We all know that lead nurturing is a best practice. What are your plans to step up your lead nurturing over the next year? Better segmentation? Check. More targeted content? Check. Interactive content? Check. Those are the standard answers.

How about taking your customer journey to a whole other level? In this two-part post, I’ll explore a few options to elevate your prospect’s journey.

Today, we’ll dive into a strategy that creates a true multichannel conversation to drive results—the integration of direct mail and physical gifting into your lead nurturing process, leveraging a solution from PFL.

Break through the Clutter with Direct Mail and Physical Gifting

Engaging consumers through email is essential to driving success. However, breaking through the clutter is sometimes next to impossible with email—hundreds of emails fill the inbox, people go on vacation, spam blockers keep out messages, recipients unsubscribe.

Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. DemandGen Report

Step in automated direct mail which adds a second dimension to your nurture efforts. If someone isn’t responding electronically, automated direct mail lets marketers reach their audience in another fashion. For example, if a target account is blocking your company’s emails or if the recipient receives 1,000 messages a day, automated direct mail gets the message through.

Of course, if the recipient is engaging with your emails, automated direct mail reinforces the message to optimize the overall results of your campaign. The dual email and direct mail approach creates a true multi-channel process to your automated marketing campaigns.

How Does Automated Direct Mail Work?

Automated direct mail is the integration of direct mail and physical gifting into your marketing automation platform.

For example, five years ago, you would have to painfully send your list to the direct mail company to deliver the gift in a batch-n-blast approach. Or, you would have your Marketing Intern collect names of important leads and ship out gifts from the tchotchke closet.

Today, the sending of the physical gift is as automated as the sending of an email—trackable, measurable, and automated within your marketing automation platform. Information on the item also feeds into your CRM to provide additional intelligence to your Sales team.

For the techie Marketo readers, this direct mail integration is performed via a webhook that triggers the direct mail and brings back delivery information when available.

Not Your Traditional Direct Mail

“62% of customers are more likely to do business with brands after receiving a promotional item”
The Advertising Specialty Institute

Although you can still use the traditional method, I am not talking about old school direct mail pieces like postcards. I’m talking about physical gifts that make an impact when sent in conjunction with your standard nurturing emails.

Let’s dive into a few examples:

The Account Igniter

How much is your top account worth? Whether you are looking for a door opener or a deeper penetration into an account, the Account Igniter is a high-value, low-risk, high-reward automated direct mail program. This campaign is ideal for any Account Based Marketing strategy.

In this program, identify the top 5-10 contacts in your top 100 accounts.

• Send two emails to promote a demo or test drive.
• Deliver a remote control to the contact’s physical address with a call to action like “You have the remote, call us to schedule a test drive and we’ll send you the helicopter.”
• Set a task for the Sales rep to call upon delivery of the remote control.
• Send an email follow-up.

The Meeting Grabber

“How do we get more meetings?” is a common request in many organizations. If your organization is trying to boost meetings, The Meeting Grabber is the template you can start with.

The goal is to leverage automated direct mail along with email to generate a meeting for Sales. The Meeting Grabber is an integral piece of the puzzle and allows for marketing to confidently hand-off qualified MQLs to Sales.

Offer Example:

• When a leads hit MQL, send an email offering an Amazon Kindle for signing up for a demo.
• After the demo is complete, the system will automatically deliver the Amazon Kindle.

The Nurture Accelerator

Already have a lead nurturing campaign in place? Improve the conversion by seamlessly adding in automated direct mail. Build the direct mail right into existing nurture tracks to add a new dynamic to the conversation. The big benefit here is the automated direct mail is created in a “set-and-forget” process to deliver the right content at the right time.

• Touch 1 – Send Welcome email.
• Touch 2 – Send Link to 3-minute video tour.
• Touch 3 – Deliver a postcard promoting the eval download.
• Touch 4 – Send an email promoting the eval download.

The Funnel Driver

If your company has a lead lifecycle process, you are most likely measuring conversion rates between all of your major stages. If you find leads getting stuck at certain stages, try unclogging the funnel by sending automated direct mail.
In this program, automate the process of accelerating leads through the funnel.

• When a lead reaches a certain age in a bottom-of-the-funnel stage like SQL, send an email in attempt to push it along.
• Deliver an Ipad sleeve automated direct mail with a call-to-action like, “Purchase within 30 days, get an Ipad.”
• Set a task for the Sales rep to call upon delivery of the Ipad sleeve.
• Send an email follow-up.

Customer Advocacy Welcome Kits

When a prospect becomes a customer, it’s time to begin the process of turning that customer into an advocate.

• When the Opportunity changes to a status of Won, send the welcome kit to the primary contact in the account.
• Set a task for the Sales rep to call upon delivery of the kit to thank the new customer for the business.

Track ROI of Automated Direct Mail

Best practice organizations measure the effectiveness of their marketing programs, including automated direct mail. Ensure that every automated direct mail piece contains a call-to-action that drives the recipient to a website or phone number for further action. This will serve as your initial success metric.

Going one step further, track if that automated direct mail leads to a high-level lifecycle success. Answer questions like:

• Did the recipient respond?
• How did the automated direct mail influence the funnel?
• How many deals did the automated direct mail create?

Get Started

At the 2015 Marketo Summit, PFL won the The LaunchPoint Innovator award for its automated direct mail technology it calls Tactile Marketing™. PFL offers full integration with Marketo and Eloqua for marketers who wish to take the next step with automated direct mail.

At RevEngine Marketing, we are pretty excited about the next dimension in engagement marketing. If you have Marketo and are looking to get started with your campaign, give us a shout. As a PFL partner, we can help set you up for success.

Visit PFL for more information.

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