Modern ABM marketers are seeing direct mail emerge as an effective channel for B2B companies to engage and convert target accounts. When direct mail campaigns are integrated into a broader account-based marketing strategy, they become a powerful channel to break through noise and reach prospects.
In the age of technology where we are shown ads by about 400 different advertisers every day, it’s difficult for any business in any industry to stand out. Today, 99% of marketing is digital, and a lot of digital marketing can be specifically targeted at target audiences, meaning results are even better than they have ever been.
Modern ABM marketers are seeing direct mail emerge as an effective channel for B2B companies to engage and convert target accounts. When direct mail campaigns are integrated into a broader account-based marketing strategy, they become a powerful channel to break through the noise and reach your ideal contacts.
Direct mail programs have quickly become our top performing channel, due to their low investment and high ROI. As part of a targeted ABM strategy, they have proved to be the best way to convert unresponsive leads into opportunities and generate pipeline from enterprise and mid-market accounts. Here we discuss several ways to use direct mail in your marketing efforts.
Direct mail can be extremely effective at breaking through the noise and getting in front of decision makers. However, you can’t just send a bunch of paper and hope for the best. The idea is to ship a nice, branded box with a small gift (chocolate, cookies, a mug, etc), an explanation of what your company does, and a call-to-action to request a meeting - ideally with an incentive. Your campaign should be integrated with a sequence of follow-up emails, a landing page, and will ideally be paired with a display ad program targeting the same account list. Below is an example of a recent campaign that we run at SaaSMQL. Learn the in-depth steps to drive qualified meetings with a direct mail campaign here.
For leads that have been engaging with your company on other channels - such as Adwords, organically, LinkedIn content, or events - it’s a great idea to add a physical direct mail piece into your lead nurturing cadence. Direct mail is also a great way to re-engage opportunities who were closed-lost for one reason or another, but could be more ready to buy now. These mailers should have a specific call-to-action, likely also to take a meeting. The purpose is again to convert existing MQLs into opportunities, so you want to remind them of the pain points your product solves and incentivize them to take a meeting. Somewhere in your nurture sequence, after they have engaged and received a few emails from your team, send them a custom direct mail piece such as this branded chocolate folder pictured below. See more examples of effective direct mail concepts here.
To make the onboarding experience for new customers even more special, you can create a box with some special branded goodies and a few treats. It’s a great way to start your relationship and increase NPS (Net Promoter Score) right from the beginning. The Airbnb team wanted to create a high-end gift for their business travel planner and exec clients. They pulled together a set of useful travel-related items that would "wow" their recipients. The gift included a branded Champagne Cocktail Kit, a custom color-matched silk eye mask, and a set of travel packing cubes, all packaged in a custom box.
When you are sponsoring a conference, if you are able to obtain this year’s or last year’s list of companies attending the event, you can run a direct mail campaign to invite key prospects to your booth in exchange for a nice swag gift. Below is an example of the invitation and the deluxe chocolate gift for recipients who visited the booth. If your company hosts their own annual conference or regional events, you could send a custom invite with a small gift to potential attendees, including a discount code for them to register.
While direct mail campaigns can definitely produce great results on their own, they become extremely powerful when integrated into your account-based marketing strategy. Direct mail used to be a logistical hassle, expensive, and time-consuming, but today it can be automated. Tools like Marketo allow you to integrate your vendor with your CRM, so you can keep track of the campaign’s progress from emails to shipments. Despite these new developments, at this point in time only about 38% of B2B companies are running Direct Mail. Get ahead of the curve by implementing Direct Mail in your marketing campaigns.
SaaSMQL is an Account-Based Marketing agency that helps SaaS companies scale recurring revenue with high-impact multichannel campaigns.
.png){kind=small}
