Getting more from your business to business direct marketing.

It used to be that banks didn't have to do much more than respond when business came calling. Word-of-mouth referrals and walk-ins guaranteed a steady flow of traffic. When family businesses were passed along, so was the preference for the bank with which they worked.

For these reasons

and more, business to business direct marketing has traditionally been a low priority marketing activity for most banks. It's not uncommon for this type of direct marketing to be relegated to a small fraction of the overall marketing budget. Yet the business segment represents a proportionally larger share of the bank's total assets.

In the past, bankers have been guilty of the phenomenon known as "drive-by business" - that is, driving right by the business on their way home each night, While this article focuses on direct mail marketing, it will also show you how business to business marketing has change from what it was in the past to what is possible today.

Reactive Versus Proactive Marketing

In the past, business marketing was, for the most part, reactive. Banks depended heavily on word-of-mouth advertising from existing customers, walk-in traffic and the prevailing attitude among family businesses that "if it was good enough for my dad, it's good enough for me." Unfortunately, the days are gone when the customer comes begging for money because your bank is the only lender in town.

Today, reactive marketing won't cut it. The banking environment is much more competitive, not only due to the presence of other banks, but also because of the pressures from nonbank financial institutions. With everyone vying for a piece of the same pie, banks cannot afford to stand on the sidelines and wait for the business come to them.

These competitive times demand proactive marketing - targeted to a specific clientele. The good news is that it's entirely possible for banks of any size to mount an aggressive marketing campaign to businesses that get the most bang for the buck using a combination of available avenues. The two most common are direct mail and telemarketing, generally used in conjunction with each other. Other commonly used methods are advertising on television, radio, business publications, newspapers as well as sponsored seminars, networking and personal sales calls. And with the proliferation of personal computers with modems, advertising through a site on the World Wide Web of the Internet is an increasingly viable alternative. Each of these methods can be used as a way to get off of the sidelines and into the game of business to business direct marketing.