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Is Direct Mail Useless for DMers?

Is direct mail useless at helping direct mail businesses generate leads?

That’s the question I was asked last week by a reader of Alan Sharpe’s B2B Direct Mail Tactics newsletter. Here is her

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

unusual challenge, and my response.

“My biggest challenge in generating leads from direct mail is to convince our marketing people that direct mail should be used. This is a completely ironic situation given th

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

at we are a DIRECT MAIL HOUSE. Yes, that’s right. I’ve been told that ‘direct mail is not good for our business.’

“Apparently, direct mail was tried once long ago and had a bad response rate. Our other lead generation methods

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

include sales outreach activities (prospecting, networking, etc.) and community involvement - charities, boards, councils, etc. Our word of mouth reputation is excellent - we've been in business for 18 years, our turnaround t

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ime is excellent, our customer service people are top notch, our team really knows their stuff . . . . However, it seems to me that a larger outreach should be done as well . . . am I barking up the wrong tree here?”

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

ote>

Myth #1: Direct mail doesn’t work for us

The only way to convince management to use direct mail over the long term to generate sales leads is to prove that direct mail either outperforms other methods or increases

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

the effectiveness of other methods. You can only do this through testing and measuring results.

After all, the telephone, not the letter, is the number one tactic to generate leads according to the Direct Marketing Associatio

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

n's 2005 Response Rate Report.

Your firm sounds like it is content to do business in your city only. That’s why they rely on “networking, community involvement - charities, boards, councils, etc.” These methods of meeting prosp

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

ective clients are not sustainable nationally or even regionally. They are too expensive.

Unless your management wants to grow the business outside of your city, or grow the business in an aggressive way in your city, you may

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

have a hard time convincing them to try DM. This is especially true if your city is small, since your prospect pool is so limited.

Myth #2: We tried it once and it didn’t work

You say, “Apparently, direct mail was trie

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

once long ago and had a bad response rate.” Business-to- business lead generation using direct mail is a program, not a campaign. It consists of a plan, a year-long series of mailings, and a way of testing methods and measur

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

ing results. I would suggest that if you have not tried direct mail consistently for at least a couple of years, testing different packages against each other, testing DM against your other lead generation methods, and measuri

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ng your results to see which method is most cost-effective, you have abandoned direct mail prematurely.

Myth #3: Direct mail delivers poor response rates

You say, “Apparently, direct mail was tried once long ago and h

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

ad a bad response rate.” Direct mail response rates are misleading if you read them incorrectly. Your response rate only tells you part of what you need to know. It tells you the percentage of people on your list who responded

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

and nothing more.

Your response rate doesn’t tell you how much you had to spend to generate one lead. Or how much you had to spend to make one sale. Your direct mail response rate does not tell you if the sales people who

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ollowed up on the leads closed any sales. Or if you broke even. Or if you made a profit.

So don’t be fooled by a low response rate. Unless you measure these other things (cost per lead, cost per sale, break even, return on inve

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

stment) and compare your results with your face-to-face prospecting, community involvement and other methods, you will always be relying on feelings and not facts. One of the things that I like about B2B direct mail lead gen

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

eration is that it is empirical. The numbers never lie. You can bank on it.

Recommendations

Show your boss a compelling business case for testing direct mail lead generation at your firm. Calculate cost per le

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ad, cost per sale, break even and ROI. Show your boss the numbers

Start with a list of prospects that have been unresponsive to your other methods, or people that you cannot reach cost-effectively any other way

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

li>Think niche. Target a narrow group of prospects and go after their business with a year-long campaign, reaching them more times and in more ways than your salespeople ever could in a year

I wish you every success

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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