Bring back snail mail, all is forgiven …

The Internet is unavoidable in our everyday lives, it has shrunk the world and brought Paris Hilton to the masses. In no other period of time has the access to, and exchange of, information been so readily available. In business, it’s become an essential tool and has reshaped the way we communicate. 24/7, e-mail links millions of people across the world with the click of a button. We constantly email our contacts, customers, suppliers and colleagues, even if they’re sat across the desk. So it’s little wonder that we get information overload, become bombarded with ‘special offers’ and have tendencies towards e-rage…

It’s not surprising then that we’ve seen a flurry of hard-copy direct mail projects recently, including Cobra Biomanufacturing Plc, Solexa on behalf of Lynx Therapeutics Inc and Oxford Optronix Ltd. Well-executed, electronic direct mail works, but is it always the best method of meeting your objectives and getting those leads?

Direct mail is sometimes wrongly perceived as being ineffective, yet remains one the most successful and measurable methods for creating sales leads. With this in mind, Cobra Biomanufacturing asked Northbank to produce a multi-purpose flyer to create leads for its cGMP custom biomanufacturing services. The flyer, that can be posted out together with a personalised letter and given out at events, was designed to promote personal contact. To meet this objective Northbank recommended incorporating ‘tipped on’ personal business cards that can be removed and kept as a call to action. The flyer made use of white space giving a clean look reflecting the Company’s clinical material focus and its design drew upon Cobra’s distinctive identity and introduced illustrations of the Company’s service areas.

Solexa and Lynx Therapeutics also required a flyer that could be used at events and drive requests for more information. This project was aimed at generating sales leads for Lynx’ comprehensive genome-wide small RNA profiling service. This flyer was produced specifically for the Plant and Animal Genome XIII meeting and was given out in delegate bags. As well as driving sales leads, the flyer incorporated details of the Company’s presentation and posters to promote attendance during the event.

The flyer offered various methods of responding to suit the needs of the audience, but concentrated on a pre-paid business reply mail service, that was incorporated into the flyer design and perforated for tear off. This method of response allowed Lynx to include a succinct questionnaire on the reverse of the postage details in order to gain market information on respondees.

In some cases we need to look at using both hard copy and electronic formats concurrently and this was the case with Oxford Optronix. Northbank recently produced a postcard style mailer in order to alert Oxford Optronix’ customers, contacts and suppliers to the Company’s move to a new purpose built facility. We had recently created a new corporate identity for the Company and as well as the key objective of communicating the new contact details, we used the mailer to begin introducing this new identity. Through experience we knew that by creating a hard copy and posting the mailer, we were likely to get a better response in the pick up of the contact details from the admin functions of recipient companies. However it was also important that key contacts were aware of the new identity and so an electronic version was also created that could be personalised and sent to individual contacts.

The mailer design was created with simplicity in mind, drawing on the structure of the new logo and making use of the identity’s vibrant colour scheme. Copy was kept to a minimum and written in a playful, relaxed style reflecting the Company’s personal and dynamic outlook.

Of course the Internet is inescapable and, as we’re developing Oxford Optronix’ new website, we have also provided a one-liner website teaser, letting contacts know to keep an eye out for the new website.

In communications a lot of thought seems to be given to audiences, but not a lot to the most appropriate format for communicating with those audiences. In many cases both hard copies and electronic formats can be used as part of the same strategy, but we shouldn’t discount snail mail - after all it has been producing sales leads for decades.

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