You often hear advertising people talking about ‘direct marketing’, but what exactly is it? I’m going to start this article by explaining more about direct marketing, what it is and then eventually explain the best ways you can use it.
Direct marketing in the broadest sense is any sort of marketing that involves a single ‘call-to-action’, that is to say some form of advertising or marketing material that encourages the customer to do one thing which will put them one step close to buying your product. It’s called specifically direct marketing, because once the call to action is fulfilled, a marketer can speak directly to his customer. The most popular type of direct marketing in the past has been the dreaded ‘junk mail’, but the world is changing and now smart marketers are exploring other avenues to catch the interest of their customers.
What Should The Strategy Be?
The main focus of any direct marketing strategy is to increase the number of customers that respond to your marketing campaign or “response rate” while also trying to decrease the cost of advertising. Furthermore, another goal you should bear in mind is the development of a brand name - direct marketing if used wisely can provide huge exposure for your brand.
How To Target Audiences
Before you even begin to design your marketing campaign, it’s critical that you decide who the audience will be for your product.Developing a marketing campaign that speaks directly to your potential customer’s wants and needs will mean the difference between creating quality sales leads for your business and utter frustration at a lack of customer responsiveness.
Several important questions to answer when developing any direct marketing campaign are:
* Who..? Who do you think might benefit from your product, and who are you inviting the call-of-action to?
* Why..? What is the main purpose of your campaign. Why do you want people to give you their information?
* What…? What is the main benefit you’r providing to your customers?
* When…? Do your customers need to respond to this message immediately, or not? Will they be receiving a product immediatley, or will they be rewarded over a longer period of time?
* How…? What method are you going to use to distribute your marketing material? Printing leaflets, online, telephone? What’s your strategy?
Don’t forget your existing customers
I’ve talked today about the very basics of designing a direct marketing campaign. It’s important not to overlook onen of the most underrated resources you already have: existing customers! Because existing customers already trust you, they’re an awful lot easier to sell products to.
One idea might be to send a customized calendar to all your existing customers this year. Imagine being able to keep your brand in the customer’s mind for the entire year! Calendars are a great way to do this, if designed properly.A properly designed calendar can really help your business.
Aglobalworld.com is a company producing international calendar for businesses. Ours is the only truly international planner that includes holiday dates from around the world.
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