Direct Mailing Campaign
Definition
This business object is a type of sales promotion that you use to inform selected customers or sales prospects of marketing activities and events such as the launch of a new product or a trade fair. The targeted customers and sales prospects receive a letter and sometimes enclosures such as a free sample.
To create a direct mailing, you need the following elements:
This allows you to route sales-related costs (for example, for enclosures) to the marketing department.
Performing the direct mailing involves printing the direct mailing, creating the internal order for any samples, and initiating any follow-up activities.
Types of Direct Mailing Campaigns
To help you manage various different kinds of direct mailing campaigns, the following document types have been defined for direct mailing campaigns in the standard system:
You must define a follow-up activity and follow-up activity date for this type of direct mailing. This is controlled by the incompletion procedure. When you release the direct mailing and issue the output, the system deletes the address list for the direct mailing and automatically creates the relevant documents for the follow-up activity.
The Internet mailing has the same characteristics as the direct mailing with follow-up activity except that the output is sent via Internet. This is controlled by the transmission medium in the output condition record. Naturally, the system can only send the output by Internet if you have defined an e-mail address for each customer and sales prospect in the address list. If the system cannot find an e-mail address, it checks the communication strategy that is assigned to the transmission medium to determine an alternative means of communication.
You can choose whether you define a follow-up activity and follow-up activity date for the direct mailing. (This is controlled in the sales promotion type.) The address list is not deleted when the output for the direct mailing is issued.
Use
A regional sales manager wants to send out a direct mailing to a targeted segment of the customer base. He creates an address list for the target recipients. The mailing consists of a covering sales letter, a small promotional gift, and a brochure.
The sales manager also decides that each customer who receives the mailing is to receive a follow-up telephone call about a week after. He specifies a follow-up activity and a follow-up date in the direct mailing. The follow-up telephone call is created automatically when the output for the direct mailing is issued. When it is time for the follow-up calls, each member of the sales office telemarketing team creates a list of all open activities for which he or she is responsible.
The system then displays a list of contact people, telephone numbers, and other helpful information for making the calls. The sales employee can branch directly from an item in the list to the screen for entering the details of the sales activity. The texts in the sales activity automatically include a telephone sales script, which has been prepared in advance to guide the employee during the telephone call. If the telephone call is successful, the employee can branch directly to the sales order entry screens.
Later, when field sales personnel visit a customer who received a follow-up telephone call, they have access to all information about the direct mailing and the results of the telephone call made from the office.
Structure
Direct mailing campaigns can consist of the following:
For example, this could be a promotional letter, or an invitation to a trade fair
For example, these could be sample products, brochures, documentation
Depending on the group you want to reach, the mailing list can include addresses of:
You specify whether the list should be made up of private or business addresses. If the direct mailing is large, you can create background jobs to generate the address list and print the correspondence in off-peak hours.