If you’ve ever held the role of demand generation for a business-to-business organization, you’ve undoubtedly conducted a direct mail or email campaign sometime in your past. It’s okay, you can admit it it. There’s no shame.
True, at times the paltry response may have been shameful. Demand generation professionals understand there’s no secret to a successful direct marketing endeavor. Of course, it starts with a quality list. But equally as important is the message. It must be spot on, addressing a real business problem and providing a simple and affordable solution in crisp, concise and clear language. Good messaging with supporting imagery that correlates with the problems your customers face will usually generate sufficient response. I’ve never doubted that for a minute and my experience bears it out.
On occasion, I incorporated a promotional product as an inducement to encourage a more timely response. It was offered as a reward for completing and returning the business reply card by a certain date. With the clock ticking, response rates typically improved.
Here’s the kicker: the free gift doesn’t have to be something of high value. I once offered a sub-$1 pen for free as a thank you to customers for completing a BRC. The message theme was “CONNECT the Dots” and pens and other writing instruments were visuals throughout the mailer, so this was a no-brainer.
The check boxes on the reply card had some fun language. It was remarkable to see how many people underlined the phrase “Don’t forget to send my pen” or “I really need that pen, too.”
Always keep in mind that the promotional product should connect to the creative and message in the direct marketing mail brochure or email message. When the item adds impact or somehow reinforces the message for the target audience, you’ve hit a homerun, and I’m betting your metrics will bear that out.
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