The Perks of ABM & Print For The Savvy FinServ

Is direct mail marketing dead?

Tara Quehl Director of Product Marketing for Financial Services at Demandbase, and Sam Yarborough, VP Partnerships at PFL, set out to answer that question during our recent webinar titled The Perks of ABM & Print For The Savvy FinServ Marketer.

Direct mail statistics

A compilation of direct mail statistics by Fundera determined, among other things, that:

• 70 percent of consumers say direct mail is more personal than online interactions. 
• Direct mail response rates are five to nine times higher than any other advertising channel.
• Adding a name to your direct mail piece can increase response rates by 135 percent. 

Although almost everyone leverages digital marketing to an extent, it is no doubt an oversaturated channel, making marketers keen on keeping the direct lane open. Especially when they see statistics like the ones shared above. 

So who exactly is reaping the benefits of direct mail marketing? The top four industries leveraging the direct channel are: 

1. Industrial
2. Professional Services
3. Financial
4. Pharmaceutical

And of course, we’re here to talk about FinServ, so let’s jump right into the current landscape, best practices and use cases ahead. 

ABM + Print for an omni-channel, customer-first experience

“Print by no means should ever replace your digital strategy,” asserts Sam. “It should walk alongside of it and fill in holes where people maybe aren’t engaging with digital. Together, this omni-channel approach is where you’re going to see the success.”  

For the omni-channel approach to succeed in FinServ or any other industry, alignment is key. And this alignment should cover three areas: data, insights, and interactions. 

Sales needs to be aware of marketing’s campaigns (according to a Salesforce State of the Connected Customer study, 74 percent of those salespeople say this is an important component to winning their business), because when sales and marketing teams are aligned, SiriusDecisions says that companies see an average of 19 percent faster revenue growth and 15 percent higher profitability. 

If you’re thinking of standing up an ABM strategy, the easiest way to quickly garner adoption from marketing and sales alike is to showcase the three types of ABM (one-to-many, one-to-few, and one-to-one). Tara goes into a lot more detail during the webinar about the phases with examples you can leverage within your own conversations.

Once you have some champions on board who are happy to help you evangelize the ABM methodology, we suggest taking a look at our popular six-part series titled “How to ABM Like a Boss” that clearly outlines the steps you should take (regardless of industry or segment).  

Financial Services use cases

We know use cases are often the most helpful way to illustrate real scenarios for those interested in a new product or methodology, and the last 10 minutes of the webinar focus on those specifically.

With the right data in hand, direct mail can be a key differentiator in your omni-channel strategy, and can be particularly helpful for accounts that have gone dark and need to be nurtured back into the pipeline. For this and more examples from Tara and Sam, be sure to check out the webinar!