Sometimes I peek in the can to see what my fellow tenants have thrown out, and it’s quite revealing.

Here’s what I’ve observed as a casual mailroom trash inspector, and three valuable lessons from this experience for business-to-business marketers who want to develop a smart marketing strategy.

What Business Executives Don’t Want in the Mail – and Don’t Get

So what’s in the trash can at the Gemini Towers in Cleveland?

• Unwanted direct mail: As a direct marketing consultant, it pains me to see how much of the trash is unwanted B2B direct mail. I’ve watched people stand at the trash can and throw direct mail out before they even leave the mailroom. Either the executives to whom the mail was addressed were the wrong recipients or the mail didn’t have enough value to warrant delivery. In both cases, the direct marketers who sent it received zero return on their direct marketing investment.
• Unwanted business magazines: There often are dozens of copies of discarded business magazines. Most are controlled circulation publications that must no longer be of interest to the recipient. But this may not be the recipient’s fault. I’ve asked to be removed from the mailing lists of several B2B publications, but they keep on coming.
• Bad personal addresses: A large volume of discarded mail is sent to people who no longer work in the building. Business executives change jobs often, especially during a recession, but that’s no excuse for poor list hygiene, especially if you’re mailing to your own customers or prospects.
• Bad business addresses: Even more surprising is mail sent to businesses that are no longer in the building or even in business. I still receive mail for the previous tenant in my suite, even though my marketing consulting firm has been at this location for nine years.

Three Lessons for Your B2B Marketing Strategy

Here’s what B2B marketers can learn from this informal mailroom trash can review:

1. Mailing list cleanliness is next to godliness. The best business databases and the smartest business marketers invest heavily in keeping their data current. If you send direct mail to bad addresses – individuals or businesses – it’s the equivalent of tossing your money in the trash. Clean up your data or hire a professional direct marketing data management company to do it for you.
2. Subscriber numbers for controlled circulation publications should be taken with a grain of salt. If you’re running advertising campaigns in controlled circulation B2B magazines, look for publications that can verify subscriber data with a BPA audit. Even then, recognize that some portion of the subscriber list (perhaps a significant portion) may be relatively disengaged from the magazine. One way to gauge the value of a B2B publication to readers and advertisers is to compare the number of paid ads to the number of house ads. If the former doesn’t far outnumber the latter, spend your ad dollars elsewhere.
3. Direct mail that isn’t obviously and immediately relevant to the recipient will always be viewed as junk mail. Every piece of direct mail you send to a business executive has to register as a message worth reading  immediately or it’s a goner. Engage the recipient on the mail panel with relevant content that focuses on their most important business interests. Create direct mail that looks like official, must-read business communication. Or use a unique, interesting format that demands attention and gets readers inside.

If you apply these three lessons to your B2B marketing, you’ll be well on your way to a smart marketing strategy. And you just might be able to avoid showing up in my mailroom trash.

But how do you do it well?

Here are five tips for creating a one-to-one sales communication plan that engages prospects in a dynamic dialogue with your company and converts leads to sales.

1. Use Data to Drive Your Plan. The starting point for planning one-to-one sales communication is your prospect database. Use data to segment prospects with similar characteristics, so you can tailor communication to each segment. Prospects can be segmented many ways – by industry and NAICS code, for example, or by geography, potential value as a customer, or even their role in the purchasing process: specifier, end-user, influencer, decision-maker, etc.
2. Be Systematic. Prospects should receive a steady stream of credible information from you that creates a positive impression and puts your company at the top of the vendor list when they’re ready to act. Establish a schedule and a system for sending messages and materials out on behalf of sales representatives. Strive for monthly contact, ideally around the same time every month.
3. Make it Personal.  A key goal of one-to-one sales communication is to put a name and face on a company, so prospects know who to call when it’s time to buy. Communication should be as personalized as possible, with handwritten notes or emails from sales representatives accompanying other material of value.
4. Make it Meaningful. Don’t just say hello. Be sure every communication provides something of value that is directly relevant to prospects’ interests. Send information to help prospects do their jobs better, look smarter, gain insight into industry trends, or learn how others are using your products and services with success.
5. Be Professional. All communication materials should be well written, well executed, creative, consistent, and engaging. Stay true to your brand positioning in every message or contact.

The Bottom Line: Give Prospects Frequent Chances to Say “Yes”

Every tactic in your one-to-one sales communication plan should offer prospects the opportunity to agree to a meeting, proposal, or purchase. Giving business decision-makers multiple chances to say “yes” to your overtures – and multiple reasons to select your company – increases your odds of success.  And that’s more than good salesmanship; that’s a smart marketing strategy.

In fact, the most successful B2B marketing is often based on a simple strategy: Deliver clear, relevant messages consistently well over time to carefully selected prospects.

Here are seven principles of a simple but smart B2B marketing strategy:

1. Targeting. Aim your marketing campaigns toward the people who most want to hear from you: Prospects with the same needs and demographics as your best customers.
2. Relevance. In a noisy marketplace, people tune out messages that aren’t directly relevant to their interests. Know the needs of the business decision-makers you’re targeting and tailor your messages accordingly.
3. Consistency. Marketing across all channels – from paid advertising to sales letters, from websites to face-to-face presentations – should support your brand positioning and consistently repeat the same key statements about who you are, what you do, and how you do it better than anyone else.
4. Credibility. Business prospects need to trust and believe you to recommend you or buy from you. Back up your marketing claims with case studies, testimonials, and statistics to establish credibility and position your company as a trusted provider.
5. Clarity. Get to the point with straightforward messages that prospects can easily understand and remember. Keep jargon and tech talk to a minimum.
6. Frequency. Prospects need to hear from you regularly and often to keep you top of mind. Be visible to be memorable.
7. Quality. Marketing campaigns and materials should reflect your company’s stature in your industry and commitment to quality. Going cheap can be expensive in the long run if it costs you the chance to make the sale.

But too many direct marketers fail to pay this same kind of attention to the cleanliness of their email lists. Case in point: The Wall Street Journal.

Know Your Prospects – and Your Customers

 I’ve subscribed to the print edition of The Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years.  When the Journal launched a web edition a few years ago, I subscribed immediately.

 I’ve always used the same email address for my Journal web access, daily email updates, and print subscriber records. So imagine my surprise to get this recent email from WSJ.com inviting me to become an online subscriber.

A Bad Sign in the Subject Line: [First Name/Middle Initial]

The first clue that the Journal had blown this promotion was the salutation in the email subject line: JEAN M, Limited Time Offer.

It’s a rare individual who goes by their first name and middle initial; in fact, I can’t think of anyone. This probably happened because the original data entry for my subscriber record erroneously placed my middle initial in the first name field.

This violates a fundamental principle of direct marketing: Sloppy data entry = sloppy addressing. But it’s still possible to fix it. The Journal’s data could be easily cleaned up to take middle initials out of first name fields. Or they could have used my full name as the subject line salutation default.

“JEAN M, We Hardly Know You”

But the real issue with this email is that the Journal doesn’t seem to know me at all.  Because they don’t properly manage their subscriber data, they think I don’t subscribe to their online edition.

I don’t really expect this company to know me personally, but it’s disheartening (not to mention annoying) to realize that the Journal sees me as a record on an email prospect list rather than a 25-year subscriber.

5 Lessons for Your Smart Marketing Strategy

Here’s what smart marketers can learn from this major marketer’s email hygiene failure:

1. Like all direct marketing, email marketing is still all about the list. Customer email addresses should be merge/purged against prospect email addresses before any promotion goes out, period.
2. Poor data entry leads to addressing disasters. Take a hard, top-to-bottom look at how your customer database is being built to ensure high standards for data quality at every step.
3. If you’re promoting via multiple direct marketing channels (email and direct mail, for example) or if you’re delivering content, products, or services through multiple channels, you must integrate your data to create a single view of the customer to avoid promoting products to customers that they’re already buying.
4. Think about every promotion from the customer’s point of view, especially if different departments of your company are marketing different products to customers.  Every time you interact with a customer, it impacts their relationship with you and their perception of your brand. It’s imperative that your marketing teams coordinate their efforts.
5. Double check everything before you click “send” on that next email promotion.

The logo is the most visible element of your brand identity and the foundation of a smart marketing strategy. A great logo gets attention, sets you apart from competitors, and solidifies your position in the marketplace. A poor logo makes a permanently bad impression on prospects and confuses people about what your brand stands for.

Here’s a checklist of factors to consider when your creative team or marketing agency presents you with new logo design concepts:

1. The logo looks like your organization. Your logo should reflect your mission and brand positioning. The design should feel authentic to those who know you – such as your current customers and your staff – and represent your organization accurately to people meeting you for the first time.
2. The logo clearly differentiates your organization from competitors. Your logo should be unlike any competitor’s logo or brand identity and establish your organization as a completely different entity in your marketplace.
3. The logo has a distinctive and memorable style. Your logo should have a look and feel all its own, conveyed through the creative use of fonts, colors, and design. It should be visually interesting and memorable, so that people will quickly begin to recognize it each time they see it.
4. The logo works in all marketing channels. Your logo must be versatile enough to work well in all marketing media, from traditional tools like catalogs, direct mail, product packaging, and signage, to email, the web, mobile devices, and social media.
5. The logo can be used in all sizes. Think of every possible application for your new logo, in places large (like the side of a building) and very small (like a mobile phone screen).  You should be able to enlarge or shrink your logo easily without sacrificing the details of the design or its visual integrity.
6. The icon adds value to the design. If your logo includes a graphic element to symbolize your company (think Mr. Peanut or the fruit symbol in Apple’s logo), the icon should communicate something meaningful in its design and be strong enough to eventually stand alone.
7. The logo has staying power. A logo typically lasts a long time, at least five to ten years.  The design you select should be so good that it will represent your brand effectively for the foreseeable future, yet not so trendy that it will become passé when design styles change over time.

When I started a marketing consulting business in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1990s, someone who was compiling a direct mail list of small businesses made a typo in my name. I became Gean Gianfagna on this list and the compiler assumed I was a man.

It’s hard to believe, but nearly 20 years later, I still get direct mail addressed to Mr. Gean Gianfagna. This address has been so wrong for so long that I instantly discard any mailing that uses it.

But it’s more than an ongoing annoyance: It’s an example of poor list hygiene and bad marketing strategy.

How the List Hygiene Failed

Let’s start with the spelling. How many Jeans or Genes do you know who spell their name Gean? I’ve been Jean my whole life and have never met anyone, male or female, who spells the name this way. Isn’t there a hygiene default somewhere about how to spell this name? And when it’s hard to be sure if a name is male or female – Chris, Terry, Kelly, Jean/Gene – why wouldn’t you just drop the salutation?

Next, let’s consider the use of the list by the mailer. My name is correct on countless business direct mail lists – membership lists, subscriber lists, business buyer lists, women business owner lists, marketing agency president lists, small business owner lists. If someone is targeting any of these demographics to sell business products and services via direct marketing, they must be using more lists than this one bad list. Shouldn’t the duplicate records that emerge when the mailer does a merge/purge – records which have my name and salutation correct on all the other lists – cause this incorrect name to be purged from the final list?

Why Compiled Lists are Lists of Last Resort

Then there’s the use of compiled lists in general. When selecting direct mail lists, business-to-business marketers have many choices:

• Buyers: The most qualified lists are buyers of business products. They have proven their responsiveness to direct marketing and have demonstrated buying behavior, which means they’re more likely to read your direct mail package or catalog and actually place an order.
• Subscribers and members: The next best lists are subscribers to business media and members of business organizations. They’ve indicated a genuine interest in a specific area of business and a willingness to engage with a publication or organization. These prospects are more likely to at least consider your direct mail offer if you can show them how your product or service helps them do their job better.
• Inquirers: Business decision-makers who have inquired as a result of some prior marketing initiative – such as requesting information via direct mail, an ad, an email, a website, or a trade show – have at least raised their hands to ask about a business product or service. They’re not buyers yet, but they could be with the right product and the right offer.
• Compiled lists: Last are compiled lists, which are lists of people who share similar characteristics, such as owners of small businesses. These lists are created by someone who gathers data from lots of sources. Prospects on these lists have not indicated any specific interest in a product or service or demonstrated any behavior that would indicate propensity to buy. Unless you’re targeting brand new businesses, where the business owner hasn’t yet had the opportunity to get on other lists as a buyer, subscriber, member, or inquirer, these are the least qualified names to use in business-to-business direct mail prospecting.

So the next time your marketing strategy calls for a direct marketing campaign to rented mailing lists of business executives, be smart about it. First, look for lists of buyers, then subscribers and members, then inquirers.

If you can’t find these names, use compiled lists as a last resort and be sure to do proper list hygiene to avoid obvious addressing mistakes. And if your compiled list has a record for a Mr. Gean Gianfagna in Cleveland, Ohio, reject the list.

If a request for proposal (RFP) requires you to submit only barebones information, it’s hard to be creative. But when you have the opportunity to develop something exciting, a sales proposal is your chance to shine.

Here are 7 tips to make the sales proposal an effective tool in your smart marketing strategy.

1. Write it well. The quality of the content is the most important factor in a successful business proposal. Everything matters, from punctuation, spelling, and grammar to noun/verb agreement and sentence construction. If you’re better at selling than you are at writing, hire a professional copywriter to help you.
2. Look the part.  A poorly packaged proposal is like walking into a meeting in a cheap suit: It makes the prospect question your credentials and whether you’re up to the job. An attractive, professional carrier, high quality paper stock, crisp printing, and well designed graphics and charts can give you the credibility to be a contender.
3. Match the presentation to the opportunity. Smaller projects may not warrant a lengthy proposal with customized design, but for big projects, investing in a custom layout and presentation could be the “wow” factor you need to move your response to the top of the pile. It’s also a chance to demonstrate your creativity and your knowledge of the prospect’s business. Brainstorm with a graphic designer or a team of creative professionals to come up with an attention-getting, high-impact approach.
4. But watch the gimmicks. At the same time, it’s a mistake to get too gimmicky. Clever and creative will help you stand out, but if that’s all the prospect remembers about your proposal, you’ve failed to deliver the content to convince them to select you.
5. Proofread it. This sounds obvious, but it’s amazing how many business marketers submit proposals with typos and silly errors. This seems to happen most when you start a new proposal by updating the last one you wrote. In fact, one of the most common boo-boos is leaving the last prospect’s name in the new prospect’s proposal. Sloppy mistakes like that can be the kiss of death in a competitive sales environment.
6. Write a great cover letter. Don’t listen to people who say the prospect won’t read your cover letter.  A warm, well-written letter communicates your excitement about the opportunity and your desire to form a business alliance with the prospect. It also shows your personality and helps humanize your company.
7. Don’t overlook the delivery. You can send a proposal by messenger, by overnight delivery, or by email, and if the prospect is 1,000 miles away, that might make sense. But if they’re in your area – or close enough that you can get there easily – nothing says “we really want your business” better than an in-person delivery. The prospect might even be willing to meet with you to have you present it. That’s smart marketing – and it’s guaranteed to put you a critical step closer to winning the business.

But before you break out the bubbly, remember that getting prospects to express interest in a product or service can be the easy part of business-to-business marketing. Converting those leads to sales is often a lengthy and complex process.

Here’s how to build a smart marketing strategy that engages B-to-B prospects and gets them to say “yes.”

6 Steps for Successful Lead Conversion

Business purchases typically involve multiple decision-makers who can take weeks or even months to select a vendor. Since leads may need to be nurtured over time, you need to build a relationship with these prospects.

Marketing can play a pivotal role. Following these six steps can help you create a successful lead conversion marketing strategy.

1.  Capture Contact Data to Facilitate a Dialogue

During lead qualification, capture the contact data needed for an ongoing sales dialogue, especially e-mail addresses and permission to send e-mails. One way to get this data is to require it for fulfillment of your original direct mail offer, such as a product sample, free trial of your product or service, or a premium. 

It’s also a good idea to ask prospects to help you identify other team members who will have a role in the purchasing decision, so you can reach out to influencers, authorizers, and end-users.

2. Develop a Data-Driven Contact Management Plan

Use prospect data to build a contact management program, a carefully planned series of regular touches with prospects to keep them interested, keep your product and company top of mind, and create additional opportunities to generate a response.

Use data  such as company size, NAICS code, industry, geography, or future revenue potential to group prospects with similar characteristics into segments. Then, develop a marketing communications plan for each segment that regularly delivers information tailored to prospects’ interests.

Most B-to-B marketers try to reach prospects at least quarterly. For others, a bimonthly or monthly contact is appropriate. A mix of tactics and channels, such as direct mail plus e-mail, can help you keep in touch with hard-to-reach business executives.

3.  Send Information that Helps Prospects Make the Buying Decision

Your goal is to persuade prospects to make the buying decision. Send information that facilitates that decision, such as:

• Product samples;
• Newsletters about industry trends or product usage, such as new applications, peripherals, upgrades, or enhancements;
• Case studies showing how others are using your product or service;
• Customer testimonials about your company.

4.  Tailor the Marketing to the Prospect

Nothing turns off a prospect faster than feeling like you don’t know them. Thus, it’s vital that your lead conversion marketing campaigns reflect your prior contact and the budding relationship.

A data-driven sales/CRM system can help you track contact with prospects and tailor future initiatives to each individual. It’s also smart to customize communications to various individuals within a company according to their level of authority and their role in the buying process.

5. Treat Top Prospects Like They’re Already Customers

Even among qualified prospects, all are not equal. Move your very best leads – those with the greatest likelihood of converting to a sale or offering the highest potential revenue – into a preferred contact queue that treats them like they’re already customers.

Send these prospects higher-end, highly personalized direct mail and consider offering them, for a limited time, select advantages only your customers receive, such as special offers, preferred pricing, new product previews, or private invitations to customer-only events.

6. Create Opportunities for a Face-to-Face Dialogue

The Holy Grail for most business-to-business sales reps is an in-person meeting with the prospect. Identify potential opportunities for face-to-face contact and use direct marketing to promote them. Invite prospects to events, seminars, or educational programs, or encourage them to meet with you or attend activities you sponsor at trade shows.

When They Still Haven’t Said “Yes”

Be realistic about the timeframe for B-to-B lead conversion. What seems like a long time to you can seem perfectly appropriate to the prospect. Keep your best prospects on your contact list, be sure to keep the list current, and continue sending marketing messages to prospects that clearly have a need for what you sell.  Communicate regularly, stay on the prospect’s radar screen, and your next marketing initiative could be the one that finally results in the sale.

How do you build a great brand? Here are 10 key steps.

1.  Audit your marketing and communications to evaluate your current brand identity.

• Study all customer communications and marketing materials.
• Determine the messages you are delivering about your company and your products and services in every marketing channel.
• Pay closest attention to the in-person customer experience—how customers feel when they interact with a member of your staff.

2. Determine how your customers see you – their perceptions of your organization and your brand and what they value most about you.

• Talk to customers, prospects, the sales team, and the customer service representatives who work with customers every day.
• Try to see your company’s strengths and weaknesses through independent eyes. Be brutally honest.

3. Pinpoint the unique value your organization – and only your organization – delivers to customers.

• Determine what you do better than any competitor.
• Focus on the benefits you offer and the ways you improve customers’ lives.

4. Identify and capitalize on your natural branding advantages, such as:

• An established reputation for excellence;
• Superior technology or product capabilities;
• A new company direction or the launch of a major new product line that creates an opportunity to reposition your company to customers or prospects;
• Endorsements by recognized authorities in your marketplace.

5. Decide what you want your brand to stand for – the attributes you want customers to associate with your brand.

• Determine the expectations prospects and customers should have of your brand every time they encounter it.
• Clarify the brand’s “persona” or point of view.

6. Create a graphic identity that establishes a distinct logo and look for your organization, differentiates you from every other resource, and visually communicates your brand attributes.

7. Create a short, memorable positioning tagline that succinctly conveys the most important benefit, advantage, or distinction you offer in the marketplace.

8. Develop core marketing messages that capitalize on your strengths and become the copy foundation for all your marketing materials — the “proof points” that support your brand promise.

9.  Develop and distribute guidelines for using the brand and graphic identity across all marketing materials and customer communications.

10. Deploy the brand:

• Make a splash in the marketplace with your new brand by launching a highly visible marketing campaign in multiple media to showcase your new identity.
• Apply your new branding guidelines consistently to marketing communications in all media (advertising, print materials, web marketing, direct mail, e-mail, retail point-of-purchase displays, trade shows, product shipments, etc.).
• Remember that the way your customers are treated is the most important element of your branding strategy. Train every member of your staff to understand your brand and deliver on your brand promise with every customer interaction.

For more on branding, here a case study of a recent branding strategy that produced successful results.

2010 Response Rates and Cost per Response: Key Findings

Since DMA created the trends report in 2003, direct marketing has expanded far beyond traditional channels like direct mail and catalogs to email and interactive marketing, and DMA has broadened its metrics to include these new channels.  

The DMA’s research found that:

• Email to a house list averaged a 19.47% open rate, a 6.64% click-through rate, and a 1.73% conversion rate, with a bounce-back rate of 3.72% and an unsubscribe rate of 0.77%. 
• Direct mail response rates have held steady over the past four years. Letter-sized envelopes had a response rate this year of 3.42% for a house list and 1.38% for a prospect list. 
• Catalogs had the lowest cost per lead/order of $47.61, just ahead of inserts at $47.69, email at $53.85, and postcards $75.32.
• Outbound telemarketing to prospects had the highest cost per order or lead of $309.25, but it also had the highest response rate from prospects of 6.16%.  The highest response rate for a house list was also telephone, at 10.41%.
• Paid search had an average cost per click of $3.79, with a 3.81% conversion rate. The conversion rate (after click) of Internet display advertisements was slightly higher at 4.43%.
• Response rates for business-to-business direct marketing campaigns were generally higher than for business-to-consumer campaigns.  Lead generation and high-end average sale campaigns also had higher response rates.

Meaningful Measures for Evaluating Direct Response Campaigns

The DMA is the leading global trade association of the direct response industry, representing companies from dozens of vertical industries in the U.S. and 48 other nations, including nearly half of the FORTUNE® 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations. As a direct marketing consultant, I’ve been proud to be a DMA member for more than 25 years.

DMA’s research gives direct marketers an authoritative, independent gauge on response rates and costs for typical direct marketing formats, which is essential to measuring the effectiveness of a business-to-business or business-to-consumer direct marketing strategy.

DMA’s 2010 Response Rate Trends Report costs $260 for members and $470 for non-members. It can be ordered from the DMA website.