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Marketing Challenge
A technical placement firm, which provides highly skilled technical employees on
a contract basis to the technology industry, seeks to build its database of available
contractors and consultants.
Direct Marketing Application
B-to-B/Lead Generation and Lead Qualification
Background
This medium-sized placement firm serves all types of technology businesses by providing
highly skilled — and often uniquely skilled — employees to work on a contract or
consulting basis.
When we were first brought into the company, business was strong. The company had
a good base of clients and was able to satisfy those clients with an extensive and
diverse group of contractors and consultants.
However, company executives were concerned about the future. They were expecting
the demand for contractors to increase in the years to come as more companies found
it necessary to downsize beyond their realistic operational levels. These firms would
then periodically need to bring back employees and would look to contractors to fill
that need.
What We Recommended
Our first step was to determine which types of professionals the firm wanted for
its database. This meant developing a preferred audience profile. Through client
input, we were able to identify several specialized audience groups, each reflecting
contractor skills expected to be in increased demand.
Once profiles were established, we then identified 15 to 20 mailing lists (mostly
trade publications and associations) that gave us approximate matches to our profile
groups. We also identified several magazines and card decks which reached the same
audience.
By targeting these lists (rather than using current contractor lists), we were expecting
to find people currently employed — some of whom might be considering the contracting
option in the future. Although we were happy to add current contractors to the database,
our chief objective was to reach and identify future contractors.
What We Did
We developed an offer aimed at prospects who had given some thought to contracting.
The offer was a free brochure, "The Truth About Contracting," providing
answers to the most common questions people have about being a contractor.
In addition to the brochure, we created a direct mail letter package — a personalized
closed face envelope, a one-page letter, reply form and business reply envelope.
The envelope was very business-like with no teaser copy because most prospects would
be receive the mail at their offices. We also created a small direct response ad
with a coupon and small postcard to be inserted in an industry card-deck package.
Each reply device asked several questions to help us qualify respondents. We also
asked respondents to provide their home address because future contact with these
prospects would be better handled through the home address. The reply devices were
also marked with codes to allow us to measure response from each mailing list.
The direct mail package (offering the brochure) was sent to ten targeted lists and
list segments. The ads ran in three publications and the postcard was inserted in
two card deck packages.
How It Worked
The direct mail produced response rates of between 9% and 13% depending on the list
-- an extremely high response rate by any measure especially when mailing to outside
lists (as opposed to a customer/prospect database). The average 11% response rate
gave us an approximate cost per lead of just $7.
The ads and card decks were also big producers although, because these were less
targeted than the direct mail, many of the respondents had skills outside of our
profile.
Most impressive, however, was the large percentage of the respondents (40-50% depending
on the list) who were highly qualified—meaning that they met our skill requirements
and expressed at least a "near-term interest" in becoming a contractor.
This was based on the answers provided on the reply device.
Three tiers of leads were established for follow-up. The most serious responses were
given directly to the direct sales force for immediate follow-up. A second tier was
given to a separate telemarketing group for follow-up. And a third tier (those who
admitted they had just a "long-term interest") was added to the database
for direct mail follow-up only.
Subsequent Activity
Although all lists were successful in terms of response rate, some lists produced
better quality responses because they provided better targeted selection criteria.
Additional mailings to these lists produced similar results.
The company decided to use a similar lead generation strategy to attract new business
— that is, to find companies that would hire their new contractors. In this campaign,
we developed another booklet — a Q&A on hiring contractors — then offered it
through a similar letter package. This campaign produced a more typical result with
an average 3% response rate. |
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