Kathleen Aston
Bio

 


For Better Results, Take a Walk on the Wild Side!
The secrets to better business-to-business marketing

Devious motorcycle maniacs. Droopy slinky eyeballs. Slime. Gladiator guys. Logo cookies. Blue punch. Kookie kaleidoscopes. Legos. What do they all have in common? They're themes with premiums that break through the clutter, get attention and generate landmark response from CXO-and other high-level decision makers. Who would have ever thunk it! Not the majority of those mailing business-to-business direct marketing programs…for sure.

So, what can you learn here? Ground breaking b-to-b direct marketing is not for the faint of heart. It's not for the timid or the fearful. It's for the bold, the provocative and the sassy. But if you're still a tad timid about leveraging the power of these types of lead-generating programs, take a look at the results…and then try to reach a middle ground…before breaking totally new ground with your direct marketing programs.

Nothing Ordinary Here…Be brave little biscuit, the results will come

A stand-up comic-book hero, UNICCO man, resembles the ever-famous Superman…but manages to generate a 13% response among the hardest-to-reach multi franchise owners in the country.

A series of three motorcycle maniacs who range from goofy to mysterious to creepy, packaged with a purple bandana branded with the Surbridge (now NaviSite) logo, generate a 13% match back to attendees at a major convention and also generate 6% net new leads in a national version.

A creative cookie with company logo and a custom-labeled blue punch generate a 90% response rate and 5% conversion for Dragon Direct with top Fortune 500 companies.

Three plastic gladiators housed in a custom box resembling a Roman amphitheater generate a 15.5% response rate for VERITAS among hard-to-reach high-volume resellers.

Yes, I could go on and on…but you get the picture.

Get REAL Results with Real Emotion
What stands out works, and playing it safe just doesn't cut the mustard. Think about what makes you pay attention…the man who's dark and mysterious, the woman in the red dress, the man with his house on fire, the executive lost and alone. These images all elicit emotion. But business-to-business marketing has seemed to forgotten that eliciting an emotion from the person behind the desk gets the decision maker behind the desk to act. You can create a desire for your solution if you can't create a real emotion. What nonprofits and fund-raisers have down to a fine science, business marketers have seem to forgotten.

Four Keys to Success in B-to-B

Let the insanity begin!
Think crazy. Think funny. Think wild, provocative or nuts. If your over-the-top ideas won't fly with conservative management, scale them back to reflect the flavor, tone and brand of your company or client. If you develop ideas out of fear, every program will start on lukewarm and get colder by the day. In the end, your marketing message will be the one first into the bin...unless you can take a little step, a little risk for an approach that is fresh and new.

Think about costs…creatively!
If you have an unlimited budget, it's a lot easier to get the attention of those big, powerful executives…with smaller budgets, you have to work creatively. A $2 premium can pull as great a result as a $200 premium if it creates a positive emotion in your prospect. Think hard on what you can send simply and easily that your prospect will REMEMBER. Who will forget droopy, slinky eyes, or slime? Who won't enjoy a big, fresh cookie? Just make sure you have a great back-end offer to keep them on the hook and engaged in ongoing communication with your company or your client's.

Think about your outer carrier!
Many business marketers stay away from dimensional packages, thinking the cost will overextend their budgets. Not true. Yes, if you're on a modest budget, you most likely won't be able to do a six-color die-cut box with original illustration and three inner wells. But, outer envelopes like Jiffy packs, Mylar envelopes, textured postcards, etc. all lend themselves to the original thinker and can have huge impacts on the open and response rates of your pieces. Even a plain white box from Staples or PaperMart can elicit maximum return by adorning a colorful label with provocative teaser and great design.

Play by the rules while breaking them!
If you think you're ready to be edgy with your next campaign, if you're ready to take a walk on the wild side of direct marketing, then I say, "Have at it!" But there is one MAJOR caveat of which you must be aware-play by the rules of DM. While in your creative ecstasy, don't forget all the basic guidelines that create good direct marketing. Don't forget your offer copy everywhere because you're lost in design. Don't forget your compelling offer of perceived value. Don't forget your Johnson box, your PS, your great list. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, because it's the best baby around.

By now, I hope you're inspired…a little bit, anyway. I encourage you to take intelligent risks, educated boldness, creative license. I encourage you to have fun and then watch the results come your way.

Dragon Direct Marking, Inc. is a fully integrated direct marketing firm specializing in the strategic and creative development of award-winning, results-oriented direct marketing solutions for Fortune 500 companies.

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