Maileva’s hybrid-mail fires up SMEs’ direct-marketing campaigns

July 29, 2013 - PRLog -- Custom Wills Ltd’s testimonial shows how Maileva’s novel solution can boost an SME’s business: the legal-services firm based in England revamped its entire marketing strategy thanks to Maileva’s assistance.


In spite of all the talk about the positive impact of email marketing and the rising importance of social media, key statistics from the Mail Media Centre (http://mmc-staging.tmwtest.co.uk/) show that a modern twist on a more traditional marketing channel could well be the answer for businesses that are keen to expand quickly — and find that electronic communications can disappoint.

As research shows, email response rates are on the decline and social-media channels, on their own, seldom have the desired impact: people are simply being turned off by overexposure to electronic communications and web-based media, so that the return on investment (RoI) can be poor. This is why major brands are returning to direct mail.

Whereas 11% of marketing emails are opened, the opening rate is 91% for prospecting direct mail: indeed, the RoI for direct mail has been rising steadily over recent years, whereas there has been a marked erosion in the RoI for online communications. The latest data from the Mail Media Centre shows that 10.9 million adults, in the UK, have not even used the internet at all in the past 12 months.

In the face of such evidence, most businesses will admit that the advantages of direct mail cannot be underestimated, but they also tend to worry that they cannot afford such campaigns and do not have the time to execute them.

Running a direct-mail campaign can seem daunting, concedes Pascal Brighi, UK Director at Maileva: “Traditionally you would need to print the letters, stuff envelopes, and pay a standard postage rate. Alternatively, you could phone a mailing house for help but, unless you are sending hundreds or thousands of letters, they may not be interested.”

Given the context and the problem, companies need a practical solution: “That solution is Maileva. Maileva has been launched in the UK to meet this need. Maileva is a hybrid-mail solution, bringing the best of online technology and physical mail together,” explains Pascal Brighi.

In a few minutes, businesses using the Maileva service can log on to the Maileva website, create the letter they want to send, upload their address and other details, select the mail option they need (first class or second class), and click on ‘send’: the job is done. The documents are then sent to Maileva’s quality-approved printing-and-mailing centre, whose specialist teams take care of the rest of the process, on behalf of the client entity.

Nicola Cameron, Director of Custom Wills, a small legal-services firm based in Bedfordshire (UK), has used Maileva’s services: she explains (below) in what ways Maileva’s hybrid-mail solution has proved invaluable to her business.

Case study: Custom Wills Ltd

Can you describe your company in a few words?

Custom Wills Ltd is a family business that offers wills, probate support, and power-of-attorney services. I founded Custom Wills in 2010 and I have already written thousands of wills, and have more than 3,000 customers.

What kind of marketing issues has Custom Wills faced in the past few years?

For small and medium[-size] businesses like mine, marketing can be difficult, especially direct marketing. I wanted to do direct-mail campaigns to introduce the brand, give my contact details, and promote my services. But I did not want to sit and stuff envelopes, or pay huge costs for ink, stamps, or a franking-machine contract. So, I tried to send emailing campaigns, but the results were quite poor, and I realised actual letters went down much better with my customers.

When did you start using Maileva?

I started to use Maileva last year [in 2012], and it basically changed my whole marketing strategy. With a few clicks and a little thought, I was able to send direct-mail campaigns to old clients and recent clients, all totally personalised and batched with different marketing messages.

Following the client campaign, we embarked on attracting more new clients and purchased mailing lists available from Maileva. The data was guaranteed to be accurate and really helped us target our exact demographic [category] of people who are most likely to get around to making their Last Will & Testament. We sent different letters to different ages and sexes to appeal to what is important to them when deciding to make a will, and which company to use. We now send these prospecting letters to new recipients monthly to generate more appointments regularly.

What do you like about Maileva?

I like the fact that Maileva is very easy to use. But, also, Maileva offers a lot of functionalities I wouldn’t be able to use if I was running my direct-mail campaigns by myself, such as data cleansing, address checks, online archiving, and data purchase.

How have you benefited from using Maileva?

First, I have saved a lot of money using Maileva. Just the price of a stamp would be 60p [i.e. £0.60] per letter, plus paper, envelopes, etc., and I really did not want to get into long, strict contracts with [providers of] expensive franking machines, when my campaigns are ad hoc. But, also, using Maileva is a fantastic time saver. In a few clicks, everything is taken care of. No ‘will-writing time’ wasted stuffing envelopes or changing printer ink. A whole campaign can be sent in the post as quickly as an email, but with much better response rates. And I don’t have to worry about paper jams anymore!

Would you use Maileva again?

Yes, definitely. And I plan to use Maileva even more as the return on investment is so good. It is just the marketing tool we have been looking for!

About Custom Wills Ltd

Customs Wills Ltd is headquartered in Sandy, in the county of Bedfordshire (England).

Custom Wills Ltd is a legal-services firm providing personalised services to its clients. Custom Wills Ltd specialises in the writing of wills, in probate support, in power-of-attorney issues, and in the safe storage of documents. The company can assist with funeral plans and, also, estate planning.

For further information about Custom Wills Ltd, please go to: http://customwills.co.uk/

About Maileva

In the UK, Maileva is headquartered in Bedford, in Bedfordshire (England). In 2011, Maileva printed 90 million pages for 10,000 customers.

Launched in France in 2002, Maileva is now Europe’s leading provider of hybrid direct-mail solutions. BTB Mailflight, the company behind the launch of the service in Britain, was established in 1969.

For further information about Maileva, please go to: http://www.maileva.co.uk/

For further information, please contact :

Quote ref. : FTPB3840

Ms Katherine WOODS - Press Officer

UBIFRANCE Press Office in London

Tel: +44 (0) 207 024 3640

katherine.woods@ubifrance.fr

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