What’s Below the Line Marketing Anyway? I Dove Deep Into BTL Marketing to Find Out

I cringe every time I have a look at what number of unopened emails stay in my work inbox. I’m fortunate if I open possibly ten p.c of them — together with something promotional.

However, of these ten p.c, what satisfied me to open and reply to them? These corporations did under the road (BTL) advertising and marketing proper.

E-mail advertising and marketing, unsolicited mail, occasions — under the road advertising and marketing contains these and related focused techniques to persuade and convert patrons. What goes into operating a profitable BTL marketing campaign? And the place do you start?

That can assist you begin, I dug into BTL advertising and marketing: the historical past, its relationship with different advertising and marketing techniques, and finest practices from specialists. Right here’s what I discovered.

Desk of Contents

First, let’s have a look at historical past. Below the line marketing bought its begin within the Nineteen Fifties.

Manufacturing large Procter & Gamble needed to separate promoting actions primarily based on who bought paid for them. “Conventional” promoting prices (aka, TV, radio, OOH) payable to advert companies made it above the road on the corporate’s draft price range. Every part else fell under the road.

In fashionable advertising and marketing parlance, I’d say under the road advertising and marketing is a non secular cousin to demand generation. Nonetheless, BTL advertising and marketing in apply feels extra like a subset of demand gen — enabling demand gen’s technique by tactical particulars and execution. BTL campaigns typically run on shorter operational timelines.

The outcomes BTL generates focus extra closely on responses and conversions as an alternative of demand gen’s longer-term buyer acquisition and nurture targets.

For our functions, BTL advertising and marketing techniques will embrace:

• Unsolicited mail
• E-mail advertising and marketing
• Commerce exhibits and occasions
• Location-specific promotions
• Focused on-line outreach

Whereas conventional BTL advertising and marketing depends on a bodily element, the web’s attain is inescapable. As long as it’s extremely focused, customized, and time-bound, you may make a case to incorporate bodily and digital advertising and marketing techniques.

To reply this query, I went to Sara Croft. Croft is the CEO of Five Four Partners, a development company that helps corporations launch and scale. A lot of her early-stage startup purchasers use under the road advertising and marketing techniques.

She positions the ATL/BTL divide together with her purchasers like this: “Let’s take a LinkedIn advert marketing campaign instance,” Croft stated. “A generic, broad message about your product that’s focused to a really huge viewers and sends individuals to your property web page might get quite a lot of eyeballs and possibly some clicks, however possible received’t end in a conversion. For an early-stage firm, this wastes time. Whereas model constructing is necessary, startups want clients — now.

“For focused BTL advertising and marketing, an early-stage startup might contemplate operating LinkedIn advertisements for a webinar,” she continued. “It’s a decrease barrier to entry for the viewers to enroll to attend a webinar versus signing up for a demo of a doubtlessly six-figure product buy. The webinar educates the viewers additional and helps qualify and disqualify prospects. The outcomes are tangible, measurable, and actionable.”

A powerful advertising and marketing technique requires each ATL and BTL actions, however it’s very important to know when to use every:

• ATL advertising and marketing is nice for corporations wanting to extend model consciousness and attain. In case your metrics are extra top-of-funnel-focused, you’ll do effectively with ATL techniques.
• BTL advertising and marketing is for particular audiences and helps bottom-of-funnel-related metrics. In case your aim is to persuade and convert, BTL is the best way to go.

Or, as Croft places it, “ATL advertising and marketing makes the prospect conscious of a ache and its answer, however BTL advertising and marketing helps them know what to do about it.”

Once I construct BTL advertising and marketing plans, I discover it helps to undertake journalism’s Five Ws (Plus H):

• Who?
• What?
• The place?
• When?
• Why?
• How?

With these questions in thoughts, let’s see how one can construct and execute your plan. For our functions, I’ll additionally share particulars from BTL donor relations campaigns I’ve run to tie these ideas to concrete outcomes.

1. Outline your goal segments.

Who are you speaking to? Due to BTL’s tighter focusing on, you should get detailed along with your goal segments. The extra data you will have in your potential patrons, the higher.

In previous campaigns, I’ve constructed donor outreach lists primarily based on demographic and psychographic knowledge gathered by varied sources:

• Age
• Location
• Disposable earnings
• Engagement with different content material
• Earlier curiosity (e.g., volunteered at an organizational occasion, visited a bodily location)
• Earlier giving knowledge (if obtainable)

These knowledge factors helped me construct the imaginative and prescient for my ultimate purchaser.

2. Customise and personalize messaging.

As soon as you already know who you’re speaking to, it’s essential to perceive why you’re reaching out and what you need them to know. I’ve seen advertising and marketing groups run with generic copy from different campaigns and name it a day. That’s a surefire method to waste your and your patrons’ time and assets.

By market analysis and previous interactions, you possibly can construct a nuanced understanding of your messaging. What clicks with prospects? What makes individuals’s eyes mild up in curiosity? What scares them away?

At this stage, apply articulating your messaging with draft copy. I discover it useful to put out an inner temporary containing:

• Core messaging
• 3-5 key factors I would like patrons to recollect
• Function assertion (Why am I reaching out to you?)
• 30-second elevator pitch copy (What am I making an attempt to say?)
• Draft copy for short-form and long-form content material

Nice writing comes from nice pondering. Use this inner temporary mannequin to arrange your ideas and state your case.

3. Choose the precise channels.

You’ve chosen your segments and crafted a compelling message. Now, the place will you discover your patrons? When will you attain out? And how will you do it?

BTL advertising and marketing campaigns survive on nitty-gritty particulars. Out of your analysis and expertise, it’s best to know the place your patrons spend their time.

Coupled with clear messaging, you possibly can select the precise supply channels:

• Unsolicited mail
• E-mail advertising and marketing
• In-person experiences

My donor base cherished receiving letters within the mail. They tended to be older and had been extra apt to reply and convert by mailing again a examine as an alternative of finishing a digital donation type.

So, my group would ship a letter each two months to over 1,200 donors or prospects. The copy can be ghostwritten as a board member, program supervisor, and even program beneficiary. We’d inform donors about their reward’s affect and invite them to resume or improve.

Whereas we provided a number of engagement channels (e.g., “Discover us on Fb” or an internet donation hyperlink), that letter transformed and upgraded extra donors than another tactic.

Professional tip: I wouldn’t use generative AI to jot down full drafts. However, AI instruments will help you embrace customized data out of your CRM to humanize copy.

As an illustration, calling out a donor’s final volunteer interplay on the annual vacation pageant helps you join extra meaningfully. AI can scale these small insertions throughout a whole bunch or hundreds of letters.

I knew my donor base in and out, which helped me run profitable BTL campaigns. With all these items in place, you can begin operating your marketing campaign.

4. Measure and analyze outcomes.

As you execute your plan, examine your progress typically. Pay shut consideration to how your BTL marketing campaign suits inside your general advertising and marketing technique’s targets. Know which metrics matter to your group, and use these metrics to trace your marketing campaign’s outcomes.

As an illustration, my donor administration function’s targets included:

1. Establishing new giving relationships with prospects.
2. Reactivating lapsed givers.
3. Upgrading reward quantities for present donors.

Each letter in my unsolicited mail marketing campaign centered on assembly one in every of these targets. I’d then examine the response and conversion charge on these letters to study what labored, what didn’t, and the way I might enhance for the subsequent batch.

Bear in mind to collect quantitative and qualitative knowledge, too. Put up-action surveys can ship further intel in your viewers and core messaging. Prospects won’t reply to your preliminary BTL motion.

However, provide them an opportunity to win a $500 reward card in the event that they full a survey telling you what you probably did incorrect? That’ll begin conversations.

5. Tinker and retry.

You received’t at all times get it proper the primary time. The truth is, it’ll in all probability take round eight touchpoints to maneuver a prospect. Use your knowledge to tinker with earlier levels and take a look at once more.

Like all good scientific experiment, don’t alter too many dependent variables directly. You wish to monitor what you’ve modified so you possibly can replicate successful outcomes. Strive altering one segmentation criterion (e.g., shift the age group) or channel selection, and rerun your experiment.

Croft relayed that that is one in every of BTL’s biggest advantages. “BTL advertising and marketing helps you determine what to scale,” she stated. “Once you begin with extra focused advertising and marketing, you possibly can higher perceive the marketing campaign’s ROI.”

E-mail is a well-liked channel that’s overwhelming customers. Lately, your patrons in all probability by no means open your e-mail: 79% of consumers delete branded emails a minimum of half of the time.

And even after they open it, shoppers spend an average of nine seconds earlier than deciding to purchase or trash it.

Your e-mail ought to inform, interact, and convert in 9 seconds. That’s a tall order for any advertising and marketing group.

BarkBox did that to me. I’ve a canine, and he or she’s categorised as a “Tremendous Chewer.” She loves gnawing on tasty treats and hard toys. BarkBox is aware of this and sends me extremely focused, customized emails.

They put my canine’s identify within the title and waste no time in presenting the provide. The e-mail accommodates their Tremendous Chewer lineup for the vacation field, so I do know precisely what I’m getting. And BarkBox affords a transparent CTA to transform me in seconds. Guess who will chew on their Rudolph-themed toy this vacation season?

Professional tip: In case you’re struggling to make use of e-mail efficiently, our complete email marketing guide will help you start.

Instance 2: Direct Mail Present Packing containers to Improve My Subscription

Receiving a bodily merchandise nonetheless means one thing to individuals. Analysis from gifting platform Sendoso discovered that 83% of recipients feel closer to an organization after receiving a bodily reward.

However that reward has to imply one thing: Enterprise.com analysis discovered that 54% of professionals have obtained a present so unhealthy that they instantly threw it away.

You might want to know precisely what your purchaser desires and reinforce that sentiment along with your reward choice.

As an illustration, I’ve been utilizing and evangelizing an AI presentation technology instrument known as Gamma for over a 12 months. As a reward for my help and advocacy, they requested me my shirt dimension and despatched me a swag field.

Inside, I obtained a properly-sized branded hoodie, a water bottle, and a personalised be aware. Gamma despatched me helpful, significant gadgets. Whereas this field celebrated our relationship, it additionally nudged me towards upgrading my subscription.

I did precisely that. And I’ve been extra apt to share the instrument with my advertising and marketing mates.

There’s a better upfront value to this tactic — and a better value for failure for those who don’t know your viewers. However in the precise arms and with the precise individuals, unsolicited mail can ship large conversion numbers.

An unlimited quantity of quantitative and qualitative knowledge is at your disposal that can assist you section appropriately. Explore target audience research tools and strategies to get the great things.

Safe related permissions.

BTL advertising and marketing is thrilling, however pause to contemplate any authorized and moral implications. Did your unsolicited mail recipient consent to a present field? Are you following CAN-SPAM regulations along with your focused e-mail outreach?

As a result of BTL techniques usually want private knowledge, evaluate your knowledge safety and privateness necessities earlier than launching campaigns. Inform individuals how you intend to make use of their knowledge and what worth change they will count on. It pays to be upfront about your intentions and let individuals choose out simply.

You’ll be able to even flip permission gathering right into a touchpoint. For instance, let reward field recipients choose the swag they really need. You collect their consent whereas letting them participate. Plus, they’ll be further excited when their hand-chosen package deal arrives.

Combine BTL into your general advertising and marketing technique.

This tip might sound self-explanatory. However I’ve seen groups attempt to execute BTL techniques with out understanding how different advertising and marketing actions and ATL techniques have an effect on their audiences’ model notion and intent.

For instance, you possibly can construct an unimaginable sales space expertise at your business’s largest commerce present. But when no one is aware of you’re there or what to anticipate (i.e., content material you share in an above the road press launch and media outreach marketing campaign), you’ll miss out on important foot site visitors and protection.

Efficient BTL actions require you to grasp advertising and marketing’s affect throughout your group. Advertising and communications, gross sales, buyer success — interact anybody concerned in attaining advertising and marketing’s strategic outcomes.

Additionally, plan comprehensively to make sure everybody agrees and is monitoring the identical outcomes. As an illustration, use HubSpot’s email marketing planning template that can assist you plan, calendar, and optimize your BTL e-mail advertising and marketing marketing campaign. Share this doc with all stakeholders to maintain everybody on monitor.