The TL;DR of the DirectFail Webinar

By Mary Matton on March 23, 2020

Want the recording from this webinar? Check it out here!
Last week, our Sr Product Marketing Manager, Blake Grubbs, and Brand Content Marketing Manager, Sara Pion, put on a webinar we called “Don’t Make Direct Mail a DirectFail”, where they explored how to stay empathetic and build personal relationships with prospects through direct mail, even with an increasingly remote workforce.

Direct mail is a strategy that can be incorporated into your ABM, email, and paid efforts, and in a world that’s becoming increasingly more digitized, it’s important to stay personal and empathetic when you’re executing marketing strategies like this.

The way you can think about your messaging is by understanding the 3 Rs:
Relevant.
Relatable.
Respectful.

If you’re not using the 3 R’s in your direct mail strategy, you risk creating a DirectFail – an experience that does the exact opposite of your intended reaction to your direct mail.

Using this personal experience methodology across your marketing will make your company more authentic, human, helpful, and personal. So let’s dive into how you can apply this framework across those channels, and avoid any potential DirectFail experiences.

Staying Relevant

ABM

Now is the perfect time to do the things that don’t scale. Reach out to each of your target accounts on a 1:1 basis. Be real, be human, be personal. In a world that’s try to do more in an automated and digital way, slowing down and doing “hand to hand” combat will allow you to stand out.

Digital Outreach

Because there are fewer people sitting in their offices all day, a lot of companies are turning to digital outreach like emails to send gifts to their prospective customers.

It’s important to stand out, be empathetic, recognize the situation, and stay personal.

For Alyce customers, this can be done natively in the Alyce app as the invitation type, you can send a gift invitation digitally. You can also still send physical gifts through the marketplace!

Gifting

The direct mail campaigns you were running a month ago may not be relevant anymore.

A big thing you can tap into here is also allowing customers and prospects to give back.

Don’t underestimate how good people feel after they give back, especially when you’re targeting executives who may not have the need for an Amazon gift card.

Staying Relatable

ABM

Make sure to be super mindful of what you’re sending to your target audience.

Just knowing and acknowledging who is working from home and being able to empathize with their situation can go a long way.

Use that common ground to break through the noise and form a relationship with your prospects. Now is the time to play the long game.

Digital Outreach

When you’re reaching out to prospects over email or Linkedin or on video calls, show your face. In emails and through Linkedin, include images and GIFs of our set up, be real and authentic.

On Zoom, allow your real life to show. If someone walks through the frame, have them say hi to the person on the other end of the line. People want to see your pets, trust us.

Gifting
Take a step back and really pay attention to what your prospects and customers are sharing – but not in a creepy way.

If they’re not posting currently about having a dog, it’s probably not the best idea to send them dog related gifts.

For Alyce customers, you can still use the Alyce research to find personal gifts and update your messaging to keep the gifts relevant.

No DirectFails here!

Staying Respectful

ABM
One thing that your marketing team should be doing and the company as a whole should do is figure out your positioning and figure out how that relates to what your company’s core values.

Make sure you understand that and use it in your messaging. But also don’t change your entire strategy forever, your positioning on this matter should also be evergreen later.

Digital Outreach
You really have a few opportunities to make a good impression. Spray and pray is not a great way to build trust and foster relationships.

Instead of having demo CTAs or gated content in your emails, try to change your CTA’s to “reply here”. In your social media ads or social posts, have your CTAs be to comment rather than click.

Try to drive engagement over conversion.

Gifting
Don’t force people to share information they don’t want to give. Even though you’re trying to surprise and delight them with a gift, forcing prospects to fill out their home address in a form feels very transactional just to receive a piece of branded swag they will not use.

Allowing recipients the power of choice is super important here! Don’t mass-send the same gift to everyone in your list, thats’s definitely one way to create a DirectFail. Be personal for each and every recipient. Now is the time.

Want more tips like this? Tune into our next Let’s Get Phygital webinar to learn how to foster a sense of culture and customer advocacy in your marketing programs right now.