Main Subject - Business

Direct mail marketing executed in a professional manner can make wonder for your business in terms of awareness, sales, brand building and customer interest. Here are 8 important factors for a successful direct mail marketing campaign.

Marketing Alternatives:

Marketing in Local or national radio stations
Advertisement in local or national newspaper
Commercials on local or national TV

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

li>Advertisement on billboards and posters

Direct Mail marketing via local flyers, postcards, brochures etc

Direct sales marketing through telemarketing

Business to Consumer communication via SMS & mobile communication

Direct Mail Marketing – Primary Advantages for your business growth

Target Advertising - most important benefit is the targeting a specific group of customers.

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

Examples of combination products may in

Personalization of Marketing Message - tailored to your customers specific needs based on previous transactions and gathered data.

Optimization of Marketing Message - Because of its direct accountability, direct mail marketing can be tested to find the best address list or customer target group; the best product offer; the best timing for your sales or marketing campaign (and many other factors). Then the winning tests can be rolled out to a wide

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

audience for optimal results.

Secific data collection on customers - Responses (and non-responses) can be added to the database, allowing future mailings to be better targeted.

Successful Direct Mailing Campaign in 8 steps:

1. Define PRIMARY PURPOSE of your Direct Mail Marketing Campaign

Information regarding launch of your newly established company
Increase sales and customer con

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

acts

Decrease customer churn

Increase profitability from existing consumers

Counter on competitor activities and product offerings

Advertise your company’s new products / services

Advertise a promotion and limited sales campaign

Brand building for your existing product line or company

Other

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

Combination pro

marketing purposes not covered in this article 2. Marketing decisions based on UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMERS

Marketing Message – What and when do you want to communicate and to whom?
Total cost for the campaign; e.g. marketing material, advertisement costs, purchase of address information, distribution costs, and follow up costs such as telemarketing.
Sales targets – What

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

s the total number of shipments, the number of responses, and the average order value per response?

Effect on churn levels on existing customer base – before the direct mail marketing campaign and after the direct mail marketing activity.

Hit rate, i.e. number of customers that you expect to respond

Break even for this campaign, i.e. what sales revenues are required in order fo

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

your direct mail marketing campaign to become positive. 3. Consider the following CUSTOMER CHARACTERISTICS

A very important aspect of effective direct mail marketing is understanding which customers to contact. Logical starting point for understanding how to construct your customer target group is to analyze your current customers. When you understand existing customer base you can effectively expand your customer target group by identif

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

ing similar companies that are not your customers today.

What revenues do different customer groups generate to your business?
Which of your products shall the customers purchase?
What industry segments are your customers active in?
Geographical distance from the customer to your stores?
Your potential customers turnover and sizes
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
g>?
Timing - when should you activate your campaign? When is this customer group most likely to accept a sales proposal?

4. TEST your direct mail marketing assumptions – GO LIVE

Test group - order or collect approximately 500-600 customer addresses
Divide these customers into 2-3 small target groups
Test different marketing mess

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

ges or product / service offerings on each group of customers
Observe customer response, hit rate, number of sales and effect on revenue
5. ANALYZE the Direct Mail Marketing Test, draw your conclusion and Decide

Did you reach your primary purpose defined under section 1.?
If your purposes where not reached find our why?
What com

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

Following aspects would a

munication message and was most effective?
What print material (flyer, brochure, postcard etc) and was most effective?
What sales channel was most effective?
When and how did the customer contact you?
= > Decide on final direct mail marketing message and product offering = > Decide on the timing for the direct mail marketing campaign.

6. Take very good care of al

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

CONTACTING CUSTOMERS

As a general rule - the more response alternatives your give your customer (Internet, mail, coupons, fax, telephone, SMS, in-person visits) the better is the hit rate.
Assign responsible person on your company for managing the customer responses.
Consider server capacity for peak in incoming traffic generated by contacting customers?
Secure

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

ail server access on your company to the people involved in handling the customers response
Secure proper storage of the incoming customer mails?
If the direct mail marketing campaign involves coupons, take decisions on the in-house vs. external outsourcing? Remember to store the customer coupons are stored for sales and tax purposes.
Make sure your company’s tel

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

phone can handle simultaneous calls, a “call back” solution perhaps?
Customer contacts vary over the week and during the day. Peak for customer contacts are often in the beginning of the week and around lunch hours, but draw your own conclusions and be prepaired.
7. DECIDE on FINAL STRUCTURE for your Direct Mail Marketing Campaign!

What message sh

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

uld be communicated to your target group?
What product offerings or services should be in focus?
What customer segment/-s?
What response channel/-s should be presented to the target group?
Where can you purchase or get free access to the customers’ addresses?
Make your product offering or service stand out from your competitor!

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

Size format of the print material

Text format of the add or sales message

Distribution format of the print material

Timing of the shipment (preferably Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday)

8. IMPLEMENT

Depending on the distribution volume of your campaign, try to negotiate with your local distribution c

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

mpanies in order to achieve a better pricing structure.
Season variations or vacations: Are your customers in any way affected by the season, and will this affect your Direct Mailing? Are your customers at home or on some holidays?
Last minute changes: Have there been any large changes in the circumstances since you tested your hypotheses? For example, changes in competitors prices, mar

.

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

eting campaign from your competitors, bad publicity and so on? Will this require you to change anything in your campaign? FOLLOW UP and draw learning’s from your direct mail marketing campaign!

Which customers did actually respond?
What did the customer purchase?
When did the consumer of your product or services make the purchase?
Average Order Value compared to estimations
What did they not buy?
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
>
Industry segmentation based on customer response and
How did customers respond? Via what response channel?
Who did some customers not respond?

Why did customers not respond? Contact a small group of customers.
Industry segmentation – can you identify any trends?
What would the customers like you to offer them in order to close the sale pitch?
GOOD LUCK WITH GROWING YOUR BUSINESS AND REVENUES

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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Main Subject - Direct Mail Marketing - Increase Efficiency & Sales

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