3 innovative B2B direct mail campaigns that marketers can learn from

The old days of simple messages in an envelope are long gone – to stand out from the direct mail crowd, you need to get creative.

Grabbing a prospect’s attention as soon as your missive lands on their desk is the hook that every campaign needs, no matter how good your direct marketing data is. So how are successful marketers making that positive first impression? Tetra Pack, NetNames and Oracle take their direct mail to a new level.

The basics: pushing the envelope
You’ve spent money attaining finely targeted direct marketing lists so now it’s time to consider your direct mail’s content, message – and just as importantly – its presentation.

While you may have a call to action that’ll make your prospects go weak at the knees, if it arrives in a brown envelope, you can expect all that work and investment in direct marketing data to be shown the nearest bin before it’s even been opened.

If possible, make the envelope the product, or at least reflect it in the packaging; Tetra Pak, the food and drink packaging company, wanted to show off its new Prisma Aspetic product that allows brands to print over the entire pack.

Tetra sent out Prisma Aspetic cartons with their prospect’s brand printed on it plus a personalised leaflet and a link to an online hypervideo for more information.

The direct mail alone had a 53% response rate…

Go multichannel
While marketing bloggers can seem obsessed with comparing direct mail against supposed ‘competing’ channels such as digital, the smart B2B marketer knows that using a multichannel approach is becoming increasingly important.

NetNames wanted to make a splash by positioning itself as the leading global brand protection service for business. It focused its campaign on the concept of very literally ‘unmasking’ cyber criminals and deploying a key message ‘Search. Find. Stop’. The visuals were simple – orange ‘cybermatter’ splashed over an invisible thief, revealing his facial features.

Working with Earnest, NetNames created an integrated campaign with personalised content – from social media and microsite content to a powerful targeted direct mail campaign, the latter deploying a two-tiered approach:

Low Value
A simple but highly attractive animated, interactive lenticular postcard with the company’s core message personalised for each industry type and job role the postcard was sent out to.

High Value
A plush box containing a personalised pin-art gadget inside to underline the invisible threat of cybercrime to businesses both big and small.

By deploying such an innovative, multichannel approach, NetNames garnered over 72 meetings during the campaign.

Think true multimedia
Other mediums can be used to fantastic effect, again with technology and traditional direct mail being used to complement each other. Step forward Oracle’s B2B direct mail campaign that saw the company reaching out to 40 hand-selected companies in the oil and gas sectors.

Using a video-in-a-card (a personalised TV-style news show in a miniature, self-playing video pack), the campaign generated 33 leads and a sales pipeline of over £600,000.

Remember:

• Innovate with your packaging to ensure prospects actually open it
• Don’t fear a multichannel approach to complement your direct marketing; embrace it instead
• Personalisation and targeted direct mail marketing is more important than blanket-bombing hundreds of prospects, so make sure your direct marketing lists are optimised

Before sending your innovative direct mail campaign, download the eGuide ‘Wait – Before you send: The Direct Mail Checklist

By DMA guest blogger Suzanne Stock, Founder Director, Marketscan