Business-to-Business Direct Marketing: Proven Direct Response Methods to Generate More Leads and Sales, Second Edition

797 Pages·1998·1.7 MB·English

by  Robert W. Bly

Business to Business Direct Marketing :
title: Proven Direct Response Methods to
Generate More Leads and Sales
author: Bly, Robert W.
publisher: NTC Contemporary
isbn10 | asin: 0844232432
print isbn13: 9780844232430
ebook isbn13: 9780071392433
language: English
subject Industrial marketing.
publication date: 1998
lcc: HF5415.1263.B58 1998eb
ddc: 658.8/4
subject: Industrial marketing.
Page i
Business to Business
Direct Marketing
Second Edition
Proven Direct Response Methods
to Generate More Leads and Sales
Robert W. Bly
NTC Business Books
NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group
Page ii
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bly, Robert W.
Business to business direct marketing : proven direct response
methods to generate more leads and sales / Robert W. Bly. 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8442-3243-2
1. Industrial marketing. I. Title.
HF5415.1263.B58 1998
658.8´4dc21 97-29941
CIP
Interior design by Scott Rattray
Published by NTC Business Books
An imprint of NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company 4255 West
Touhy Avenue, Lincolnwood (Chicago), Illinois 60646-1975 U.S.A.
Copyright © 1998 by NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of NTC/Contemporary Publishing
Company. Printed in the United States of America International
Standard Book Number: 0-8442-3243-2
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Page iii
For my sons, Alex and Stephen
Page v
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgements xi
Part I
Fundamentals of Effective Business-to-Business Direct
Marketing
1 3
Strategic Differences Between Business-to-Business and
Consumer Marketing
2 25
Tactical Differences Between Business-to-Business and
Consumer Direct Marketing
3 51
Applying Direct Reponse Techniques to Business-to-
Business Marketing
4 99
Target Marketing
5 121
Soft Offers
6 147
Hard Offers
Part II
Business-to-Business Direct Marketing Tasks
7 171
Print Advertising
8 185
Direct Mail
9 209
Postcard Decks
Page vi
10 217
Sales Brochures
11 231
Catalogs
12 247
Press Releases
13 261
Feature Articles
14 275
Newsletters
15 287
Speeches, Presentations, and Seminars
16 297
Business-to-Business Marketing on the World Wide Web
17 311
Electronic and Audiovisual Media
18 327
Telemarketing
19 353
Trade Shows
20 369
Inquiry Fulfillment
Appendix: Resources 389
Index 397

Page vii
PREFACE
According to a recent cover story in Business Marketing magazine,
annual business-to-business direct marketing revenues are now
approaching $1 trillion. Target Marketing magazine reports that in
1995 business services generated nearly $78 billion in direct
marketing sales, and chemicals and allied products generated $26
billion in direct marketing sales.
In 1996 business-to-business marketers in the United States spent $6.3
billion on direct marketing. Of this total, $1.3 billion was spent by
manufacturers promoting their products to business customers, while
service firms spent $1.1 billion on direct response marketing. Other
major users of business-to-business direct marketing include
wholesalers, financial services, communications, transportation,
utilities, construction, and mining.
Of the $6.3 billion spent on direct marketing annually, 60 percent$3.8
billionis spent on direct mail. The rest, according to Business
Marketing magazine, is spent on telemarketing, space advertising,
broadcast advertising, and other marketing communications.
The Business Marketing Association recently surveyed its members
concerning their budgets. The results showed that half have budgets of
$1 million or more.
Page viii
My, how things have changed! When I started my career in 1979,
"business to business" was known as "industrial marketing" and
"direct marketing" was called ''mail order." In those days,
management at firms selling business and industrial products seemed
content with advertising and PR programs that "built image" or
''created awareness." More was not expected of marketing
communications.
But those days are gone and they'll never be back. Today more and
more marketers demand a tangible result from their advertisinga
qualified, measurable, direct response that can be converted into
salesthe kind of response that only direct marketing, not general
advertising, can produce.
This book is written to help you achieve those results. It recognizes
that business and consumer direct marketing are different in many
ways, shows you how to maximize the effectiveness of existing
business-to-business marketing efforts, and outlines how direct
marketing techniques, applied to traditional business-to-business
marketing communications, can make those communications many
times more powerful and effective.
Approach
Business to Business Direct Marketing is based on two simple but
powerful premises. First, that every marketing document or activity,
and not just ads or direct mail, should be a direct marketing vehicle
that "asks for the order" or at least for some immediate, tangible
response (and does not merely "communicate a message").
The second premise is that, while there are some similarities, many of
the techniques and strategies of business-to-business marketing are
fundamentally different from consumer marketing; hence, the need for