6 ways gifting can help you pad your pipeline in 2023

You either love gifting or you dread it. If you love it, it’s likely because spending time flexing your thoughtful muscle brings you joy. Likewise, if you hate it, it probably just means you’re not able to excerpt the energy you know you want to be able to offer.

Although we can’t convince you to love gifting, we have the data and research to convince you that a robust and creative direct mail strategy can help your pipeline generation. 

Improve your sales response rates

The average response rate for a cold email in 2022 is between 1-5%. That is a lot of emails going to spam or being ignored forever and a lot of your team’s time and effort being wasted. In comparison, direct mail has an average response rate of 37%.
Direct mail has an open rate of 90% which is a far cry from the 23% open rate for marketing emails. This means that adding a sweet treat or an eGift to your outreach means you’re more likely to break through to your target customers and begin a conversation with them much faster.  

This could be why as competition increases, gifting also increased in popularity by more than 400 percent in 2021 over 2020, and that trend has only continued in 2022. 

Re-engage prospects who have gone quiet

If it’s all too easy to scroll past a targeted ad, a social post, and especially an email, then we both know it’s even easier to gloss over a repeated attempt at digital contact. 

But that’s far from the case with gifts. In fact, 70 percent of recipients renewed a relationship with a business after receiving direct mail. 

Your prospects are busy and flooded by a firehouse of sales pitches by the minute. If they don’t see you, then, well, they won’t see you. A unique and thoughtful gift is a lasting reminder, and they won’t be able to scroll away from it.

Make multi-threading your most successful tactic

OK, we all know you really are the best option, but making the simple—but deliberate—effort of sending gifts to multiple people in an organization will make that abundantly clear to your prospects, and that’s because there isn’t a single person making the buying decision. With multi-gifting, your win rate could increase by 1.29 times.

Here comes the deliberate part: You can’t blindly draw three names, send them a branded box of cookies, and hope for a sale. By targeting the people who stand to benefit the most from your solution or product and someone in power, your chances of closing will only continue to increase.

Increase brand awareness

As we talk about padding your pipeline, you can’t do that without increasing targeted interest in your solution. With your social media ad strategy, direct mail can be a pretty powerful way to get your name out there.

Seriously, it’s hard to ignore the branded Yeti mug that sits on your desk daily. Or you can direct them to your website for coffee on you (plus a bonus download to learn more). You’d be surprised how quickly your buyer shifts to consideration, and it all depends on the personal touch a little generosity brings. 

Secure highly engaged referrals

Harvard Business Review reports that an astounding 84 percent of buyers started as a referral, so we really can’t underestimate the value of a good referral. And you can develop a big referral pool by encouraging existing customers to share their best bet. A peer-to-peer review carries a lot more weight in the trust—and buying—department than the voice of even the warmest salesperson.

Gifting can be an incredibly helpful tool in encouraging customers to give you a referral. Send an UberEats gift card with a “lunch on us!” note as a thank you. It’s a gesture that’ll earn a smile an email never could.

Boost close rates and retain customers

A redeemed gift you’ve sent means a buyer is 1.44 times more likely to buy than one not redeemed, so selecting the right one is vital. This, as you know, is where some good listening and your relationship with the contact comes in. By understanding someone’s specific interests well, you’ll know that Claire would probably appreciate a fuzzy blanket because her office is cold.

Once they’ve made the jump, you can shift the tone of your gifting a bit and send them some swag as a thank you—and a warm welcome to “the family.”

Consider your 2023 pipeline padded

Thoughtful gifting at any stage of the buyer journey will create a growing sense of fondness and loyalty in your brand and set you apart from the sea of inbox stuffers. As long as you’re gifting from a place of genuine thoughtfulness, Reachdesk can help take care of the parts you might hate.

For more research into direct mail and gifting, read our Global state of gifting report.