The
10 Commandments of B-to-B Direct Marketing
By
Robert C. Hacker
B-to-B
marketers continue to shift considerable resources toward direct marketing,
both online and offline. The rationale
is a nearly universal mantra . . .
The
good news about direct marketing is that it’s measurable.
But
measurability is a two-edged sword and there’s a dangerous flip side to the
direct marketing promise . . .
The
bad news about direct marketing is that it’s measurable.
When programs
work, everybody takes the victory lap.
When programs
fail, the program manager takes the fall, no matter how much “help” they
receive from others on the team. Much
of the help others give is personal opinion, rather than professional judgment. You constantly hear things like, “that doesn’t
send me”, or “ I wouldn’t respond to that” — all from people who don’t even
qualify to purchase the product.
You can defend
yourself from the well-meaning interference of others and reduce your chances
of error dramatically by avoiding the mistakes others have made. Just follow these 10 B-to-B direct marketing
commandments — professional, not personal, judgments proven in head-to-head
testing.
1.
Lists are not an inventory item. Too often, lists are treated like an
inventory item, not a key strategic component of the campaign. The first, and perhaps the most important
thing to do, is to research the available list universes and put together the
best list targeting you can. Then do
the best job you can of defining the key emotional drivers within each segment. For example, a CEO may have very different
concerns than a CIO or a CFO. You can’t
start creative until you know what makes these people tick.
2.
Avoid objective pile on.
The kiss of death for a direct marketing campaign often starts with
the seemingly innocent statement, “As long as we’re already talking to them,
why don’t we . . .” Just say no! If the goal of a campaign is to generate a
lead, that should be the sole objective.
When you add additional objectives — increased company or product knowledge
would be good examples — response rates go down. Add even more objectives, response rates go down again.
3.
Sell salvation, not products. Too many B-to-B direct marketers create “product sheets in
drag” programs — feeds, speeds and techno-babble that only a product manager
could ever care about. People don’t
want your products; they want what your products do for them. Truth be told, they don’t care about you,
your company or anything you want to sell them — they only care about
themselves. You have to appeal to their
self-interest, not yours, to be successful.
4.
Make an emotional connection. You have 12 to 20 seconds to grab them and avoid the trashcan or
the delete button. The best way is to
make an emotional connection, not a rational one. For example, here are two ways to brand the same white paper:
12
ways you can avoid the coming technology downturn,
or
12 reasons you
should consider Acme’s version 2.0
Testing proves that the
emotional position beats the more rational position hands down.
5.
It’s the offer, stupid. Offers are the best and fastest way to make an emotional
connection. A good offer will not only
generate an initial response, but it will also generate higher readership of the
rest of the communication. Quite simply, an offer is the fastest way to
communicate “what’s in it for me?” and get consideration.
6.
Don’t give them a choice. When you make an offer, don’t give them a choice. Confronted with a choice, prospects are
afraid of making the wrong one and protect themselves by making none.
7.
Work backwards from point-of-sale. Start with the customer and then work
backwards to define how the selling system works. Then build your program around the way the selling system works
in the real world. You won’t change
customer behavior. So don’t try. You can’t change telesales or field sales
behavior either, so understand what they do and how they do it and then support
the selling systems that are already in place to maximize sell-through.
8.
Avoid thundershower marketing. Too often B-to-B direct marketers key off of
product launches or arbitrary campaign plans and ignore field capacity
issues. If, for example, the field
organization can handle 100 leads per week, give them 100 and no more. If you give them 2,000, they can still only
work 100, and the rest go down the drain.
9.
Avoid panic marketing.
Panic marketing almost never works.
If the customer needs 9 months to make a decision, direct marketing
can’t affect sales this quarter. If the
customer needs 18 months to make a decision, direct marketing can’t affect
sales this year. Panic marketing almost
always leads to thundershower marketing, which makes things even worse. The proper way to use direct marketing is to
generate qualified leads on an ongoing basis.
Then, if the quarter needs help, the sales force can use incentives to
convert some of the qualified prospects on file into buyers.
10.
Simplify the approval process. Research shows us that the more complicated
the approval process, the lower the response rate. To improve program performance, first get as many people out of
the approval loop as possible. Next,
change the approval rules to limit people’s input to those areas where they can
apply professional judgment. Make
everybody leave personal opinion at home.
After all, personal opinion is an unqualified marketing survey of one,
and we all know what that’s worth.
Following these 10 simple rules should help you
create and manage more successful B-to-B direct marketing programs.
Bob Hacker started The Hacker Group, Inc. in 1986. Since then, they have become one of the
largest full-service direct marketing agencies on the West Coast. They currently serve over 50 clients
concentrated in high technology, telecommunications, financial services,
travel, and real estate. Bob is on the
editorial board of Target Marketing magazine and a frequent writer and speaker
on direct marketing issues. Bob is a
graduate of The Harvard Business School and the University of Washington. You can reach Bob at (425) 454-8556 or rchacker@hackergroup.com.
