Speakeasy, a developer of Internet-based telecommunications systems, is hoping a 300,000-piece mailing it launched in April will perform as well as one it began last fall for a similar product. That earlier drop has generated a 35% conversion rate.
The company’s current effort targets businesses of 100 or fewer employees in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington, and promotes its T1-line service, said Matt Witter, account executive for The Hacker Group, Speakeasy’s agency.
The mailings were sent to lists of new businesses from various sources and compilers.
Speakeasy is testing at least three different mail packages in this campaign: two-page letters in a 6-inch by 9-inch white envelope, an orange envelope, and a No. 10 white envelope. The company is testing other T1 service offers as well.
At deadline the company had not yet settled on a control package. “You should call us in two weeks,” quipped Witter.
In the letters, the company said its T1 service, priced at about $499, is provided on its own private broadband network which promises users fast data delivery.
Speakeasy hopes this T1 mailing can replicate the performance of the self-mailer drop it started last fall for its One Link service. One Link offers small companies a digital subscriber line (DSL) as a lower-cost alternative to telephones, said Tom Scearce, director of marketing-business. The budget for that earlier campaign was less than $1 per piece.
One Link costs between $65 and $130 monthly, depending on such technical factors as a city’s population density.
That campaign began with a test in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Both a self-mailer and a letter and one-page brochure in a No. 10 envelope were used. It later rolled out to Washington, New York and Chicago with just the self-mailer.
Speakeasy decided to stick with the self-mailer for the rollout, even though self-mailers have not always proven to be the most attention-grabbing medium, according to Witter. The self-mailer ended up costing only about 10% less than a regular mail package, he added.
The company got the names of small business owners and professionals like lawyers from a variety of compiled, buyer, subscriber and attendee lists, Witter noted.
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