In B2B high tech direct marketing — of which we have done a ton of campaigns as B Direct and prior when we all worked at Direct Results Group — you're often selling a very high ticket solution, ten or hundreds of thousands of dollars or even more. Sending an email or postcard just doesn't feel sufficient. You need to make sure the medium matches the message. Or, in this case, the money.
At the same time, there are other challenges. You may need to reach a decision-maker or influencer in the C-suite (CEO, COO, CMO, CFO, CTO, etc...). She or he is strapped for time, bombarded by marketing, and focusing on other important things — not your marketing piece. Chances are, she or he has an assistant or "gatekeeper," who has been asked to sort out (and throw out) the dreaded "junk mail." At the same time, you'll be hard-pressed to reach them through other traditional means. Email? Don't bother. Print ads? Maybe, but you'd better have a big budget (a full-page in Fortune magazine costs $188,500). We had some success placing illuminated airport ads at major business hubs, and sponsorships of upscale events can be helpful too.
Still, we typically fall back on direct mail. Specifically, high-impact 3-dimensional mail. But, even that tried-and-true tactic needs a good deal of strategic thinking.
First of all, you have to make sure your package gets noticed and opened. We do this in a couple of ways. We typically recommend sending an email teaser "A package is coming your way; watch for it." We often recommend sending it Priority or Express Mail, or FedEx. This makes the package seem urgent and important, and it enables us to track deliverability. We very carefully check and re-check and re-check once again the list we're using. To this VIP audience, you definitely don't want to send a package with a misspelled name or out-of-date title.
An aside ... A list we worked on recently not only had typos, it had dead people. (This generated irresistible references to The Sixth Sense: "I see dead people.") Besides making your campaign more succesful, you don't want to waste money (as much as $25 or more per piece) sending something to someone who is ... um ... no longer in a position to buy.