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A B2B marketer asks: How do you prevent factory mail rooms from blocking your mail?
Good question. It still happens despite the decline in paper mail volume. We consulted our mystery guru, and he offered this suggestion: Make sure you have titles on your direct mail list.
“Corporations may have anywhere from 30 to 100 or more separate and distinct departments, each one with a head bearing a title,” he noted.
In the same way, he advised mailers to never send a letter to an industrial plant without a contact name.
“A letter coming to the United States Steel Corporation, addressed ‘United States Steel Corporation’ has about once chance in 100 of reaching the right party,” he said. “The mail clerk very often does not know who purchases bearings or who might be interested in tax reports, or who is interested in ‘keeping floors smooth as glass,’ or who ‘wants to save money on long distance calls.’”
What if you don’t have live contacts?
“When names of individuals are not available, mailing pieces should be addressed to the attention of a general title, such as attention of advertising manager, of superintendent, of sales manager, of foreman,” the guru stated.
Case in point: A company trying to sell bandages to a factory might target the registered nurse on the premises. And if the site doesn’t have one, our guru suggested coining a title: Safety Director. “In this way, the direct mail piece is given to whoever is in charge of safety,” he said.
And send a copy to the person with the actual buying power. “It is usually not good practice to overlook the purchasing agent,” he added.
Our guru concluded: “The best and most accurate mailing list of industrial plants will not mean a thing unless the advertiser sees to it that his mailing piece reaches the proper person in each plant on the list.”
Sound advice, although we can find a contact name and title at any site. (Want to find out how? Click here).
So who’s our guru?
The legendary Bob Stone. And these tips are from his 1947 book, “Profitable Direct Mail Methods,” published by Prentice Hall.
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