Jamie Shibley believes that in today's high-tech world we need to stop building lists and start ... [+]
If you want to convert prospects into clients faster, consider less inbox and more mailbox.
Customer experience expert Jamie Shibley teaches that in today’s high-tech world, leveraging mailboxes instead of inboxes can make a significant difference in converting new clients. After 20 years in ecommerce, Shibley created a strategic gifting company and her creative ideas have been featured in media outlets such as Entertainment Tonight.
“As a brand, how do we effectively cut through that noise and develop the type of trusted relationships that convert?” Shibley said in a phone interview.
Sending a prospect a lumpy package gift can make a huge impact. Let’s trash the phrase junk mail for all time. The right mail can cut through the clutter and get a prospect to take notice.
According to Shibley, the average business-to-business prospect views between 4,000 and 8,000 advertising messages per day. They also receive more than 100 emails per day and ignore most of them.
My mailings to prospects and referral sources have not been ignored through the years as I have sent items such as packets of vegetable seeds, baseball cards, candy bars, post-it notes, planning guides, blank thank you cards, lens wipes and sunscreen towelettes. Once I mailed boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese.
According to this report by a data and marketing association, up to 90% of direct mail gets opened versus 30% of digital mailings. Temple University, along with the USPS, released a study that showed physical ads leave a longer lasting impact on recipients. Even more important, the study found that tangible mailings triggered activity in the part of the brain that determines value and desirability.
Imagine the impact of your physical mailings being opened by more recipients, recipients remembering you longer, and recipients finding you valuable.
How does your conversion rate improve?
Shibley advocates that the fastest path to converting your leads is through a combination of digital and physical touchpoints. This combination builds the necessary trust in a faster and more efficient way.
“The faster you build trust, the faster leads become clients,” notes Shibley. “It takes multiple follow-ups to build that know, like, and trust factor.”
She typically recommends that those seeking clients plan a minimum of six touchpoints per year.
“Each touchpoint should be a digital resource or a physical mailing—heavier on the physical mailings,” says Shibley.“ Once you have a plan, you can focus on adding the right-fit leads to the process and let it work for you.”
Examples of effective touchpoints:
· Research you can share
· Worksheets, workbooks or helpful content
· Your book or a book you recommend
· A podcast or a video series
· Gifts for holidays or special occasions
· A gift related to a goal or milestone they are working toward
“In today’s digital world we are faced with more content than we have time to consume,” says Shibley. “A strategic combination of physical and digital relationship-building efforts is the most effective approach to winning new business.”
