How do you successfully market to small, niche, skeptical audiences?
Let’s take a look at one example that generated over 20% response rate.
Giltspur is a leading designer of high-end custom trade show exhibits and had a fantastic new product, GilCor®. Because GilCor® is a breakthrough construction material with far-reaching, cost-saving features, Giltspur needed to tell this story to high-level decision makers in large companies.
This poses a problem: traditional direct mail, email, banner ads, and phones… would not likely produce to the leads they needed at an acceptable cost per lead.
But we had a creative solution…
My staff and I devised a dynamic three-dimensional, two-part campaign for their targeted audience of trade show managers and marketing directors.
These two groups are the most skeptical prospects in the world.
A three-dimensional piece is a box sent by Fed Ex. It had a powerful direct response letter and powerful content that has a “wow effect.” The “wow effect generates a huge response.
It also gets by the gatekeepers, which are after a barrier.
The first box the prospect received said on the outside, “Open immediately!
Cost-cutting breakthrough inside.” It included scissors and three sample invoices for shipping and for the setting up and tearing down of a trade show exhibit.
The point: how 25% to 40% of typical costs could be “cut” with GilCor®.
A two-page letter was also included.
This was followed three days later by Box #2, which was “A special gift: a dollar saved.”
It included one-dollar and two-dollar bills with the headline: “Make every dollar in your trade show budget work like two with GilCor®.” This also included a two-page letter and a powerful call to action (CTA).
The Results
The results were dramatic… and incredibly profitable.
In fact, the three-dimensional campaigns got over a 20% response rate.
Client Richard Murphy said: “Craig, you and your staff are to be commended for a remarkable campaign… the best ever for Giltspur.…Our goal was to generate appointments from 10% of the target audience.
Your very creative direct mail program helped us garner over 20% response. Fantastic!
Even better, the appointments have resulted in sales of custom exhibits.”
This promotion was so successful that it won the Business Marketing Association award for professional excellence, one of the 97 awards we have won for our campaigns.
As you can see, a three-dimensional campaign is a mailer that shows a concept or a theme in a clever, interesting way. It’s also highly memorable.
There’s a higher degree of anticipation because your prospect will be curious about the item inside and who it’s coming from.
Three-dimensional campaigns are also fun for your prospects.
The box and packages both contain a sales letter and a “lift note” to tell your story. In addition, a phone call a few days later.
Our experience is that your prospect will pick up the phone out of curiosity about your special gift.
A three-dimensional campaign is obviously more expensive (per piece) than a classic direct mail campaign and of course a digital or email campaign. However, it can be incredibly effective when seeking out a smaller number of prospects, such as a specialized targeted audience, where you have a high dollar margin per client.
Here are three things you can do to learn more:
#1: Take a look at my 3-minute video briefing on “3-D Marketing” which gives you more details.
Watch HERE.
#2: Get my book The New Multichannel Integrated Marketing: 29 Trends for Creating a Multichannel, Integrated Campaign to Boost Your Profits Now to learn about 3-D and its various uses. Purchase directly online HERE or on Amazon HERE.
#3: Call Michael at 615-933-4647 or email him at [email protected] to see how we can help you with a 3-D or its close competition a videolog.
