Reaching decision makers means not adding to the clutter

How do you get the attention of IT decision makers who are constantly bombarded by marketing messages? You send direct mail.

To promote its fiber-based network, tw telecom employed a promotion that began with a folded self-mailer featuring a repositionable note prompting recipients to query their name in a major online search engine.

On the results page, a customized pay-per-click ad took them to a URL where they viewed a personalized 90-second video on the benefits of tw telecom’s new network.

The approach generated an 8-percent meeting rate — double what the company typically sees from a promotion, according to Tiffany Duncan, senior manager of marketing communications.

“Most marketers assume IT managers only will respond to online communications,” Duncan says. “But pairing different mediums allowed us to cut through the clutter and interact with them on several different levels.”