Anyone can pick-up the phone and cold call for new business. Well, maybe not anyone, I was a telemarketer for nine months whilst at Sixth Form and I was dreadful at it. So bad in fact, that they found an alternative job for me to do in the office. Nobody likes cold calls, they are as welcome as a group of teenagers trick or treating, always at an inconvenient time, normally in the middle of tea, and always something that you didn’t ask for. It’s annoying and more often than not read from a script.
And then there is the email marketing for new business – the digital equivalent of screaming at parked cars. It’s cold calling in disguise, as cheap and instant as coffee from a tub, destined to be buried in some folder that hasn’t been checked for months. Despite the intent to connect, most of these emails end up unopened, unread, and unnoticed. It’s ultimately just another subject line.
We knew that Office Of Omar needed a campaign for new business aimed at hospitality and the man who the office is named after was adamant that we had to do it in a way that was relevant to the way we work. He suggested a mailer. Not just any mailer, but a mail campaign on an A4 piece of card, each one individually written to prove that we know and understand what the people we approach do. Mailers are cool. They can be clever. They can look nice. And it’s strangely powerful having something physical to hold in your hand.
It looked classy. Powerful. Strong. Understated. And the cost? £100 including postage. We received some lovely feedback, including a call from Glasgow. It was a restaurant who had put some products into Great Taste that I had judged. They wanted help with rethinking their offering, so we went to Glasgow, met with them and rebranded Namaste. That has led to a new project with them for a very cool concept we’ve been working on for months, and another baking brand for an old member of staff at Namaste. Many thousands of pounds work for a hundred quid.
This isn’t a humble brag about business, nor is it a suggestion that you need to do a mailer. It’s merely a comment on finding the right solution for your business to approach new business. Our mailer didn’t shout. It didn’t interrupt. It didn’t feel like a chore to open. And it turns out that is exactly the approach our customers wanted.
I am Simon Carlo, a food blogger, journalist, copywriter and bonafide mild child. The above words are mine. Mostly. The gooder ones anyway.
