Hints and Tips

Marketing to businesses

B2B marketing established itself in the late 1970’s when B2B companies started to realise they can replicate the marketing material produced by consumer facing businesses – and hey presto a new era of marketing emerged! However, it wasn’t until the early 80’s when competition really hit home for large corporations who were beginning to notice smaller businesses attempting to take their market share. It was at this time mass direct mail began and marketing agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather and Saatchi & Saatchi became the go-to guys for large budget campaigns.

Tips when purchasing B2B data

Using a relevant, clean and well targeted marketing list is an asset for any company undertaking direct marketing activity for prospect customers. Ensuring you are using the right list for you, we have put some pointers together for B2B businesses to follow to know you are heading in the right direction.

Pitch Perfect in 10 Easy Steps

We know what it’s like. You spend weeks preparing, analysing and re-reading your presentation. You nail it every time. Then you step into the boardroom… At this point anything from self-confidence to nerves kick in and your mind goes blank. All those weeks of preparation disappear in an instance and your left looking for words.

Responsive Design for Email Marketing

With PC sales plummeting and mobile traffic on the rise, responsive email-marketing is becoming a valuable asset to any business. There are a number of reasons as to why this is important and evidence to suggest that your campaign success can be solely based on it.

Call to Action - Are You Getting Response?

Analysing the response to your campaigns can be one of the trickier elements of marketing. Whether it be direct mail, advertising or digital campaigns keeping track of your return on investment can help plan future projects more efficiently. 

4 reasons why your campaigns shouldn’t be a one off

Did you hear about the company who had an amazing response from their first mailing? The one where they earnt enough for everyone to retire to the Caribbean from a single send? No, neither did I.

Multi-touch campaigns vs a solus campaign. What works best?

So what works best; a multi-touch marketing campaign or a solus email.

Well let’s start a brief explanation of each. Multi-touch is just that, it’s a marketing campaign which uses various channels such as email, mail, SMS, phone. The idea is that by combining different approaches you get in front of the customer in a number of ways, with a coherent message, helping you stay front-of-mind when it’s time to purchase / interact.

Get your postal and email marketing campaigns ready to go

You are going to send out a marketing campaign and are ready to get the ball rolling. So, to make this process more efficient and as easy as possible, below is a checklist of everything you should have prepared ready to send over to your design and campaign team.

14 Top Tips: Before sending your direct mail

Let’s be honest – being successful with a direct mail campaign is not as easy as it looks, but don’t be disheartened; once you know how, direct mail is an essential tool and should play a vital part in your marketing plan.

Improving your response rate

A huge number of factors affect the response rate to your campaign. This tip-sheet is designed to make you aware of the main factors and give you some ideas for how to improve the response of your next campaign.

List selections

In terms of the factors effecting response, the quality of the list is by far the most important element of any direct marketing campaign and more important even than the offer, the creative, the timing or the response device.

The amount of time you’ll put into creative should be replicated in the targeting – or your efforts will be wasted on the wrong people.

The Sales Letter

Research shows the letter is usually the 1st thing people read. Here is our checklist to help you write an effective sales letter, covering the writing process, the writing style and the content of the letter.

Tips on buying prospect data

Buying a prospect marketing list for the first time, or even if it’s not your first purchase, can be a daunting task. We’ve compiled a few hints and tips of what to look out for and questions to ask to help you purchase prospect data. 

Get to know your customers

An important question for any business or marketer. Building a relationship with your customers is similar to a personal relationship, it’s the small details that make a strong connection. So how can you find out these intimate details about your shoppers? 

The secrets to good email marketing

If you’re deciding to send an email campaign for the first time you may have read many blogs, guides, reports or articles on how to make the most of your email campaign. From our experience there is no “right” or “wrong” way when using email marketing. There are definitely some basic rules to follow, which we have covered in our previous blogs, however we’ve compiled three secrets to email marketing which will hopefully make your next campaign a bit easier to execute. 

Improve your direct mail

Market testing has gone on to prove that 'targeting' and the 'offer' in a marketing piece are the key elements of a campaign’s success. However, it is still important to give your promotional material a professional and business look.

Make telemarketing work for your business

Telemarketing can be a dark horse in terms of ways to market your business. However, telemarketing can be a successful sales and marketing tool for your company. 

When should your email go out?

With the way people are accessing their emails changing, whether it’s at a desktop or laptop, smartphone, tablet even a smart TV, it is even more vital to send your message at the right time.

Spring clean your data

How often do you refresh your customer, or prospect, databases? Every month, quarter, 6 months, a year, or so long ago you can’t remember the last time it was carried out?

Four basic direct mail tips

One of the deciding factors to why your business should use direct mail as part of your communication strategy is the customer is going to look at it, even if it is to dismiss it. In that 5-10 second glimpse you have the opportunity to grab their attention and connect with them.

Email marketing simplified

New to email marketing? Not sure where to start or how to make your email stand out in the crowd? With an average of 80 emails being received per person per day (Radicati) creating an engaging email for your reader to not only open but read and act on with either make or break your email campaign. 

How to get your content just right

As a direct marketing agency we receive the latest magazines with news and updates on today’s marketing environment. Recently we came across an article in The Marketer magazine from the CIM which included 6 really useful tips on content marketing from Richard Fitzmaurice, CMO at the TMF Group.

Return to Sender

Although a very well-known Elvis Presley song, anyone sending out direct mail does not want to see the words “Return to Sender” on their mail items. If this is something you are seeing on your returned mail items then you need to find out about our 100% Delivery Guarantee – keep reading!