By Greg Kathol ~ Marketing Director
1. Right for you?
Ask yourself if this is the right promotion to pursue. For B2B, dimensional mail makes sense for products or services that sell for several thousand dollars (or totaling that after one year). For B2C, consider dimensional mail for high-ticket products or services for affluent consumers and highly targeted markets.
2. It’s about ROI, not cost:
It’s true that a dimensional mail package costs much more then a regular mail package, but the results are often with many times the expense. Do the math to see if you feel you can hit the optimal ROI for your industry, target market or product/service.
3. Target:
This is a key aspect of any marketing effort, especially for a dimensional mailer. It’s imperative to identify your best prospects via segmentation.
4. List – Data:
Whether you use a house list or a purchased list, be sure it’s segmented properly to ensure you are reaching the right people. You may have your sales team or a call center pre-qualify contacts to compile a list. Even then, run data cleansing services on it such as: NCOA, Merge/Purge or suppression services. This will ensure a higher rate of delivery and reduce costs for undeliverable addresses.
5. Synergy between elements:
Integrate the entire package to form a cohesive communication. All too often the various elements are not connected. Make sure each element of the package, copy, graphics and physical container are all communicating your message. Keep in mind: (1) the needs of your recipient, (2) your unique selling propositions, and (3) communicating your message in three dimensions. If your achieve synergy, customer engagement comes naturally.
6. Physical durability:
The durability of the dimensional mail package can’t be overlooked. Consult your lettershop to ensure steps have been taken to make certain the piece survives in the mail stream or in the back of a UPS or Fed-Ex truck. Always test its integrity by test mailing one to yourself first and adjust the package accordingly before running a live test or rolling it out to your full list.
7. Test:
Testing your dimensional mail package will give you insight into your segment and identify possible challenges or successes early on, allowing you to benefit the most from your labors.
8. Delivery method:
You don’t have to send all dimensional mail through the mail. USPS is often the best solution for packages weighing less then a pound. UPS & Fed-Ex are often the most effective for larger packages. And you may want to use courier services for unique packages for delivery to top-notch prospects or those needing delivery at a specific point in time. If you would like to send your package via USPS and want to save money on postage, make sure to work with a lettershop or other expert to ensure your piece meets USPS requirements to maximize postal discounts.
9. Multiple touches:
Dimensional mail is most successful when you follow-up. Whether you have a sales team make follow-up calls, send a follow-up direct mail piece or deliver fulfillment materials on the web, don’t forget to integrate multiple “touches” into your plan. Maximize the impact of your package by integrating creative and messaging across your regular direct mail, e-mail, websites and landing pages.
10. Contact:
Making the connection with the right contacts is the goal of dimensional mail and looking at that connection as a contact is vital. In the B2B market that “contact” is ever important. The goal is to allow sales to make the contact and create a dialog that ultimately leads to a sale or enter the person into a lead nurturing program before the hand off. Therefore, looking at dimensional mail programs in terms of contact rates vs. response rates is much more useful and insightful in the B2B marketplace.