How direct mail makes an impact for B2B sales

Breaking through the noise: How direct mail makes an impact for B2B sales

Email inboxes are overflowing, ads are chasing people around the internet, and cold calls rarely connect.

With the average reply rate for cold emails being between 1-5%, it takes over 300 emails to generate a single lead in B2B sales! And cold calling is not faring much better with a connection rate of 1-3%.

Integrating direct mail and handwritten letters with your current efforts: email, calling, and social, can give you a real edge.

A letter on their desk is harder to ignore than yet another email in their inbox.

Handwritten letters - Why? How?

Ask yourself, when was the last time you received handwritten mail - a birthday, or a festive celebration perhaps!? And if you were to receive one today, how likely are you to open that mailer?

Well, we can tell you that 99% of Scribeless’ mailers, which replicate the look of real handwriting, are opened.

Why?

If you’re trying to reach a high-level executive, a founder, a headteacher, or a donor, how would you go about it? How do you reach decision makers?

Handwritten mailers work because they grab attention. They stand out when compared to the overcrowded digital mediums like email, or loud flyers in the mail.

Let’s say you send an email, a LinkedIn message, or target a cohort with an ad. They may glance over it, but subconsciously, your message has already been discounted. They don’t know you, they don’t trust you, they don’t have the time in the sea of other emails and messages they have received.

How about calling? You might get through, but start off with the front desk. What percentage of calls get through to the decision-maker? If you do get through to them, they approach the situation cautiously and often with hostility.

99.9% of Scribeless' Mailers are opened

Perhaps you’ve tried direct mail before. You’ve got your full color graphics loaded, your offer in bold, and your QR code emblazoned on one side. How many people read that? When that lands in letter boxes, what do people think?

It’s seen as spam, and alongside the five other mailers that day, it ends up in the trash. So how about a handwritten mailer?

It lands in the letter box, and your ICP collects their mail for the day. They flick through, and they immediately notice a handwritten envelope with a real stamp.
​It looks and feels personal. Who could it be from? Who has taken the time to send them a handwritten card?

They open the card. It’s a message from you, clearly explaining your value prop and why it’s relevant to them. You’ve also left your contact details.

At this point, you’ve already won. You’ve moved your brand and messaging away from spam. You’ve captured their attention. No longer can they subconsciously disregard your offer.

They take the time to read through your message. They don’t take you up on your offer straight away, but keep a hold of the letter.

A week later, they notice an email in their inbox from you. They normally ignore outbound emails, but they remember your brand name from the handwritten letter.

They reply and take you up on your offer. They comment that they don’t normally respond to outreach but thought your efforts were unique and deserved a response.

In Summary

• Digital channels are becoming less and less effective, and people are overloaded with offers and adverts.
• Handwritten mailers stand out in the letter box and aren’t seen as spam. They capture attention and get your message and offer read.
• They get past the front desk and into decision makers hands.

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This is the first of a 5 part series, focussing on how handwritten mail can help sales teams capture the attention of their ideal customers. Part 2 looks at using direct mail through the sales cycle, and examples of creative ways that people have secured meetings with their ideal customers