In September, a small manufacturer and marketer of specialized electric vehicles, is planning to re-send a mailing to college campus security officials after getting a 1% response rate to a mailing last spring.
This was T3 Motion’s first use of direct mail.
In May, the company sent out a 3,200-piece postcard mailing to college campuses, security directors and chancellors and deans across the country promoting the company’s T3 Series electric stand-up vehicles, said Caroline Hunter, marketing associate at the Costa Mesa, CA firm.
She said the May mailing was sent out later than she had hoped for when the school year was winding down. Hunter hoped the September mailing, which will take place while school’s in session, will generate higher response.
The mailing was a large-size postcard that featured a photograph of the vehicle on a college campus to try and promote their use in that kind of environment, she said. The card used both a phone number and e-mail address as response devices.
“Originally we wanted to go to public and private high schools but that was too massive,” she said. “So we just narrowed it down to colleges and universities.”
Previously, T3 primarily promoted these vehicles-- which are geared for law enforcement agencies--in specialized magazines to that market and got only “lukewarm responses,” she noted.
The T3 Series vehicles are priced between $9,000 and $10,000.
The company decided to try direct mail to go after this new market, she said, because of the tactile nature of the medium and its higher probability of getting noticed.
“The reason why we decided to go with direct mail is that you really need to see [the vehicle] to know what it’s all about how it can be utilized in different applications,” she said. “The other reason is you want something tangible and get your point across.”
For this marketing effort, e-mail was definitely out.
“You look at [an e-mail’s] subject line and that’s your few seconds where you decide if you’re going to delete it,” she said. “With the direct mail piece, it gets to your place of business you’re going to have several people experience it and pass it around.”
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