…that was not an invoice?

Lumpy mail, self-promotion, new business development, marketing touches… Whatever name comes to mind, direct mail is a longstanding tool for staying in front of clients and prospects alike.  To practice what I preach, I launched a year-long campaign of my own in January 2010. The plan leveraged 6 holidays or seasonal events over the course of the year, spaced about 8 weeks apart. Here’s what I would do again in a heartbeat and what I would do differently.

The Concept

Hmmm, what to send…I wanted something that would stay on people’s desk, something that they would pick up multiple times between mailings and something we could keep fun. My answer was food, but we couldn’t just send it in any old mundane fashion. It needed to be creative of course. We chose a stylish square lidded jar which we branded with a one-color imprint featuring our logo & tagline. We purposefully left off any web or phone number. This kept it simple, clean and timeless.

Then we decided to tie our mailings and food selections into specific holidays or events, so the mailings had relevance with the timing of their release. Our initial list was comprised of about 18 possibilities. After looking at a timeline and preliminary costs, we narrowed the plan to just 6 events. We then added our creativity by designing a small promo card format that delivered fun facts and trivia about the event we were celebrating. Here’s the end product…

January: National Thank You Month
Step one was to get the jars in the hands of our database. We filled them with custom colored M&Ms in electric blue and bright green (BlattCom colors of course!). Along with the jar, we sent a small, personalized card thanking our clients for their business the previous year. What better way to start the year and National Thank You month.

February: Mardi Gras
After ordering bulk jelly beans in the 3 “official” Mardi Gras colors of purple, yellow and green, we went about creating a promo card that gave facts and trivia about Fat Tuesday.  Did you know that Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in New Orleans? And a Fleur de Lis adds a touch of class to everything. Since our contacts already had a jar, all future refills came in poly bags to hold just the right proportion to fill the 16oz jar.

April: Earth Day
At first, spearmint jellied leaves or gummy worms came to mind, but they just weren’t natural enough. Then on my weekly trip to the local farmer’s market, I had an “aha” moment as I passed the nut & dried fruit stand – ALMONDS! Several recipients agreed & thanked us for this healthy refill. In fact, there was even one who only wanted almonds moving forward – so we obliged. Using a local resource for the almonds gave us a lower cost per pound than online sellers with no shipping fees! To keep with our eco theme, we even used hemp twine to tie the promo card to the bags.

June: Flag Day
Finding a red white and blue refill was a challenge. $700 for another order of custom colored M&Ms wasn’t in the budget. Then we found a true American classic – the Tootsie Roll – nestled in a flag wrapper. But we didn’t stop there. Instead we decided to kick up the patriotic factor by including an American Flag pin on the promo card. You just can’t have too many of those. Yet out of all of the promos, this one generated no feedback. Was it the time of year? The Tootsie Rolls? Not sure, but I would modify this one.

September: First Day of Autumn
I love Fall and it seemed to be the perfect time for Hershey Kisses. Yes, I can hear you asking yourself, “What do Hershey Kisses have to do with the Autumn Equinox?” Well absolutely nothing, except that they come in fall-colored foils this time of year. It’s all about the details. The project scored another coup by finding 11oz bags of Hershey Kisses on sale at Giant with 2 for $6. I thought my sons were going flee the store as I loaded 45 bags of Hershey Kisses into the cart. The look on the cashier’s face was priceless, too.

December: Christmas
This was our last mailing for the year and Giant came to the rescue again with another 2 for $6 sale on red & green M&Ms. But this time it wasn’t my sons embarrassment I was dealing with. It was an irate woman who thought I had taken the last bag of Christmas M&Ms.

Take Aways

Develop a theme and run with it! Having a repeatable format like our promotion makes executing each mailing more efficient and economical. And pay attention to the details. Some details will cost more, like our blue & green M&Ms, but others are negligible such as the hemp for Earth Day. Those details can mean the difference between staying on a prospect’s desk or hitting the trash can.

Be true to your core. Select a promotional item and support material that fits your business and your values. Our approach was in sync with our specialty – tangible creative in a unique package.

Craft your message to match the goals of your campaign. Invest in developing a message that gives your audience small digestible pieces of information. Please don’t throw every product or service you offer at them in one mailing – introduce yourself a little bit at a time.

Multiple touches. Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Many companies do not have the patience for a methodical approach to marketing. They hope a single action will open the flood gates of new business. It rarely happens that way.

Think long-term and short-term. This is where I tripped up. My mistake was using a specific date on the promo cards. Not that the date was wrong, but if I had not displayed 2010, I would have been able to use the remaining cards on a new list of prospects this year.

Less is more for a database. My database had only 45 contacts.  My next mailing will go to just 25 prospects. A small list makes it easier to manage the release and response of each mailing, allows for a targeted message to a specific audience and helps to control the budget.

Track costs and response. This is as much a function of measuring your return on this particular investment as it is for evaluating what you will do differently next time. Don’t forget items like postage and fulfillment, as well as the time to manage the database. These components are often under estimated or not even part of the budget.

How Much Did it Cost?

Materials…Over the course of the campaign, we used 45 glass jars, 270 white 4x4x4 boxes, 270 poly bags, 12 spools of 1/8” ribbon, 600 Promo cards (100 each of 6 different themes) and a variety of candy & snacks. Total material cost…$3,872.57. Divide that by 45 recipients and I spent $86 per client in outside purchases.

Time…This 6-part campaign took 36 hours of planning, research and design upfront; then roughly 60 hours to prep, pack & manage the campaign start to finish. If I were billing this time to a client, the invoice would have totaled $3,600 for creative and $2,400 for implementation for a total of $6,000. Divide this by 45 recipients and the cost is $133 per client in time.

Bottom line…Between time & materials I spent about $220 per contact over the course of a year to stay in front of them.

The Results

The results were dozens of emails, calls, and even one letter – touches that would not have occurred otherwise.  Yet the best reward of all was going into offices of my CEOs and seeing my company’s name sitting on their desk. Did I receive work directly because of the campaign? Not that I know of. And while that would have been icing on the cake, my real goal was simply staying top of mind with my clients.

I know my clients have choices. So do yours. We all know that it’s much harder and more expensive to find a new client than to keep an existing one. What are you doing in 2011, on a consistent basis, to keep your name in front of them? Trust me, if you are not making the investment, someone else is.

Remember your image is an asset. Build it well.

Lori Blatt
Owner, Blatt Communications
610.987.9202
lori@blattcom.net