to the subject and may not concentrate on the very specific benefits that the reader should be made aware of.

For Business-to-Business mailings, a brief letter is all that is likely to get read, single-sided or at most double-sided letters should probably be used. It is generally recognised that you will have the attention of the reader for only a few seconds before they make a decision to bin the letter or keep on reading. You must get your message across very quickly and simply.

Consumer mailings can work if longer - indeed some companies find that they increase their response rates by having a number of pages - letter, continuation pages, extra pages of texts, special offers etc.

Make a smart and professional presentation:-

Never forget that what the reader receives in their In-Tray may be all they have to assess what your company stands for. If you are a shoddy, cheapskate company then a badly photo-copied letter crumpled into a cheap manila envelope with a label stuck on at an angle will present you at your best….if this is not the case, why give the reader the impression that this is your standard of operation?

Just as you would expect your salesman to be well presented at all times whilst on company business, so your mailing should be well presented. It might be simple, but every aspect should be neat and professional. If you do photocopy a letter - make it a good copy. If your copier makes marks all over the page, don't just accept it - get the machine fixed first or use another machine.

The Offer

The Offer is what the reader will respond to. If you have a particularly good product or service, then the offer could simply be to send the recipient more information or to arrange a sales call. This is obviously the ideal situation to be in. However, more often than not, although you may feel your company is the best in the marketplace, this may not be enough to elicit a response on its own. You may need to offer a free gift or competition simply to generate the response. From that point, you must then make every effort to speak to/see the person to do the real selling for your company.

Should you make the mailing clever/complicated?

If your product or service is much like many others and your "selling" job is difficult, you may need to make your mailing stand out from the crowd. It may need to catch the imagination or offer an exciting prize in order to get the recipient to become involved.

Such mailings are generally expensive. Although they may look to much better to you, don't lose track of the basics - make your offer clear and make it easy to respond. A clever design in itself will not necessarily bring in lots of responses.

You may well involve a design or advertising agency to help you. Make sure they have real experience with designing Direct Marketing campaigns - just designing a pretty leaflet and putting it in an envelope is not Direct Marketing!

Close the deal:-

You want a response. Make it very clear how the recipient should respond and make sure you give them several ways to do it - by post, telephone, fax or e-mail

Follow up the response

Once the responses hit the mat they must be dealt with immediately. The quicker the respondent hears from you, the better impression they are given about your professionalism and the more likely you are to make that sale.

It could be that the response takes the form of a card, posted back to you. It may well be a bit tatty now it has made the return journey. Make sure you are ready to handle any enquiries that come in. Brief the switchboard. Brief the sales team - what should they expect and when should they expect it?

Don't forget that this is the net result of your campaign. Let's assume that you did a mailing of 5,000 items. Including postage this could easily have cost you £5,000. You may have done well to receive 100 responses - in which case, each response card has cost you £50 - you wouldn't leave a pile of £50 notes hanging around on your desk - don't leave valuable responses there either!

Don't forget - the response is for your Offer - if you offered a FREE gift, the salesmen need to know that this is a fairly lukewarm prospect - not someone waiting to sign an order! You may be able to get a face-to-face appointment with the respondent however by delivering the FREE gift personally…

There is a tendency to assume that the job is done when the responses have arrived and any brochure requests sent out. Follow up every one and do it quickly. Every one is a warm prospect…once you have left it over a week they will have forgotten your mailing and you will have lost the advantage you once had.