Long before Sendoso, Reachdesk, and Alyce made b2b direct mail sexy again, I became kinda famous in Europe for using obnoxious grabbers to get the meetings with hard-to-get execs.
- I sent Darth Vader helmets to CIOs, telling them they always needed to be ready for a Phantom Menace (hope you got the punch) and thus should take a look at this cybersecurity product.
- On summer Fridays, I sent oversized Aperol-Spritz sets, divided by buying personas in the account: Persona A got a case of prosecco, persona B a few bottles of Aperol, and Persona C - a bag of oranges with a giant bucket of ice and sparkling water). The cover letter revealed that to get the party going, they just need to get in one room (and hopefully discuss our pitch in the process).
- I sent personalized PowerPoint presentations on the LTE-enabled tablets (back when it was a new thing). On the last slide, there was a click-to-call button that led directly to the CEO's cell (and the CEO knew who was calling because all the numbers were added to his phonebook beforehand).
And dozens of other case studies with average conversion rates exceeding 70%.
But the truth is all this direct mail galore was useless without a punchy and relevant value prop.
Any creative outreach (both digital and physical) is just a multiplier of your core offer. And if the offer has zero traction, no multiplier will do it any good.
Value prop first. Creative second. No exceptions.
Remeber it next time you decide to save a toothless pitch by adding a personalized gimmick.