The 10 Commandments

of Business-to-Business Direct Marketing

Business-to-Business marketers continue to shift considerable resources toward direct marketing — both online and offline. The rationale is a nearly universal mantra . . .

The good news about direct marketing is that it’s measurable. But measurability is a two-edged sword, and there is a dangerous flip side to the direct marketing
promise . . .

The bad news about direct marketing is that it’s measurable.  When programs work, everybody takes the victory lap.

When programs fail, the program manager takes the fall no matter how much “help” they receive from others on the team. Much of the help others give is personal opinion, rather than professional judgment. You constantly hear things like “That doesn’t sell me” or “I wouldn’t respond to that” — all from people who don’t even qualify to purchase the product.

You can defend yourself from the well-meaning interference of others and reduce your chances of error dramatically by avoiding the mistakes others have made.  Just follow these Ten B-to-B direct marketing commandments – professional, not personal judgments proven in head-to-head testing.

1.    Lists are not an inventory item

Too often, lists are treated like an inventory item, not a key strategic component of the campaign.  The first and perhaps the most important thing to do is to research the available list universes and put together the best list targeting you can. Then, do the best job you can of defining the key emotional drivers within each segment. For example, a CEO may have very different concerns than a CIO or a CFO. You can’t start creative until you know what makes these people tick.

2.      Avoid objective pile on

The kiss of death for a direct marketing campaign often starts with the seemingly innocent statement, “As long as we’re already talking to them, why don’t we . . .” Just say no! If the goal of a campaign is to generate a lead, that should be the sole objective. When you add additional objectives — increased company or product knowledge would be good examples — response rates go down. Add even more objectives, response rates go down again.

3.      Sell salvation, not products

Too many B-to-B direct marketers create “product sheets in drag” programs — feeds, speeds and techno-babble that only a product manager could ever care about. People don’t want your products; they want what your products do for them. Truth be told, they don’t care about you, your company or anything you want to sell them — they only care about themselves. You have to appeal to their self-interest, not yours, to be successful. 

4.    Make an emotional connection

You have 12 to 20 seconds to grab them and avoid the trash can or the delete button. The best way is to make an emotional connection, not a rational one. For example, here are two ways to brand the same white paper:

12 ways you can avoid the coming technology downturn or 12 reasons you should consider Acme’s version 2.0   Testing proves that the emotional position beats the more rational position — hands-down.

5.     It’s the offer, stupid

Offers are the best and fastest way to make an emotional connection. A good offer will not only generate an initial response, but it will also generate higher readership of the rest of the communication. Quite simply, an offer is the fastest way to communicate “What’s in it for me?” and get consideration.

6.      Don’t give them a choice

When you make an offer, don’t give them a choice. Confronted with a choice, prospects are afraid of making the wrong one and will protect themselves by making none.

7.      Work backward from point-of-sale

Start with the customer and then work backward to define how the selling system works. Then build your program around the way the selling system works in the real world. You won’t change customer behavior. So don’t try. You can’t change telesales or field sales behavior either, so understand what they do and how they do it and then support the selling systems that are already in place to maximize sell-through.

8.      Avoid thundershower marketing

Too often B-to-B direct marketers key off of product launches or arbitrary campaign plans and ignore field capacity issues. If, for example, the field organization can handle 100 leads per week, give them 100 and no more. If you give them 2,000, they can still only work 100 and the rest will go down the drain.

9.      Avoid panic marketing
Panic marketing almost never works. If the customer needs nine months to make a decision, direct marketing can’t affect sales this quarter. If the customer needs 18 months to make a decision, direct marketing can’t affect sales this year. Panic marketing almost always leads to thundershower marketing, which makes things even worse. The proper way to use direct marketing is to generate qualified leads on an ongoing basis. Then, if the quarter needs help, the sales force can use incentives to convert some of the qualified prospects on file into buyers.

10.    Simplify the approval process

Research shows us that the more complicated the approval process, the lower the response rate.  To improve program performance, first get as many people out of the approval loop as possible.  Next, change the approval rules to limit people’s input to those areas where they can apply professional judgment. Make everybody leave personal opinion at home. After all, personal opinion is an unqualified marketing survey of one, and we all know what that’s worth.

Following these 10 simple rules should help you create and manage more successful B-to-B direct marketing programs.

1

Lists are not an inventory item

Too often, lists are treated like an inventory item, not a key strategic component of the campaign.

The first and perhaps the most important thing to do is to research the available list universes

and put together the best list targeting you can. Then, do the best job you can of defining the key

emotional drivers within each segment. For example, a CEO may have very different concerns than

a CIO or a CFO. You can’t start creative until you know what makes these people tick.

2

Avoid objective pile on

The kiss of death for a direct marketing campaign often starts with the seemingly innocent

statement, “As long as we’re already talking to them, why don’t we . . .” Just say no! If the goal

of a campaign is to generate a lead, that should be the sole objective. When you add additional

objectives — increased company or product knowledge would be good examples — response

rates go down. Add even more objectives, response rates go down again.

3

Sell salvation, not products

Too many B-to-B direct marketers create “product sheets in drag” programs — feeds, speeds

and techno-babble that only a product manager could ever care about. People don’t want your

products; they want what your products do for them. Truth be told, they don’t care about you, your

company or anything you want to sell them — they only care about themselves. You have to appeal

to their self-interest, not yours, to be successful.

4

Make an emotional connection

You have 12 to 20 seconds to grab them and avoid the trash can or the delete button. The best

way is to make an emotional connection, not a rational one. For example, here are two ways to

brand the same white paper:

Variable Data Printing for Higher Customer Engagement

Author: Judy Berlin

There’s no doubt that reaching consumers in today’s Information Age requires new techniques – and a major shift from mass marketing to direct marketing has occurred. It used to be sufficient to advertise your business anywhere and everywhere, hoping that people would notice you and that your hard work would pay off. But actually, this “spray and pray” method of marketing made us move away from personal interactions and is no longer effective, as people are starting to expect one-to-one communications again. Why? They are simply bombarded by information, so they tune out the messages that are not relevant to them and their specific interests. Taking into account not only what consumers want, but also providing it at the precise moment when they want it, can lead to greater brand awareness and sales.

Although this type of individual attention seems a daunting task in today’s fast-paced, digital environment, it is possible and even practical to scale this business wisdom and efficiently apply it to the masses. Because in addition to broadcast media, technology and other channels now exist (i.e. digital printing, email, Internet, mobile, social media, variable data and cross-media software, data mining, analytics, etc.) that enable you to engage in ongoing, one-to-one communications with each of your customers.

Examples of variable direct mail pieces from a multichannel student recruitment campaign ran by LithExcel on behalf of Westminster College.

Take variable data printing (VDP) for example. VDP, as defined by worldwide document technology strategy and consulting firm, InfoTrends, is a form of on-demand digital printing that produces customized or personalized documents targeted to an individual. Within a single document design, elements such as text, graphics, and images are changed from one printed page to the next based on recipient information from a database.

Many print service providers (PSPs) are providing some type of VDP service and have been for quite a while. It is not something new, but it has come a long way. A VDP solution from a leading software provider like OPS, allows PSPs to work with familiar design tools and file formats, and utilize simple data files, to incorporate all the demographic, geographic, and psychographic information they know about their customers (i.e. name, address, occupation, age, gender, interests, hobbies, spending habits, etc.) into their direct mail campaigns in clever, relevant ways that get noticed. InfoTrends research and existing case studies confirm that doing so yields higher margins, creates new revenue streams, and drives more volume to digital presses.

But what’s even more exciting to consider is that more and more PSPs are extending their personalization knowledge and capabilities to other channels, such as websites, email and mobile messaging. The key is to start with what you know and grow from there. Clearly, you need to have a foundation in VDP before jumping into the more advanced cross-media capabilities. But if you realize that this is where you need to go, and are willing to make the right investments in technology, people, and possibly partnerships or acquisitions, there are few limitations on what you can sell and deliver to customers.

WHY DIRECT MAIL IN TODAY'S WEB FOCUSED MEDIA?

Regular mail is by far the essential tool in communicating with the consumer.  Regular mail’s preference may be due to mail’s unique attributes.  It is universal, portable, and easy to access and use, tactile and perceived as secure. 

Many businesses may assume, since more and more people have e-mail access at home that their household customers and prospects want to receive e-mail.  However, this research shows that this assumption is flawed, and that regular mail continues to be the consistent choice at the home front.

Most important, for people who market their products directly to consumers, is the clear differences in consumer attitude towards opening unsolicited new product announcements by e-mail vs. regular mail.  Nearly 2/3 of the respondents indicated they would be more inclined to discard, without opening, unsolicited email on new products while only ¼ of those surveyed treat physical mail in the same fashion.  This is a strong endorsement of regular mail’s unique attributes when compared to the  e-mail alternative.

Mail Preference

The majority of those surveyed prefer to receive documents, letters and messages via regular mail.

Of those with e-mail access 61.8% prefer regular mail to receive documents, letters and messages.  E-mail was the preference of 29.8% with 7.3% having no preference.  Age was not a driving factor.

Over 75% consider regular mail more secure than e-mail.

In light of concerns with hackers and viruses, regular mail is considered by 76.3% as more secure than e-mail.  11.1% considered e-mail as more secure.  9.5% chose that neither or both as the same.

68.3% of the 45-54 age group felt regular mail was more secure and 9.3% felt e-mail was more secure.  In the 18-34 age bracket 74% choose mail as more secure with 16.3% choosing e-mail and 6.7% choosing neither or both.  In the 35-49 age category, 78.9% choose mail as more secure with 9.2% choosing email and 10.3% choosing neither or both.

In regards to new product announcements at home, most choose regular mail.

Respondents were asked how they prefer to receive new product announcements from companies they have done business with such as retailers, pharmaceutical suppliers, utilities, and auto agencies, etc. 73.2% choose regular mail.  E-mail was preferred by 20.1%.

E-mail was a slightly stronger choice for the 18-34 age market.  In the 18-34 years old category, 66.5% choose regular mail with 28.6% choosing e-mail.

When asked to choose what type of mail they would discard without opening, e-mail was clearly more disposable.

E-mail was considered to be more disposable with 65.5 % responding that they would delete unsolicited e-mails (unopened) about new products.  26.4% would be inclined to discard regular mail (unopened) such as new product brochures, catalogs or other advertising materials.

Time Perception

When considering time spent, most respondents felt getting and opening regular mail faster.

Even in this age of fast computing and high speed modem connections, regular mail is considered less time demanding.  61.8% chose getting and opening regular mail as faster then e-mail.

A little more than half the respondents spent less than 15 minutes on e-mail.

When asked to consider a typical day, 51.5% responded that they spent less than 15 minutes with email, 22.3% spent 15 to 30 minutes.10.3% estimated that they spent 30 minutes to 45 minutes, and a small group (14.6%) spent over 45 minutes a day.

A greater number of respondents spent less than 15 minutes on regular mail.  When asked to consider a typical day the perception of time spent with regular mail by the majority (71.9%) was less than 15 minutes.  22.5% spent 15 to 30 minutes, 3.3% estimated they spent 30 minutes to 45 minutes and a very small group (1.8%) spent over 45 minutes.

Volume Perceptions (clutter)

            E-mail marketing spam is taking many forms and overwhelms.

People believe that their e-mail volume is increasing resulting in e-mail clutter.