A Direct Mail Strategy for Your ABM Campaigns: 3 Proven Examples

By Brandon Redlinger

KEY POINTS

• Why you should do ABM
• 3 ABM direct mail ideas to try (includes results)
• Tips to run your own ABM campaigns

See Why Sendoso Works

This direct mail strategy post is brought to you by our friends at Engagio, an account-based marketing (ABM) automation platform that enables business-to-business (B2B) marketers to successfully execute and measure account-centric programs in one solution.

SiriusDecisions recently released the State of Account Based Revenue Engine 2019 report, and the results are in—Account-Based Marketing, once again, is coming in hot!

According to their report, those companies that are measuring ABM are seeing:

• 99% better engagement with ABM accounts
• 80% improved win rates
• 73% higher deal sizes
• 91% improved ROI

Convinced yet that ABM is the real deal?

Good.

3 ABM Direct Mail Ideas IRL (In Real Life)

If you’re not already doing ABM, then you’re likely thinking about where you should even start. Unfortunately, that’s not something that can easily be answered in a single blog post. In fact, it took us an entire book to begin explaining the process. You can read all about how we approach ABM in The Clear and Complete Guide to Account Based Marketing, 2nd Edition. Grab a copy today to start formulating your very own ABM strategy.

If you’re already doing ABM, then it’s time to take your campaigns to the next level by incorporating them with a direct mail strategy.

At Engagio, we prescribe to a tiered approach for ABM. If you are not familiar with this, a tiered approach enables you to scale your ABM. We cover this in-depth in the book, but here’s a quick overview of how it works.

A Tiered Approach to ABM

• Strategic ABM: One-to-one ABM with a very limited number of accounts worth seven figures (or more) annually.
• Scale ABM: One-to-few ABM for high-value accounts worth six-figures grouped into micro-segments.
• Programmatic ABM: One-to-many ABM for five-figure accounts that are worth some customization and personalization.

Now, let’s show some examples to bring this to life.

ABM Direct Mail Idea No 1. “Strategic ABM”

Definition: One-to-One Executive Sponsor Play

When you’re looking at breaking into an account, you need to do research. When building our own direct mail strategy for ABM, we found out that a decision-maker loved wine and chocolate. We then put together a personalized 1:1 package with Cadbury chocolate, wine, customized content, and a handwritten note that started with “Cadbury and wine for 5 minutes of your time.”

Stage: Mid-funnel

Target: A specific VP of marketing at a Tier 1 account

Personalization: A handwritten note and research into decision-maker’s tastes

Play:

• Touch 1: Send the custom package via Sendoso
• Touch 2: Send email upon package delivery
• Touch 3: Phone call

Goal: Meeting

Results: Meeting set with Tier 1 account

ABM Direct Mail Idea No 2. “Scale ABM”

Definition: One-to-Few Gold Standard Package

When you have a really good direct mail package that works well for a wide range of people, but don’t have the budget or resources to send it to every one of your target accounts, this is where your scale ABM comes into play.

Sendoso has our standard packages stored and ready for us to send in one of their global warehouses; we simply click to ship them out! The contents of these packages could be branded socks, shirts, notebooks, some content, and a handwritten note to the team.

Stage: Top of funnel

Target: Directors-level and above of marketing, marketing operations, or demand gen at Tier 2 accounts

Play:

• Touch 1: Send the package via Sendoso
• Touch 2: Email
• Touch 3: Replay over email

Results: 19% increase in meetings set with Tier 2 accounts

ABM Direct Mail Idea No 3. “Programmatic ABM”

Definition: One-to-Many Coffee Card Play

When you need to get a high volume of messages out but still want an element of surprise and delight, we love using the coffee card play: “Enjoy a free cup of coffee on us while we chat about ABM and see how Engagio may be able to help!”

We’ve also tried more gimmicky messages like “supercharge your ABM,” but the straightforward message works great. There’s minimal energy that goes into this one, which allows reps to maintain “air cover” for Tier 3 accounts, aka a consistent stream of leads while the company pursues more targeted, tactical campaigns against specific accounts or market segments.

Stage: Top of funnel

Target: Director of marketing and above at all Tier 3 targeted accounts

Play:

• Touch 1: Send Sendoso coffee card
• Touch 2: Replay over email
• Touch 3: LinkedIn touch

Results: 32% increase in replies set with Tier 3 accounts

Tips for Your Own ABM Campaign Ideas

Though these examples are specific to an ABM direct mail strategy, you can scale your other ABM campaign ideas using the same principles:

• Spend more time, effort, and budget on your top accounts with highly personalized content.
• As you go up in your tiers (i.e., Tier 2 and Tier 3), you reduce the resources you spend.
• Mix it up with content, videos, ABM ads, events, etc.

When done correctly, ABM consistently delivers the personal and relevant experience that customers demand. So leaders have turned to what ultimately drives growth: creating value for the customer and using new technologies to transform the customer experience. Done correctly, you can scale your efforts.

And the best way to execute this direct mail strategy? Account-based marketing.

For more ideas on how to leverage enterprise-level gifting in your ABM direct mail strategy, grab a copy of our newest eBook below!