Successful
Business to Business
Direct Marketing
. . . an essential guide for small and medium organisations
Fit for the Future
business learning from business
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Introduction
02
Across the UK, in every sector and to every audience, business-to-business direct marketing generates enquiries, leads and
direct sales, as well as helping companies to establish and maintain their brand presence. This booklet has therefore been
produced by the Direct Marketing Association to help small to medium sized businesses understand what business-tobusiness direct marketing encompasses, how to plan and execute effective campaigns and how to do so within a legal and
best practice framework.
It has not been written for major companies – they
already invest time, effort and marketing spend in the
same arena, often through direct marketing agencies.
Rather, it has been developed to help small businesses,
which do not normally use agencies or consultants. For
such companies, where senior staff typically wear many
hats, from management to finance, marketing to sales,
marketing plans are often difficult to produce and review
objectively. This booklet offers a structure to overcome
the problem.
While the following 26 pages do not provide sufficient
room to cover every aspect in depth, they do introduce
all the areas you will need to be aware of. The defining
of marketing objectives, for example, together with
budgets and costings, design and image, and the
various media available. There are also lots of references
showing where to find further information.
If we achieve nothing more than compliance with legal
requirements and best practice for those who use this
booklet, we will be delighted. Like many areas of
business, direct marketing combines common sense
and controls with inspiration to produce the very best
campaigns. This booklet hopefully pushes readers in
the right direction.
If there are some key rules to remember about businessto-business direct marketing, you will find after reading
this booklet that they are:
●
Everything you do should be measurable.
●
What you learn from one activity should be used to
improve subsequent activity.
●
Keeping plans and executions simple is much more
likely to deliver results.
●
Plans should be based on real expectations rather
than wishful thinking.
Particular thanks for the compilation of this booklet
are due to Kevin Allen of Cramm Francis Woolf;
Denise Henderson–Cleland of Snarx; Michael Howe of
100 Percent Direct Marketing and Rita Courtney of the
Direct Marketing Association.
Fit for the Future, the National Best Practice Campaign
led by the CBI and supported by the DTI, has endorsed
this booklet.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Contents
Page
Business Objectives
04-05
Defining your business and marketing objectives
Budgets & Costings
06-07
Establishing marketing and campaign budgets
Design & Image
08
Achieving the right image for your company, consistently
Creativity
09
The key considerations when developing your creative brief
Media Options
10-17
The principles and creative strategies of direct marketing media, covering direct mail, press,
inserts, directories, telemarketing, the Internet, e-mail, radio, TV, door-to-door and tradeshows
Databases & Lists
18-21
Building a database, including sources of information, and the list market
Testing
22-23
Improving and enhancing your marketing through testing
Compliance & Best Practice
24-25
The rules and regulations, voluntary codes and best practice
Resources
26
Ensuring you have the right resources to control the process
Further Information
Contacts for in-depth information, including the DMA website, library and resources
27
03
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Business Objectives
04
Whether establishing goals, or deciding how to realise ambitions, all businesses need a plan – a roadmap, if you like, to the
future. An integral part of any such plan, either to achieve growth or at worst stop a decline in business, is the Sales &
Marketing strategy. Used wisely, with measurable objectives against which to monitor progress, identify shortfalls and
highlight successes, it can make the difference between winning and losing.
Strangely, perhaps, one certainty about business and
marketing planning is that what actually happens will
vary from the plan. Having specific objectives and a
structured plan, however, will identify what you need to
do to get back on track.
Let’s say you run a marketing campaign, for example,
and estimate 200 new business enquiries will result in
100 new clients. While this may be logical, based upon
past experience and achievable, a ‘what if’ projection
will guide your future actions, if you do worse or better
than expected.
●
Growth
What size would you realistically like your
company to be?
How quickly can you get there?
How much profit could you reasonably make?
What rate of growth can you fund?
Do you need to change location to achieve this?
Do you need more staff?
How does your role change?
●
Competitive Analysis
What are your competitors doing – locally, regionally,
nationally and on the Internet?
What are they better at than you?
What are your strengths?
How can you gain a sustainable competitive
advantage?
●
Market Analysis
Why do your current customers use you?
Why do other customers buy from your competitors?
How many similar customers remain in the market?
If you gain 300 enquiries, do you have the resources and
funding to convert them into profitable business? If, on
the other hand, there are only 100 enquiries, how do
you cut costs and adjust to a lower than expected
business level?
This is not crystal ball gazing, just sensible planning that
can prepare you – and your business – for every
eventuality. There are many textbooks available that
outline the various methods of planning your business,
but any plan should answer the following questions:
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
●
●
●
●
Customer Loyalty
Are you providing the service your customers
really need?
How will their needs change in the future – and how
will you change your business to anticipate them?
Are you rewarding regular customers through
loyalty schemes?
Developing existing customers
Do you have all of the business from your customers?
If not, why not?
What else could you sell that is complementary to
your existing business?
More customers
Where do you find more customers like the ones
you have?
Can you work further afield or through the Internet?
Where can you advertise to gain prospective
contacts?
Targeting
Have you defined your market by secondary as well
as primary targets?
Have you considered media options that offer
routes to incremental business from your
secondary targets?
Are there niche markets where you could position
your business specifically?
●
Extensions
What can you add to your business that meets
another related market need?
How can you fill spare capacity?
●
Partnering
Is there a non-competitive business with a similar
customer base where you can jointly provide a better
service to customers?
While this may look like a daunting list of questions, you
will probably have answered many of them already, even
if unknowingly, simply by thinking about the future
direction of your business.
The DMA library, based within DMA House at Margaret
Street, has many books on business planning, but if
marketing and particularly direct marketing are areas you
think you know nothing about, remember that we all
receive lots of it. So if you ever thought ‘that’s a good
idea’, or ‘that was nice of them’, or ‘I’m going to buy
that’, think how you could adapt the same ideas for
your business.
Remember too that your existing customers are not only
your best customers but also the most likely source of
extra business. So even though acquiring new
customers is crucial to the future, you also need to look
after your present customers.
The most important point to make is that once you have
a plan, you need to constantly monitor, amend and
question it. That way, you can decide how achievable
your plan is, particularly if additional investment is
required to achieve your objectives.
A good idea is to take a range of views and see what
happens if the theoretical outcome meets your best
hopes. As importantly, see what happens if results are
less than you hoped for. And, as we said in the
introduction to this section, react very quickly to
changing information.
“
. . .once you have a
plan, you need to
constantly monitor, amend
and question it . . .
”
05
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Budgets & Costings
06
Budgets are an important question for small businesses because many simply create a mailer or insert, door drop or leaflet
without a clear idea of how it fits into an overall strategy or plan. It is still, however, worth asking some basic questions
because it gives a clearer idea of the total marketing budget available to achieve goals that have been established. How much
do you want to spend, for example? What income and profit return do you need to achieve from that spend? When will the
investment start to provide returns? Asking questions like this not only adds reason to your planning, it can actually help you
in your future plans.
Planning your budget
Planning your spending
Let’s say, for example, that you budget to spend
£1,000 a month on a particular marketing activity.
After 3 months, you could expect to receive half of that
spend back in terms of extra income. After 6 months,
the extra income generated could well recover the
monthly budget. And after 9 months, this could turn
into a profit of £500 a month.
Your budget established, you are then faced with how to
spend it. The section on media discusses the options
available but many small businesses are typically faced
with a real choice of two or three options – for example,
direct mail, local press adverts or directories.
So while you would commit to spending £12,000 a year
on marketing, you would actually recover £9,000 in extra
income. In the following year, you would then start to
make a real return on your investment. Do remember,
though, that plans do not always work, and you might
commit to expenditure without generating the income
to go with it.
Without professional help from a direct marketing
agency or consultant, neither of whom would have
all of the answers anyway, this becomes a matter of
guesswork. You need to balance the costs against
projected response, and rates of conversion to new
business, plus the profit you expect to make out of
new customers.
It is difficult to give specimen costings because the
costs of media like local radio, TV, press, directories vary
significantly. It is, however, relatively simple to find out
costs, coverage and estimated response rates, and most
local media will provide a service for creating and
producing everything from radio scripts to press adverts,
or refer you to other companies who can help.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Whatever the budget, good quality marketing is
achieved by applying the most important measure of all:
common sense. Low cost should not mean low quality.
A well-written letter will be more cost effective than a
badly produced leaflet. If you cannot afford to do
something properly, then avoid doing it rather than
doing it badly.
Direct mail is a little easier to cost, because the
variations are more in what you decide to do rather
than where you live, the time of day, week or year.
Assuming that you rent a list of the people you want to
reach, rather than use your own database, which is
covered later, you might be looking at the following kind
of costing:
The important element is to ensure that what you can
afford to buy ends up addressing the audience you want
to talk to. You might decide, for example, that local radio
is the right medium for you because it has a high
business commuting audience for two hours a day.
These time slots, however, are typically the most
expensive, so you might be tempted or persuaded to
use day-time or night-time slots instead. While they
will be cheaper, the people you want to reach may not
be listening.
List rental – 5,000 @ £130 per thousand
£ 650
Output and delivery of the list
£
5,000 2 colour letterheads, including artwork
£ 175
5,000 DL (single sheet folded in 3), 4 colour
brochures incl. design/artwork, reply device
£1,000
5,000 window envelopes, overprinted with
a message and your logo
£ 220
5,000 reply envelopes
£ 130
Laser printing of 5,000 letters, plus folding,
enclosing and mailing
£ 500
Total cost
£2,725
Plus postage, assuming 5,000 @ 20p
£1,000
Overall total cost
which is equivalent to:
50
£3,725
74.5p per pack
Remember – this is an outline example only, not a
definitive costing. There are huge variations in design
and print costs, and you need to consider in detail how
people will respond to you. You can, of course, do
smaller quantities, but usually the unit cost will be higher.
“
Whatever the budget,
good quality marketing is
achieved by applying the most
important measure of all:
common sense
”
07
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Design & Image
08
However small your business, however niche your marketplace, image really does matter, particularly in direct marketing.
When potential customers read your brochure or visit your website, you will not be there to make sure they get the right
message. Even if your company image is a direct reflection of your own personality, you need to be sure that your personality
comes across in every item, at every point of contact.
Developing and maintaining the right image for your
business does not have to be complicated or expensive.
What it does require is thought and honesty. Thought
that ensures your image is simple, easy to understand
and consistent across everything you do. Honesty to
recognise that what you promise is what you can
reasonably deliver in the eyes of the customer.
This is what will help you develop a brand for your
company. There are many definitions of the key
components of a brand, but the following should enable
you to cover all the important areas:
●
●
Your vision
How do you want your customers to feel about you?
As authoritative and established, for example?
Or as contemporary and cutting edge?
The first would lend itself to a traditional image, while
a contemporary image would be more appropriate
for the second. It is important to avoid sending out
mixed messages.
Your position
How do you want to be perceived in the marketplace
compared to your competitors?
This might include price, product performance,
innovation, service and support, all of which would
position you differently.
●
Your proposition
This is a combination of your vision and your position
that sums up in a simple statement what you offer to
your customers, what you will deliver, and how they
will benefit.
Having taken the time and effort to work through this to
develop a clear brand identity, you should find it much
easier to assess the different communications you send
out, and the elements within those communications. The
key is to look at the words, the images, the headlines
and the tone of voice and ask if they support and
reinforce the image that you want to communicate. If
they do, you are creating the right image and building
your brand. If not, then you now have a clear framework
to help you improve.
“
The key is to look at
the words, the images,
the headlines and the
tone of voice and ask if
they support and reinforce
the image that you want
to communicate.
”
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
“
. . .what will make
someone stop for that extra
second and consider
what you are saying rather
than your competitor?
Creativity
”
There are many excellent books written to help you develop copy and design that will both build your brand and achieve a
better response for your marketing efforts. Now, however, is the time to start considering creativity. Particularly when the
golden rule is to put yourself in the position of your potential customers and think about how they will look at your marketing.
Probably the most important point to make is that you
are a buyer as well as a seller, so think about the
communications you receive and what makes you
respond to some and ignore others.
Does it stand out from the crowd, for example?
Magazines contain ads on every other page and you
probably get 40-50 items through the post every week.
So what will make someone stop for that extra
second and consider what you are saying rather than
your competitor?
Once you do attract attention, there are only a few
seconds to make your audience want to find out more.
So let them see instantly what is in it for them by leading
with a benefit they can relate to.
Finally, tell your audience what you want them to do –
and make it as easy as possible for them to respond by
providing a number of options. Whether by phone, by
writing in or by accessing your website, everyone has
their own preferred route.
●
Requirement
What are you producing?
Mailing, press ad, radio ad etc.
●
Communication Goals
What do you want to achieve?
The launch of a new product?
Visitor traffic for an exhibition?
Direct sales?
●
●
Proposition
What is the single most important thing you are
promising to do for them?
This should always be a benefit to the customer, not
a feature of the product.
●
Key Supporting Messages
What are the other benefits?
These can relate to the product/service, or they could
be an offer such as a chance to win something.
●
Desired Response
What do you want them to actually do?
How do you want them to do it?
The creative brief
However well you know your product, you may find it
useful to have a structure that focuses on what you
want to achieve and what you want to say, especially if
you are using an external designer or copywriter. The
following framework is a simple and flexible creative brief:
Target Audience
Existing customers?
Prospects?
How well do they know you?
●
Practical Considerations
What are the specifications for the size of a print
advertisement/the file size of an Internet ad/the
dimensions of a mailing pack.
Responding to the brief
Whether you create your own ad or mail-piece, or employ
a designer or copywriter to produce the work for you, the
result should be compared to the creative brief to ensure
that it delivers on every point.
In terms of the actual creative route chosen, businessto-business direct marketing usually assumes that:
●
Business decisions are wholly rational, so the
proposition focuses exclusively on appealing to the
head of marketing and/or the accounts department.
●
Business is serious, so communications must also
be serious and conservative.
Whilst both these assumptions are reasonable, you would
be wise to treat them with care. Firstly consider this: do
you stop being an individual when you walk into the
office? Have you ever bought something for your company
based as much on what you like or trust, as on whether it
was the cheapest or most functional? Secondly, if everyone
follows the same rules, then everything will end up looking
similar, and nothing will stand out from the crowd.
09
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Media Options
10
One of the biggest decisions to make – and often one that comes before budgets or design are even considered – is the
media you choose to communicate to potential customers. Whether direct mail or the Internet, each medium has strengths
and weaknesses, attractions and pitfalls. Remember, though, that the choice is not either/or. You will often find that a
combination of media employed at the same time will produce a better result than using each medium on its own.
Direct Mail
Traditionally the core medium for business-to-business
direct marketing, direct mail has a number of key
strengths:
●
The ability to target key decision makers by name
and personalise communications to them.
●
Creative flexibility, with print and production
technologies offering far more possibilities than
a simple standard A4 or A5 pack.
●
High recall for pieces that are well produced,
and a tendency to keep items of interest for
later consideration.
●
The room to explain complex propositions, or guide
readers through a wide range of available options.
●
The potential to achieve some of the highest
response rates.
There are also, however, a number of key issues
to consider:
●
The quality of data. On average, 20-25% of
managers in larger companies leave or change roles
every year, so unless you can be confident that your
lists are up-to-date, you could be wasting a quarter
of your budget.
●
The decision-making process. If your product or
service is of particular value to accounts
departments, it does not necessarily mean the
financial director will be involved in the purchasing
decision. The larger the company, the greater the
chance the decision will be made by a middle or
even junior manager. So do you know who they are?
●
Head office personnel. While many business lists
focus on head office personnel, the individuals listed
will not necessarily be involved in most operational
decisions, and the operating companies may be in a
completely different location.
Press
Depending upon the nature of your product or service,
there are three types of press to consider:
●
Consumer
Even for business-to-business audiences, local
and regional newspapers may be a more costeffective route.
●
Business
Most areas have local business magazines or
newspapers, often produced by local newspapers
as a supplement, or created by local business
organisations such as Chambers of Commerce
or Business Links.
●
Specialist trade and industry sector
This is probably the most popular route for
business-to-business advertising.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
The biggest strength of press advertising, particularly in
specialist sectors, is that the leading publications should
enable you to reach a higher proportion of your
marketplace than any other medium. There are, however,
several questions to consider:
●
What is the circulation?
This is important, particularly for trade and industry
publications, and you should also find out what
proportion of your core market it reaches.
●
What is the quality of the readership?
Even though readership may be high, try and
establish if you will be talking to the right people:
If the publication belongs to a trade or professional
body, especially one that provides qualifications, a
high proportion of the readership may be students.
What proportion of the readership is paid-for and
what proportion is free or controlled circulation?
Most reputable magazines should also be able to
give you a fairly detailed profile of their readership to
help you make your planning decision.
●
How much advertising does the publication
typically carry?
In most markets, there are often one or two
publications that are recognised as “must-read”, so
anyone who wants to reach this audience will choose
these. The net result is likely to be so much
advertising per issue that it is extremely difficult to
stand out from the crowd. This can be a particular
problem if you have many competitors offering a
similar product or service.
●
What is the cost?
Whilst local press can be good value, leading trade
publications can be more expensive in terms of
cost per thousand readers. You need to work
through the numbers carefully. As a general rule,
you can expect a significantly lower response than
through direct mail.
●
Is there room to get your message across?
If your message and/or offer is clearly understood,
and you want readers to do something very simple
such as request a brochure, press can work well. But
if you need to try and explain what you do, or are
trying to get them to buy something directly, then
think carefully before using press. If you still want
to try, do a very limited test to keep financial risk to
a minimum.
●
What is the ideal placement?
Look closely at several issues of any publication you
are considering to get a feel for where you would like
your ad to appear. Most divide the available space
into display and classified. The latter is cheaper,
and can be attractive if this section is well
laid out, sensibly divided according to subject and
your service fits clearly into one of these subject
areas. Display is more expensive, especially if you
are looking at the cover or inside cover. A good idea
is to talk to the publication and see if they are
planning any editorial features that relate to what you
do. Placing your ad in or alongside such a feature
should not incur a significant premium, and should
help improve response.
11
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
12
Inserts
In theory, inserts represent the best of both worlds,
especially for business-to-business marketing. They
give you the creative flexibility of direct mail, and
enable you to communicate far more information than
an advertisement. Plus you gain the high level of
targeting and market penetration that are offered by
the leading publications. However, it will probably
come as no surprise to hear that achieving success
is rarely so simple.
The same issues about understanding publications and
the real quality of their readership apply to insert
planning as they do for press advertising. Other issues
also arise because the cost of insert advertising is
significantly higher than press advertising.
How many inserts will the publisher take for each issue?
If you are one of 3 or 4, then there is a good chance
you will get noticed. But if the reader finds 13 or 14,
what are the odds of them taking the time to sift
through this many?
If a high proportion of readers are unlikely to be core
prospects, a high proportion of the money you spend
producing the insert will be wasted.
Are there alternatives to the traditional loose insert? It is
well worth talking to the publisher because even smaller
magazines are increasingly offering opportunities that
increase your chance of getting noticed. Simply having
your insert bound into the publication is an option that’s
been around for a long time, but other ideas you could
consider include cover mounting a CD, producing a
leaflet that wraps around the magazine, etc.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Telemarketing
Directories
Door-to-door distribution
It is likely that you are already using telemarketing,
possibly every day, even if you do not think of it in
such a formal way. In fact, there are probably very few
business-to-business sales that are made without
several telephone calls to the prospective customer. In
more structured direct marketing programmes, the
telephone can be employed in a variety of ways.
Most industries have one or two directories that are
established reference sources and a “who’s who” of the
sector. As the cost of basic entries in these is generally
quite low, it is tempting to simply keep renewing an entry
year after year. As with any direct marketing however, we
recommend that you track all responses that come
through your directory entries so that you can measure
their true cost-effectiveness.
Door-to-door is well worth considering, if only for its low
cost advantages, but you need to consider if consumerstyle leafleting of offices is practical or will generate a
decent return for your business. There is also the
consideration of whether such an execution creates an
appropriate brand image, but it can work well for very
localised opportunities. Companies whose services
cross-over between the consumer and business
markets, or who are trying to market to employees in the
work place, could also find value here.
Database building and lead generation
We have already identified how difficult it can be to get
lists that target the right decision-maker. Using
telemarketing to build your own list may be the only
real solution.
Direct mail follow-up
Research consistently shows that business people will
keep a mailing that might be of interest on file, rather
than respond to it immediately. A telephone follow-up
can build on that initial interest before the brochure gets
too deeply buried in their bottom drawer.
Whether you keep this work in-house or use a
telemarketing bureau obviously depends on the level of
resource you have, and the size of your target market.
However, as either of the above could involve contacting
a few thousand individuals, outsourcing the task will
make a major difference to how quickly and thoroughly
you can complete the project.
Television and Radio
With the cost of television being prohibitive for most
smaller companies, broadcast media are not normally
regarded as core media for business-to-business direct
marketing. However, depending upon what you do, it
may be worth investigating local radio opportunities
further. The rationale is similar to that for local press, but
in the case of radio you may also find there are certain
programmes that have a strong business audience.
13
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
14
The Internet
While the Internet is obviously the newest medium
available for business-to-business direct marketing, it is
already being used to generate considerable revenue.
There are three main ways to generate responses:
As with every medium, these advantages are balanced
by a number of considerations. Particularly since Internet
users are now more experienced and their expectations
of your website will be much higher than even a year
ago. So if you are planning a website, or have one
already, ask yourself the following:
●
Creating your own website
●
Sending e-mails
Can users immediately see, on every single page, how
to contact you?
●
Using other websites
If they try, how much information are you asking for?
Creating your own website
However small you are, there are three main reasons to
create your own website:
●
Many of your competitors will have their own, so you
will be at a disadvantage without one.
●
Most potential customers now expect to be able to
view a website, just as they expect you to be able to
send them a brochure.
●
Used sensibly, the Internet can be an extremely
responsive and cost-effective channel.
●
It offers an easy, fast and cost-effective way for
potential customers to respond.
Is it so much that it might put them off responding,
especially if they do not know you?
Do different customers have different requirements for
your product or service? If so, how easy is it for each
user to see that it meets their individual needs?
Can they jump about between different bits of
information, or does your site look and act just like
your brochure?
The second point is one of the most difficult to address.
In reality, you do not need to ask someone for more than
their e-mail address in order to send them something. In
practice, the less information you require the higher the
likely number of responses. However, this needs to be
balanced against the quality of those responses.
Especially if you are giving visitors the opportunity to
request something physical such as a catalogue, you
may want to deliberately make responding more
demanding to cut down on those who are potentially
wasting both your time and your money.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Sending e-mails
Used appropriately, sending e-mails can not only
generate extremely high response levels, but do so
far more cheaply than any other media. As always
however, there are some key issues and guidelines
you should consider:
●
For personal communications between you and your
customers, e-mail can work very well.
●
As a prospecting tool however, not only do you risk
being associated with ‘spam’, but under new
legislation you may eventually run the risk of
breaking the law if you do not have explicit
permission from individuals to e-mail them.
●
Creatively, simple graphical e-mails are likely to give
you a better response than text-only ones. If you
do not want to set up a system to do these yourself,
the DMA website has a list of suppliers who offer
e-mail services.
●
E-mail newsletters (published by other companies
but going to your target audience) where you can
buy a short ad space to promote yourself, can be
cost-effective too.
15
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
16
Using other websites
It is not just your own website that can generate
business for you from the Internet, but the websites of
other companies too. In this respect, there are three
areas to consider:
●
Advertising
●
Affiliate and Affinity Programmes
●
Search Engines
Advertising
As with any direct response channel, the key to Internet
advertising is targeting. If you work in a specialist sector,
there are probably key sites that most of your target
market visit and use. If your marketplace is much
broader, Internet directories or buying guides for local
businesses are worth considering instead.
Once you do find an appropriate site to advertise on,
look carefully at the site plan. Are there specific sections
that fit more closely with your product or service? In
general, the more relevant your offer is to the content of
the page where your ad appears, the better your
response should be.
If you do decide to test the water, talk to the site owner
about what types of advertising formats they support.
Do not automatically presume this means producing a
banner – and if you do produce a banner, think of ways
to make it more engaging and interactive than simply a
static headline.
How site owners charge for advertising remains a
contentious issue. There are some who are prepared to
charge on a cost-per-click basis, so you only pay for the
responses you actually get. However, these are still very
rare and the norm remains cost-per-page impression.
This means that if one person sees your ad twenty
times whilst browsing a site, you pay for each of those
twenty views.
Affiliate and Affinity Programmes
This can make Internet advertising potentially expensive,
so it is essential to ensure that you can properly
measure its effectiveness. Firstly, most site owners
should be able to provide detailed reporting on the
number of times a visitor has clicked on your ad, as well
as which part of the site they were on at the time.
Secondly, think about where on your site the ad takes
them. If it is just your Home Page, you may find it
difficult to track how these respondents behave on your
site. Consider setting up a unique entry page for them.
Maybe offer them a chance to win something in return
for leaving their e-mail address so that you have the
opportunity to follow up at a later date.
Affiliate programmes are more formal and involve one
party paying the other for sales made as a result of
referrals from their site.
Beyond advertising, affiliate or affinity programmes are a
form of networking over the Internet. At their simplest,
affinity programmes involve you agreeing to provide a
link from your site to other sites, in return for them doing
the same for you. Assuming they are also sites that your
potential customers might visit, then in theory it’s a winwin situation.
In either case, an indirect benefit of such programmes is
that having lots of links between your site and other
sites improves your ranking with many of the key search
engines on the Internet.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Search Engines
Integrate, integrate, integrate
Probably the most cost-effective way of attracting
prospects to your site is to get a good position on a
leading search engine such as www.yahoo.co.uk or
www.lycos.com. However, with a typical search query
returning thousands of sites, and the average person
only prepared to look at the first twenty or thirty listed,
this is a big challenge.
Finally, whilst we have looked at the many different
media of business-to-business direct marketing,
remember that they should not be considered in
isolation. Using two or more together, such as adding a
telemarketing follow-up to a direct mail campaign, can
increase your rate of success considerably. This also
extends to adding a non-direct channel to a direct
marketing channel.
Web design companies will tell you that there are many
different tactics to improve your success rate, called
‘Search Engine Optimisation’, but there are two basic
things you can and should do:
●
●
Make sure that your Home Page in particular has
a good selection of the key words and phrases
that someone might use to look for your product
or service
Work out a comprehensive list of these, and tell
whoever builds your Web pages to put these in the
Metadata section (information about the page that
users do not see but which search engines will read)
Many business-to-business companies, for example, use
exhibitions and events as a core part of their marketing
strategy. Direct marketing can play a vital role around
these events to ensure you maximise what can be a
substantial investment.
You could communicate with existing prospects and
clients in advance of the event to get them to come to
your stand. Having a website can also be a great asset
as you can get them to respond via e-mail for advance
details, register their interest or see a map showing
where your stand is.
You could also use the event to data capture details on
as many visitors as possible. Everyone is familiar with
using prize draws to get visitors to leave their business
cards, but do you immediately input all the cards to
create a contact database as soon as the event is
finished? And then follow up in a timely fashion? If not,
you are losing many opportunities for added business.
These are just examples, but hopefully you get the
picture – that business-to-business direct marketing
gives you the opportunity to mix and match several
channels to find the ones that work for your company.
17
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Databases & Lists
18
One of the keys to success in business-to-business direct marketing is building your own database to increase
your revenues. Which is easy to say, but where do you start? Provided you know what you are going to do with the database
once you build it, it is more straightforward than you might imagine. Especially when you realise that if you update it with
responses to each direct marketing exercise you run, it will become a tool that drives your business forward.
Collecting data
Enhancing data
Using technology
The simplest way to begin a database project is to
create a Christmas Card list for existing customers. This
may seem strange, but it can help to concentrate the
minds of everyone, and consolidate the customer data
that already exists in many different files, cupboards
and diaries.
The next step is to decide which card and gift each
contact should receive – a decision which can (and
perhaps should) be based on the value of the contact to
your company. To ascertain this, you can add account
information to each customer record, such as:
The biggest advantage for small businesses of building
a database is that off-the-shelf technology exists to
help you. Applications like Microsoft Access, for
example, are fairly easy to learn and there are many
books which give those unfamiliar with the software an
excellent start. The other route is to call in a consultant
to help you build your database, but always make sure
they tell you what they are doing, and put down on
paper what they have done.
Let’s say, for example, that you have had a good year
and are prepared to commit a budget for cards and
presents – but that not every customer should receive
the same card or present. If everyone in your company
creates a spreadsheet of their contacts and assigns
each contact a tag to show how important the contact
is, you will have achieved two things immediately:
●
Everyone will learn about contributing data to the
company database.
●
The list of customers will be comprehensive because
it is in the interest of everyone to get it right.
●
The turnover you have with that company.
●
The margin you make on that company’s billing.
●
Whether they are good payers.
With this information added to the database – because
you have already created one – you have an objective
assessment of the importance of each customer, upon
which you can define what card and gift they receive.
In either case, you should write as detailed a brief as
possible, covering the following:
●
The data you want to collect
This will typically include name and address details,
together with information that is pertinent to your
product or service – the potential yearly spend in
your specialist area, for example. You will also want
to include fields to track your direct marketing
activity to show when and how each customer has
been contacted.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
●
Where the data will come from
Start looking and you might be surprised at the data
your company already holds in different places.
Everything from accounting information to sales team
records, business cards to your Outlook address
book, sales leads from exhibitions to prospect lists
compiled from directories and telesales activity.
●
How the database will be updated
Every time data is keyed into a database presents
an opportunity for error, so try to ensure that any
data is only ever entered once, but is available to
different users.
●
Prioritise your objectives – and be open-minded
about changing them.
●
Find all the data sources in your company and
consolidate them.
How data will be manipulated
There is no point having a database if its data cannot
be used and actioned upon. Users should therefore
be presented with screens and functions which work
‘intuitively’ for them. In other words, make sure the
developer is aware of what users routinely perform
as part of their job so that they do not have to refer
to a manual or Help screens.
●
Don’t be too ambitious about getting all the
functionality in place on day one. Your staff may well
come up with good ideas about improving it.
●
Make it easy for users to do what they want, rather
than what the developer thinks they should want.
●
Decide early on whether you want to do the job
in-house or outsource it. If you outsource it, make
sure the developer understands and is properly
briefed about all aspects of your business.
●
Make sure someone senior in your company is
responsible for maintaining and adding functionality
to the database. The country is littered with
databases which do nothing because someone left
the company or became too busy to maintain them.
●
The development period, with agreed
time objectives
This is for your own peace of mind as much as
anything, so that you know exactly when your
database will be up and running and which functions
it will be able to perform.
●
Finally, give a senior person responsibility for
ensuring you comply with the Data Protection Act,
and that you are properly registered to hold and use
the data you have.
Database Checklist
●
The data you need immediately and what you are
likely to need over a two year period – this is
important because your database should be working
for you, automating as many tasks as possible. While
database applications do not have to be developed
to do everything you want from day one, they do
need to be flexible enough to handle new tasks
without having to start again.
“
The biggest advantage
for small businesses of
building a database is that
off-the-shelf technology
exists to help you.
”
19
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Renting and Leasing Lists
20
While your database will allow you to track your current customers and prospects, you will also want to contact other
potential customers. Not just to replace the 20% or so of your prospect database who will move on, change jobs or retire
each year, but also to grow your business. For this, you will need to rent or lease a list of individuals with a similar profile to
your current customers who you suspect will also be interested in your product or service.
The first thing to work out is how many names you are
going to need to achieve your objectives. Only
experience will tell you what response levels you are
going to get, but you are likely to need a few thousand
names rather a few hundred to gain the responses to
justify the effort.
selling specialised software), and will usually come
from compiled business databases, magazine
circulations and exhibition organisers.
●
You should expect to pay £90+ per thousand for fairly
basic lists and from £200 to £400 per thousand for
leased or bought data. If you are offered lists at a lower
price, it is a case of caveat emptor – the data is usually
poor and may even have been obtained illegally.
To give you some idea of how you would use such lists,
the following are five scenarios that are typical of
business-to-business direct marketing:
●
●
Buying data to match your existing client base for
long-term prospecting by mail or phone
Here, you will need to profile your existing customer
base so that you can match your data with the
selection criteria available from the lists you are
looking at.
Such lists should allow you to target very accurately,
perhaps by company size and location, industry type,
purchasing decision-maker and by other special
criteria (eg, computer operating system if you are
●
key here. Even if you are handling the telesales
in-house, failed phone calls because the number
is wrong or the contact no longer exists will not help
your costs.
Rented lists for a new product launch, or selling
direct by mail
In this scenario, you should be looking for lists with
a high proportion of mail order buyers. You may not
be able to get quite such an accurate match with
your own target market, but usually the propensity
of these targets to buy via the mail will outweigh
the wastage.
Renting prospect lists to drive people to your
exhibition stand
For exhibition and seminar promotions, it is perhaps
no surprise that you should seek lists of people
who have a track record of going to other exhibitions
and seminars. Remember, though, that if you do
have a stand at an exhibition, there will be a list
available of pre-registered attendees. You may get
a good rate for the file and you should consider a
two-time rental so that you can reach them before
and after the show.
Supporting a telesales drive to get appointments
for sales people
Accuracy and recency in the quality of the data is
The best lists for this purpose are recently telephonecompiled files or publishers’ lists where the
subscriber has to fill in a detailed form in order to get
the publication. Try to negotiate a one-time call deal
if you can, so that as soon as a contact agrees to an
appointment or wants some literature, the data for
this prospect becomes yours.
●
Driving traffic to your website via e-mail
With the Internet now coming of age, this kind of
activity is becoming more popular. The market for
these lists is still fairly immature, however, and it is
unlikely that the list owner will let you handle the
mailing yourself. The files are also expensive –
£300+ per thousand is not uncommon, although
this should improve over time.
For this kind of spend, try to get the owner to
guarantee personal e-mail addresses (i.e. not
sales@…) and look for lists which are based on
newsletter subscriptions and online registration for
trade shows.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
●
Summary
Decide whether you are going to do all the work
yourself or get a List Broker to do it. Using a List
Broker will not cost you extra because they get paid
by the List Owners. If you are going to do the work
yourself, judge each list according to these criteria:
●
When, how and for what purpose was the
list compiled?
●
How and how often is the list updated?
●
Do the selections offered reasonably match your
target market?
●
What types of rental/lease/purchase deals are
on offer?
●
Can you get a lease with updates, for example?
●
Is the list owner a member of a properly
accredited body (DMA, Periodical Publishers
Association etc.)?
●
Does an accredited body audit the data?
The DMA has recently launched a Business List
Audit Scheme. If you are going to use a broker,
make sure that:
●
You know who their clients are.
●
You find out how long they have been working
with them.
●
You write a clear and detailed brief so that their
pre-selection process means that you are getting
the best-targeted lists.
●
You request a proposal with recommendations,
and are not given data cards for different lists
where you still have to make all the decisions.
The DMA website holds more details about member
brokers and tips on choosing and using lists,
together with sections detailing lists available from
DMA members and list owners, highlighting those
lists that have passed through the DMA Business List
Audit process.
21
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Testing
22
One of the biggest advantages of direct marketing in general is that most of the channels can be tested before committing to
a full campaign. So different offers, media, approaches and lists can be tried to discover the best avenue for your particular
product or service. Even with small budgets, which do not allow different elements of, say, a direct mail pack to be tested
before a campaign rolls out, the whole campaign is then a test. So on the next direct mail pack, something different can be
tested and the results then compared. All of which creates a body of knowledge within your company that builds over time to
make your direct marketing more and more successful.
Whole books have been written about testing, many of
which are available from the DMA bookshop, the basic
principles are as follows:
●
The reason for testing
Direct marketing is very measurable, but it is not an
exact science. The purpose of testing is to see which
component parts might work better through change.
Indeed, the most successful people in direct
marketing never stop testing. They are always
striving to improve their results, and know that what
works today will not work forever.
●
What to test
This depends on the medium you choose, but the
opportunities are almost endless. When using
advertising, for example, you could try different sized
adverts, different positions, different days, different
offers and different publications, all of which will vary
the result in some way. For direct mail, on the other
hand, try testing different lists, different offers,
different words, different items in the mailing pack,
and different mailing times.
●
The practicalities
The smaller you are, the harder it is to test different
things. Mailing 800,000 businesses with a ‘control
pack’ (the established one that has achieved the best
result in the past), and a further 200,000 with a ‘test
pack’ (the all-new approach with a different offer or
creative treatment) to find out which gains the best
response across a whole selection of lists is one
thing. If you only mail 1,000 people a month,
however, or are unsure which offer to make, try half
and half and carry on with the most successful. It
may not be statistically valid, but common sense
plays a part.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
●
Measuring test results
When comparing the results of, say, two mailings to
the same kind of audience, the most important part
is to be able to measure any differences, and isolate
what has caused the difference. If you change four
things at the same time, you will be happy if the
results are better, but if you do not know which of
the four things caused the improvement, you have
missed an opportunity.
●
Adapting plans
There is no point in testing unless you are prepared
to learn from the results and change what you do
on the larger scale. Even large companies are
sometimes guilty of small tests that they could not
or would not continue on a large scale. So always
ask – if this works better, will I use it? If the answer
is no, test something else instead.
“
23
. . . the most successful
people in direct marketing
never stop testing . . .
”
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Compliance & Best Practice
24
Business-to-business direct marketing is growing from strength to strength. More companies are using it – and profiting from
using it properly. In light of this, many organisations now promote and encourage best practice. For companies who employ
best practice, it helps in the planning of effective direct marketing campaigns. For customers, it protects their interests too.
That said, the following details all the things you should be aware of when conducting your own direct marketing campaign.
The addresses, telephone numbers and websites for the organisations are listed overleaf unless otherwise stated.
The DMA
ASA
Data Protection
As part of the DMA’s ongoing commitment to raising
industry standards and promoting consumer safeguards,
the DMA issues Best Practice Guidelines, covering
specific areas of direct marketing.
The Advertising Standards Authority is the independent,
self-regulatory body for non-broadcast advertisements
in the UK. It administers the British Codes of
Advertising and Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing
to ensure that ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful.
A copy of the codes is available via its website or you
can contact the ASA directly.
Various data protection regulations exists for companies
who are using personal information, detailing what
they are allowed to do, their obligations, and the rights
of consumers.
The DM Code of Practice sets standards of ethical
conduct and best practice and is administered and
monitored by the independent Direct Marketing
Authority. The DM Code of Practice (3rd Edition) has
always and continues to cover all forms of direct
marketing.
For a full list of DMA guidelines, contact the DMA direct
by telephone or view its website where you can
download copies of the documents.
The CAP Code
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) is the
self-regulatory body that devises and enforces the CAP
Code. CAP members include organisations that
represent the advertising, sales promotion and media
businesses. For more information contact the ASA.
The Data Protection Act is administered by the
Information Commissioner, an independent officer who
reports directly to Parliament. In essence, the Act is
concerned with personal information, which is
automatically processed. It works in two ways, giving
individuals certain rights whilst requiring those who
record and use personal information on computer to be
open about that use and to follow sound and proper
practices. Contact the Information Commissioner for
more information.
Consumer Protection
The DMA’s Preference Services enable consumers to
register their wish to opt out of receiving unsolicited
messages by e-mail, mail, telephone or fax.
Organisations are obliged either by law or by Codes of
Practice to ensure that consumer wishes are adhered to.
For more information, contact the DMA.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Business-to-Business Suppression File
Electronic Signatures 1999
Copyright Directive
The Business-to-Business Suppression file provides the
widest coverage of the UK business market and gives
unsurpassed levels of accuracy.
This is a legal framework developed to guarantee the
security of electronic signatures. For more information,
take a look at the European Union website:
http://europa.eu.int.
This is the European directive on Internet copyright rules,
which sets out to protect copyright holders while allowing
private copying of some audio and video material. For
more information, visit the European Union site:
http://europa.eu.int.
The Suppression file is an effective way of helping
you tackle the real problem of 5.7 million company
and individual detail changes every year. The file
tracks all UK company changes. Contact the DMA
for more information.
E-Commerce Directive
The objective of the E-Commerce Directive is to ensure
that information society services benefit from the
internal-market principles of free movement of services
and the freedom of establishment. In particular, it
concerns the principle that their provision cross-border
throughout the European Community cannot be
restricted. For more information contact the DTI.
VAT and services by electronic means
The objective of a comprehensive e-commerce taxation
policy framework is twofold: to avoid either double
taxation or non-taxation; and to avoid disparity treatment
of offline versus online transactions. For information on
the implications of this, visit the European Union site:
http://europa.eu.int.
AEB Web Security Guidelines
These guidelines express the fundamental concepts of
web security in a non-technical language. For more
information, contact the DMA.
25
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Resources
26
Business-to-business direct marketing does not just require financial resources, but human resources too. Staff are needed to
implement, manage and monitor direct marketing campaigns, develop and maintain databases, and of course handle the
additional business generated. That said, proper planning will give you some idea of the extra resources required and when,
and also what level of expertise is required. Most potential suppliers will give you advice and help, to decide what to do, but
there are some key areas to consider.
The database
New customers
It is one thing to set up and manage a database through
an initial period. It is another to maintain it over a period
of time. So beware of falling into the trap of using a
friend, only to find they are not available when you need
them and nobody else knows how it works.
Gaining new customers is good news on the one hand.
On the other, it will create more work. Can you credit
check all of them, for example? Can you handle the
increase in orders and cope with the additional volumes
going through your business? What about stock,
deliveries, packing and paperwork? Most importantly of
all, can you do all of this while at the same time giving
your best customers – your existing ones – the same
high level of service?
Planning & implementation
This is probably the easy part of any business-tobusiness direct marketing campaign, as it is an
identifiable part of the planning process where you can
size and time the resource requirement.
Handling responses
Once you have given potential customers various ways
of responding, you then have to deal with that response,
whether by capturing data, sending out brochures,
conducting phone calls or making sales presentations.
Time is often the critical element here. If you cannot deal
with an enquiry quickly, how can you provide the service
any customer would naturally demand?
Flexibility
Nobody can be sure what responses they will get from
any marketing activity, even seasoned users. While
outside activity could have a major impact, you will be
reluctant to commit to extra resources just in case. But
do be prepared – particularly if you use a medium such
as radio or press that can deliver a peak of response
very quickly, compared to direct mail that can be more
easily spread.
Successful Business to Business Direct Marketing
Further Information
ADVERTISING ASSOCIATION
Abford House
15 Wilton Road
London
SW1V 1NJ
E: aa@adassoc.org.uk
W: www.adassoc.org.uk
T: 0208 7828 2771
F: 020 7931 0376
ADVERTISING STANDARDS
AUTHORITY (ASA)
(FOR VOLUNTARY CODES,
AND TO CHECK ADVERTISING)
Brook House
2-16 Torrington Place
London
WC1E 7HN
E: inquiries@asa.org.uk
W: www.asa.org.uk
T: 020 7580 5555
F: 020 7631 3051
BRITISH MARKET
RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
Devonshire House
60 Goswell Road
London
EC1M 7AD
E: admin@bmra.org.uk
W: www.bmra.org.uk
T: 020 7566 3636
F: 020 7689 6220
CONFEDERATION OF
BRITISH INDUSTRY (CBI)
Centre Point
103 New Oxford street
London
WC1A 1DU
W: www.cbi.org.uk
T: 020 7395 8247
F: 020 7240 1578
CHARTERED INSTITUTE
OF MARKETING (CIM)
(FOR TRAINING)
Moor Hall
Cookham
Maidenhead
Berkshire
SL6 9QH
E: marketing@cim.co.uk
W: www.cim.co.uk
T: 01628 427 500
F: 01628 427 499
DIRECT MAIL INFORMATION
SERVICE (DMIS)
(FOR INFORMATION AND RESEARCH
ON DIRECT MAIL, FOR REPORTS SUCH AS:
SME’s Use and Understanding of Mail Media 2002)
5 Carlisle Street
London
W1V 6JX
E: jo@dmis.co.uk
W: www.dmis.co.uk
T: 020 7494 0483
F: 020 7494 0455
INFORMATION COMMISSIONER
(FOR DATA PROTECTION)
Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
W: www.dataprotection.gov.uk
Enquiry/Information Line: 01625 545 745
Notification Line: 01625 545 740
Switchboard: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510
THE COMMUNICATIONS ADVERTISING
AND MARKETING FOUNDATION (CAM)
(FOR TRAINING)
Moor Hall
Cookham
Maidenhead
Berkshire
SL6 9QH
E: info@camfoundation.com
W: www.camfoundation.com
T: 01628 427 180
F: 01628 427 159
DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION (DMA)
(PREFERENCE SERVICES: MAILING, TELEPHONE,
FAX, EMAIL)
(DMA BOOKSHOP)
DMA House
70 Margaret Street
London
W1W 8SS
E:dma@dma.org.uk
W: www.dma.org.uk
T: 020 7291 3300
F: 020 7323 4165
INSTITUTE OF DIRECT MARKETING (IDM)
(FOR TRAINING)
1Park Road
Teddington
Middlesex
TW11 0AR
W: www.theidm.co.uk
T: 020 8977 5705
F: 020 8943 2535
DEPARTMENT OF TRADE
AND INDUSTRY (DTI)
1 Victoria Street
London
SW1H OET
E: dti.enquiries@imsv.dti.gov.uk
W: www.dti.gov.uk
T: 020 7215 5000
F: 020 7222 2629
www.businesslink.org.uk
FIT FOR THE FUTURE (THE NATIONAL BEST
PRACTICE CAMPAIGN)
Centre Point
103 New Oxford Street
London
WC1A 1DU
W: www.fitforthefuture.org.uk
T: 0870 600 2513
F: 020 7497 2596
27
The Direct Marketing Association
DMA House
70 Margaret Street
London
W1W 8SS
E: dma@dma.org.uk
W: www.dma.org.uk
Tel: 020 7291 3300
Fax: 020 7323 4165
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