Direct Mail Response Rates – Follow Royal Mail example to get Results

Each morning I receive a number of B2B direct mail promotions. I have no idea what any from the last week or so were trying to tell me. They all ended up in the bin without even a second glace.

Yesterday I threw away 4 trade magazines that arrived addressed to me. None of them have anything to do with our industry and I haven’t subscribed to any of the titles. They are of no interest to me whatsoever, so why are publishers wasting their money this way?

However, a couple of weeks back I received a piece from the Royal Mail regarding Special Delivery services which is still in my desk drawer . Whitney Woods is already a user of this service so why did I keep hold of the mailing piece and why do I remember it? The answer is that it was different, it caught my attention and it involved customer interaction.

These instances illustrate the first rules that a B2B promotion should follow in order to get results. First, make your mailing piece stand out above all others in order to get noticed. If you don’t make it interesting why would you expect anyone to give it time of day? The next obvious rule is; make sure that your mailing list is targetted correctly. You would think that both rules are kind of obvious but when this morning’s mail arrives I can almost guarantee that there will be a handful on anonymous items promoting products and services that are not relevant to our business.

The product that the Royal Mail sent was not bought from Whitney Woods but it is a product that features in our range of interactive products. We call it a Push’n’Pull. It has a neat movement which is best seen for yourself via a sample but you can see a video on the web page. The theme used by Royal Mail was one to show nationwide coverage which really suited an expanding product like the Push’n’Pull but they could also have chosen a Sideshooter for a greater instant impact or an Extender Card for manual interaction. Still the Push’n’Pull worked for me and I’m sure that the Royal Mail enjoyed great success with their B2B mailing.