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Direct Mail Best Practices

Edited

After mailing millions of invitations for dinner seminars,  we've learned a thing or two about what it takes to execute a GREAT dinner seminar with direct mail. This page is designed to help you achieve great results too by following our proven Dinner Seminar Best Practices. Please read these carefully to maximize your seminar performance.

Best Practices Overview:

  • Venue: Restaurants with private dining rooms (steakhouses are preferred, high-end American, Italian and seafood restaurants are good alternatives). 

  • Time of Day: Start time between 6:00 and 7:00 PM

  • Days of Week: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays

  • Date Spacing: No more than 1 week between event 1 and 2

  • Number of Seminars: 1 or 2 events per mailer is ideal 

  • Location: Your venue should be in the center of your marketing area (15 mile radius max recommended mailing zone)

  • Frequency: Leave at least 35 days between campaigns in the same marketing zone

TIMING OF YOUR ORDER

  • We need your order 40 days before your seminar event. 

  • Orders should be submitted through the Steep Portal at least 40 days before your first seminar date. Mail should be in homes 14 days before your seminar date, and we budget time for design, approval, list management, printing, and transit. 

Best Practices (expanded...)

DAYS OF THE WEEK

  • Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the best nights for seminars.

  • Multiple Dates: No more than 2 dates on any one campaign. 2 date campaigns should not be more than 1 week apart.

  • Only 1 venue should be used on any one campaign.

TIMING 

  • Start times should be between 6 and 7 PM. We also recommend a 1-hour presentation length.

 VENUES

  • The best performing restaurants for dinner seminars are higher-end steakhouses (ex: Fleming's, Ruth's Chris, Ocean Prime, etc. ). Higher-end American or Italian restaurants can also work well as alternatives to steakhouses (ex: The Keg, Maggiano's, etc). 

  • All restaurant venues should have a private dining room for your seminar. 

  • Steep is proud to offer a corporate partnership with Fleming's Steakhouse to our advisors. This arrangement provides you with exceptional discounts, zero booking fees, and other amenities at no cost. To request a Fleming's event, fill our our exclusive discount request here. 

Please note it is your responsibility to secure your venue space and obtain any insurance required by the venue. Please share any venue specific regulations with our team related to marketing your event in the special instructions on your order.

MAILING LIST & LOCATION

  • Your mailing recipients should be no more than 15 miles from your venue, and your venue should be centered in the marketing area. 

  • All mailing lists will be the Steep's Wealth Blend, our exclusive first party data and proprietary blend of targeting parameters. You can customize the Steep Wealth Blend with these preferences: Target Investable Assets, age, and location.

 FREQUENCY

  • Each seminar campaign should be at least 35 days after the most recent event to allow a “cool down” period in the marketing zone.

  • Marketing to the same zone sooner than 35 days can cause market saturation sooner and could reduce your response rate.

  • If you want to do seminars more than 35 days, we recommend choosing a venue in a different sub-market.

 ATTENDANCE AND CONFIRMATION

Confirming seminar registrations is critical. We'll take care of automated reminders, and most advisor prefer to do their own phone confirmations. 

What we will do:

  • Automated Email Confirmations: We'll send 3 automated reminder emails to your seminar registrants (1) right after they register, (2) the day before their event, (3) the day of their event. For advisors wishing to prequalify their seminar attendees, we have an alternate email sequence. Ask your Success Coach for details. 

  • Real-Time Registration Notification: You will receive notification emails in real time as registrations are made. You can also reference all registration data on the Steep Portal. Each registration will include: Name, Email, Phone, Number of attendees, guest name, and mailing address. 

  • Automated Text Confirmations: We'll send 2 automated text messages to your seminar registrants (1) right after they register and (2) the day of their event. These texts will include the details for the event, an option to add to their calendar, and a Google map link for driving directions. 

  • Important: Because we're sending emails and texts to your registrants, we recommend that you avoid sending additional emails and texts yourself. Receiving multiple communications from different senders can cause confusion, over communication, and will hurt your attendance rate.

What you should do:

  • In additional to our emails, we recommend you call each registrant to confirm their attendance, and make a confirmation call 24 hours before the event.

Campaigns that conform to best practices have a consistent track record of success. By following this proven formula, you’re on the fast track to great results.