Dimensional Marketing – B2B Promotional Mail that brings results

20th August 2009 7:52 am

According to many direct mail pundits there are 3 golden rules that all direct mail campaigns should aspire to. It is sometimes referred to as the 333 rule. Here’s how it goes:-

1. Your mailer should be sent in a pack that stands out in a crowd. In other words, it should be easily spotted in your customer’s daily stack of business mail. The reason for this is that, allegedly, it has just 3 seconds to get noticed before it becomes “just another piece of mail”.
2. The contents of the pack, ie the main mailing piece, should be an attention-grabbing, interactive item that keeps your customer intrigued for at least 30 seconds. Apparently, that is the minimum amount of time that it takes for your customer’s attention to be drawn to your sales message.
3. Your real sales message should be concise and not too wordy as your customer will spend no longer than 3 minutes on the whole mailer before putting it aside to look at the next item of mail.It doesn’t sound very long, does it, and yet if you think about how long you yourself actually spend looking at promotional mail you will realise that if your mailer achieves these goals then it’s doing pretty well. Most of the promotional mail that I receive is so unimaginative that a lot of it is consigned to the waste bin in nanoseconds – particularly single-sheet flyers.

The type of promotional mail that fits the above bill is often referred to as “dimensional marketing” which covers a multitude of direct mail options but basically, all it means is that the mail isn’t flat. It is much better to receive mail that has some bulk to it. There is a much greater sense of anticipation if the mailer feels like there’s a gift inside. However, not every marketing budget can stretch to mailing out an expensive gift as it’s not only the cost of the gift that might be prohibitive but there is also the cost of the postage to consider.

So what is the answer? Well, one viable option could be to send an interactive pop-up mailer. The product is made from card and so it won’t weigh too much which will help to keep postage costs manageable. Pop-up mailers easily achieve the 333 rule as described above but why stop there? With a little bit of thought you can make the marketing impact of a pop-up mailer last much longer that 3 minutes 33 seconds.

By doing no more than applying a little imagination and adding a few die-punched holes in the top of the mailer you can transform your pop-up into a desk top pen holder that is sturdy enough to last for at least 12 months. I have one on my desk that has been there since Christmas 18 months ago! That means that your company name and product will be right there on the desk in front of your customer long after the initial mailing has done its job.

Pop-up mailers come in a variety of shapes such as pop-up houses, pop-up cubes, pop-up balls and pop-up boxes; all of which can be easily adapted to become pen holders. The products offer a very flexible and versatile way to improve your chances of direct mail success!