From time to time I get an email from a contact asking for advice on a marketing problem or other. Often when I'm replying I think 'this information would probably be of interest to other businesses facing similar issues'.
So lo and behold - the Small Biz Marketing Clinic. This is the first of a regular set of blog posts with my answers to some of the common questions, particularly about online marketing but covering the whole gamut of marketing as it applies to small businesses. These are real questions posed by actual people - although the names will have been changed.
Direct mail vs email for new client acquisition
"Hi Robin
My client is a print broker/manager and wants to get the attention of marketing managers for medium to large companies, especially retail but anyone who uses a lot of print. Price is the main selling point, backed up with quality service.
He doesn’t want to do telemarketing, not interested in SEO, and doesn’t control his own site. So, I suggested a DM campaign with a quirky call to action. I found him a good list broker, but the list broker suggested that it would be much better to do an email campaign rather than a postal campaign, saying that he can reach 15k people rather than 3k for the same price, and he can monitor the response rate through an email broadcast system. The list guy says that this list is all opt in, but I believe that’s a big fat lie. I’m also dubious of whether they really have a list of 15k quality, targeted marketing managers for the sort of companies he wants.
My main sticking point against doing an email campaign is that this is spam, so he won’t get a good response, and a physical flyer would do more good because people would notice it more.
My client isn’t convinced, and I cited you as an expert, so he asked me to ask your opinion. Any ethical considerations won’t wash, as that’s not really where he’s coming from, but it would be good to get your opinion, and maybe to see if there is research data to back up my "don't spam, you won’t sell anything" attitude. Or maybe I’m completely wrong.
What do you think? Do you have any other creative ideas? Thanks, Alison"
My client is a print broker/manager and wants to get the attention of marketing managers for medium to large companies, especially retail but anyone who uses a lot of print. Price is the main selling point, backed up with quality service.
He doesn’t want to do telemarketing, not interested in SEO, and doesn’t control his own site. So, I suggested a DM campaign with a quirky call to action. I found him a good list broker, but the list broker suggested that it would be much better to do an email campaign rather than a postal campaign, saying that he can reach 15k people rather than 3k for the same price, and he can monitor the response rate through an email broadcast system. The list guy says that this list is all opt in, but I believe that’s a big fat lie. I’m also dubious of whether they really have a list of 15k quality, targeted marketing managers for the sort of companies he wants.
My main sticking point against doing an email campaign is that this is spam, so he won’t get a good response, and a physical flyer would do more good because people would notice it more.
My client isn’t convinced, and I cited you as an expert, so he asked me to ask your opinion. Any ethical considerations won’t wash, as that’s not really where he’s coming from, but it would be good to get your opinion, and maybe to see if there is research data to back up my "don't spam, you won’t sell anything" attitude. Or maybe I’m completely wrong.
What do you think? Do you have any other creative ideas? Thanks, Alison"
"Hi Alison
Good question.
You're right to say that the email list is unlikely to be high quality, and the list quality is the biggest factor affecting response rates in both DM and email. But if the list supplier is reasonably reputable it's probably as good as it's going to get.
B2B email vs DM - my understanding is that response rates for email are slightly higher, but not a lot. The difference is that with email you at least have a good idea of how many were delivered, how many opened (neither figures will be 100% accurate, but an idea, also it needs to be HTML formatted to measure this) and (if you include a link to a web page) who clicked through. So you have 'warm' leads, ready to be followed up, even if they don't convert straight away. That's something you don't get with DM.
The flyer is fine, but we're all awash with DM from printers. Will it get noticed more than an email? If the email does indeed reach the right person, and if it's at the right time, it could do better. But it could also get stopped in spam filters/network firewalls and it could really annoy people, but actually that's just down to how relevant it is. If something is seen as relevant, it's not spam to that person.
Basically if he's not worried about the potential spam issue (and from what you say he's unlikely to be breaking the law at least) then I'd say go with email. BUT make sure the emails are trackable and test the subject line. He shouldn't be mailing to 15k without doing A/B split tests on at least a couple of different versions. Also he should check what the list supplier will do about 'undeliverables' and spam complaints.
However, if he's not going to bother with tracking, landing page, testing the subject line etc and just wants to chuck out an email then he may as well do the physical mailing.
I hope that helps!"
Good question.
You're right to say that the email list is unlikely to be high quality, and the list quality is the biggest factor affecting response rates in both DM and email. But if the list supplier is reasonably reputable it's probably as good as it's going to get.
B2B email vs DM - my understanding is that response rates for email are slightly higher, but not a lot. The difference is that with email you at least have a good idea of how many were delivered, how many opened (neither figures will be 100% accurate, but an idea, also it needs to be HTML formatted to measure this) and (if you include a link to a web page) who clicked through. So you have 'warm' leads, ready to be followed up, even if they don't convert straight away. That's something you don't get with DM.
The flyer is fine, but we're all awash with DM from printers. Will it get noticed more than an email? If the email does indeed reach the right person, and if it's at the right time, it could do better. But it could also get stopped in spam filters/network firewalls and it could really annoy people, but actually that's just down to how relevant it is. If something is seen as relevant, it's not spam to that person.
Basically if he's not worried about the potential spam issue (and from what you say he's unlikely to be breaking the law at least) then I'd say go with email. BUT make sure the emails are trackable and test the subject line. He shouldn't be mailing to 15k without doing A/B split tests on at least a couple of different versions. Also he should check what the list supplier will do about 'undeliverables' and spam complaints.
However, if he's not going to bother with tracking, landing page, testing the subject line etc and just wants to chuck out an email then he may as well do the physical mailing.
I hope that helps!"
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