Bank Mailing Promotes Anti-Fraud Product
This quarter, Huntington Bank is hoping for at least a 2% response rate to a direct mail campaign promoting a fraud detection product suite for small businesses.
In the past, this product was typically sold through bankers, notes Jenny Whipple, vice president of business and commercial marketing at Columbus, OH-based Huntington. “But we wanted to try raising the awareness level and reach maybe a smaller business than we sometimes reach with the appointment approach.”
An 80,000-piece mailing went out to business customers with annual revenues of $10 million or less. The campaign marketed a $39.99-a-month software suite that’s intended to help protect businesses from payment fraud involving both paper checks and electronic transactions, says Whipple.
“Keep in mind that since these are banking customers, they’re somewhat used to getting correspondence from their banks via mail, and it’s something they would likely open,” says Lucy Moran, account director at Engauge, the bank’s agency.
The mailings directed recipients to go online to receive more information. From there they could request that a bank representative call them to learn more.
The selling cycle for this product suite is one to three months, on average, says Whipple, noting that businesses usually take longer to respond to direct mail offers than consumers. — LARRY RIGGS
