Breaking through the clutter with direct mail

With all the emphasis on electronic marketing, it’s easy to forget about direct mail. But there are times that nothing breaks through the clutter like a piece of marketing you can hold in your hand.

That was why accounting firm Simons Bitzer approached us to create a three-part direct mail program for them. The objective for the campaign was to introduce Simons Bitzer to a group of companies they had not worked with before.

In general, response to direct mail is fairly low and printing and postage costs are high. With that in mind, we worked with our client to improve their success rate.

They started with a good mailing list and a specific set of services they wanted to promote.  Rather than overwhelm prospects with content-heavy direct mail pieces which wouldn’t get read, we created a series of three mailers each focusing on a different aspect of their small business service bundle:

• Helping clients stay abreast of new regulations
• Taking over day-to-day accounting functions so business owners could focus on their business
• Providing analysis of financial statements so business owners can make better decisions

The clear messaging and design, an extension of their website and branding, took much of the guesswork out of the project. All three pieces featured similar design elements to help build brand familiarity over time.

Retailers are learning that consumers move seamlessly between on and off line interactions with brands. The same is true more and more often in all business interactions, which is why the mailers included both a reply card and a link to an online form to request more information.

Since we  created their website originally, it was easy to connect the offline and online pieces so they could offer prospective customers multiple ways to get in touch.

The mailing plan was to drop the cards every three weeks to allow time for follow up for each group of leads.  Our printing partner UN Communications just dropped off samples for us, and I think they look great. I am looking forward to hearing about their campaign response.