A specialist dog patrol company has called upon the services of a local marketing consultancy to help out with its latest direct mail campaign.

Connect Security, based in Wellingborough, approached Business Proactive of Desborough for assistance with a direct mail campaign - having previously embarked on a similar exercise themselves, Connect became disillusioned, as it just didn’t seem to be working, response was poor, very few leads and no sales at all - the company wanted to know why and what could be done!

"We are a well established, and nationally recognised organisation," said Connect Security MD, Andrew Reason.  "And have extensive knowledge and experience in our sector – but marketing is something quite different! We know we offer a quality service and wanted new customers to understand that we are not like other security companies, and to appreciate that we really do care.  But conveying that message can be tricky – we needed some marketing expertise."

Andrew sought that advice from David Howes at Business Proactive – a specialist marketing and PR consultancy.

"Most SMEs realise that some advertising, PR and marketing has to be implemented," comments David. "And although it is not rocket science, it needs consideration, a tight schedule and a realistic budget – this is where experienced marketing professionals can make the difference between wasting money and generating income."

Business Proactive devised a direct marketing plan for Connect Security – cleaning, updating and removing duplications from the database, revising printed literature and rephrasing the introductory letter and then ensuring a timely and professional follow-up call.   

"These are the basic rules we adhered to when implementing this sales drive," added David.  "And probably the most crucial part of the exercise was the follow-up – these calls were made by experienced sales people and resulted in 8 appointments being booked and a further 15 planned for the near future."

Andrew was delighted with the results, having quoted on contracts worth £600,000.

"The whole campaign worked very well and we are pleased to see tangible outcomes.  It can be very demoralising when your efforts are not rewarded – but with planning and marketing expertise, it really does work!"

Connect Security and Business Proactive are now working together on a long term strategy to maintain this momentum.