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Article #60: Direct Response Advertising

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"A Powerful Direct Response Marketing beginning of the century. The only
Guide that Can Literally Double or Triple difference today is that the Internet has
the Number of New Clients Your Bring Into made it much faster and cheaper to
Your Business Online or Offline" compile permission based opt-in lists
Contact Information online.
Timothy Little--For details on how to Even a great product at a reduced price
launch a direct response Web site or mail would be useless if it is presented to
marketing campaign contact me by E-mail the wrong prospects. You must target your
For free consultation e-mail the quote prospect to generate traffic for your
form at or call me by phone at (989) product by Web site or mail.
463-5951Part 1: Defining Direct Response Most lists fall into two categories
Advertising compiled lists or direct response lists.
Direct Response marketing is accountable. Compiled lists are phone directories
It is advertising you can justify and annual membership rosters, and
track. Not only is direct response manufacturing directories. Response lists
marketing measurable but it can easily be are just as they imply they have
adapted to fit your advertising budget. responded and purchased a targeted
The heart of direct response advertising product or service recently, because of
is in the planning, organizing and this fact they are most likely to
pricing of the marketing campaign. Small purchase a similar item again. Response
business entrepreneurs must match mailing lists are common for magazine
list selection to prospect profiles and subscriptions or lists of prospects that
design a campaign that targets the have purchased life insurance or indexed
customer. Most importantly, providing annuities recently.
follow up service with back-end analysis, Standard Rates and Data Services (SRDS)
fulfillment of orders and inquiries this are directories of response lists. They
allows a small business to test and will include quantities and descriptions
measure campaigns quickly and of each list for sale.
inexpensively. Part 3: Direct Marketing Strategy
A small business financial planner can The offer is often referred to as the
than focus on the most profitable deal. This is what people get for there
segments of a campaign. Direct response money. Whether you're planning a direct
marketing is efficient its small target marketing strategy, evaluating a campaign
groups made up of the most interested or writing an ad much of the work
prospects for a product or service. revolves around three important elements.
Direct mail and direct marketing are The offer the list and the creative and
sometimes used interchangeably. Direct these elements work together or
marketing can be used effectively in many separately to make your direct marketing
different media's and is not limited to promotion work.
direct mail advertising. Direct marketing The offer is the product or service being
goes far beyond sending self contained sold and includes any warranties,
mailers. This reality is truer online guarantees, features, and price and
since, accumulating opt-in permission credit terms. The offer could also be the
based names for e-mail promotions can be actions someone needs to take to place an
done at a fraction of the cost of bulk order like a shopping cart or form on a
mail marketing campaigns. I can help you Web site or reply card in a bulk mailing.
during the critical planning stages Offers separate general advertising from
e-mail me at for more information. direct response. General advertising
Direct response advertising can be used often excludes the critical information
in variations to support marketing and that should always be included in direct
promotional activities for driving response advertising. Direct response
traffic to your Web site or inquiries for puts all the necessary information
a product or service together in an offer and tells the reader
A study recently published in the exactly how to respond. People expect
Marketing section of the Wall Street offers in direct response advertising.
Journal (December 2002.) Indicates that You must give the prospective customer a
media spending will shift away from reason to respond like limited offer or
traditional media advertising and switch special bonus, since the purchase is
towards Internet marketing and direct impulsive in nature.
mail since they appear to be more Failing to make the offer clear or
promising. "E-mail marketing is more forgetting to make an offer at all is a
measurable and is seen as a good value common mistake among direct response
for the money as people get better marketing beginners. The way to get a
customer targeting". response to an offer is to make a deal
The growth of direct response marketing that prospects can't refuse.
online and off has grown tremendously In direct marketing, offers are
over the last few years. The benefits and categorized by the method of payment.
profit potential online has been Offers with delayed billing and trial
recognized worldwide and will be the periods are soft offers. Asking for a
number one advertising vehicle both payment up front with a special bonus for
online and off for the following reasons. paying now by credit card is a hard
*Patrick Barwise - London Business School offer. The payment terms like accepting
management and marketing. credit cards online makes a big
Benefits drive direct marketing. If you difference in the response to the offer.
don't already think of your marketing in Splitting up payments can sometimes make
terms of benefits, now is a good time to a difference on higher priced items.
start. Direct marketing is like no other Sometimes in direct marketing the
form of advertising since you have elements included in a product can make a
control over your message and you control big difference in response. The price of
everything color, design, the list, and an offer should be tested at certain
your budget and payment options. price points. Testing hard offer verses
The flexibility of direct response soft offer sometimes can make a big
marketing helps you to broaden your difference in response rates. Always
thinking. Precise targeting allows you to strive to improve your offer by testing
search for specific products. The more different elements of an offer.
precise your message is the less money Part 4: Direct Marketing Creative
and time you spend on people who are not Your actual copy and graphic design is
interested or qualified to use your important in direct response but less
product. Direct response marketing is an than a well defined strategy using your
equalizer for a small business. Finally offer and a targeted list.
you are able to compete with larger Poor graphic design can hurt your
competitors with targeted messages and response and professional image. Lavish
react quickly to changes in the market or unusual artistic techniques may work
because of your small size. well for magazines and other types of
Direct Marketing is immediate and advertising but would actually distract
personal. What is more immediate and or lower response rates in direct mail.
personal than a letter? New opt-in email It would be wise to keep your graphic
technologies allow you to reach thousands design to a minimum unless you employ a
of prospects in minutes with a graphic designer for design or
personalized message including name and professional photographer to shoot your
personal interests. photography. Direct response advertising
Direct marketing is a more testable form is a combination of words, pictures and
of advertising. Every mailing campaign graphics. The words used almost always
you run is an opportunity for you to test must move and persuade.
something and gain information that can Write a sales letter for entry-level
help you improve your marketing. You products or service's and feature it on
always have the opportunity to test your home page. Write a sales letter
different lists, offers and packages. You convincing prospects to send an e-mail
need to have a good tracking program in requesting a sales representative to
place to do this effectively. contact them. Offer free reports, e-zine
Part 2: The money is in the list to build the list. Personalizing with
You can use direct response marketing to first name last name, gender zip-code
build a database. Whenever a prospect using mail/merge software will increase
buys from you simply add their name and response and will separate you from the
purchase information to your database. clutter of emails prospects get.
The quickest way to build a database is Using a compelling headline that draws
to offer a free electronic brochure your prospect into your letter and
embedded on your Web site for example (9 promotion can triple marketing response.
ways to retire 10 years early or free The headline should be driven by product
quotes and 30 days of free life benefits or solving a problem. Headline
insurance.) offers would be a good item to test in a
The reason for your database is to letter and can pay for it self many times
re-sell to your prospects again and again over since this would become your control
and test cross selling techniques for letter. Newspapers and tabloids use well
free. This brochure can be plugged in to crafted headlines to sell there
your web site for download or you can publications at point of purchase
personally make an appointment with your display's.
prospect and hand them a brochure in Only a few Web sites use direct response
person. marketing in there copy and the Web sites
There is no doubt that these techniques that have tested sales copy have been
will help you to achieve success in your successful. Marlon Sanders and Cory Rudl
marketing efforts. It is important that are good examples of internet direct
you plot the destination of your response marketing pioneers. Both have
marketing campaigns with a marketing or made fortunes selling and testing there
business plan. Direct marketing results books and e-books on the internet using
are almost immediate and these results old fashioned marketing techniques. Web
will not help you unless you plan your sites that sell products and services do
business objectives. Many companies better if graphics and flashy programming
falter and lose sight of overall goals designs are excluded since they take
without a marketing plan to guide them. longer to load which will greatly lower
Improved Computer capabilities and more the response unless closely tested.
recently the internet has made both The focus is writing compelling copy that
direct marketing and direct mail more describes the many benefits and features
efficient and more effective with of products or services. Products that
database marketing. The way to make are digital in nature like e-books and
direct mail more efficient especially MP3 music and software do especially well
with the rising costs of postal rates and since the visitor will get immediate
print media is to target prospects with satisfaction by checking out with credit
database collections. card and downloading within a couple of
The database is a collection of minutes. If you are selling e-commerce
information on customers and perspective web mall items clean digital photography
customers including their names, with limited graphics and strong copy
addresses, titles and companies. Lists featuring benefits like free delivery,
selections can be further segmented by guaranteed satisfaction or free downloads
geography or zip-codes, gender, income will help response levels.
and commission levels. Direct response soft offer trial periods
Prospects are grouped together with are being used frequently by Microsoft
common characteristics to increase Network and AOL to market there internet
marketing effectiveness. The database is services. Like 60 days free with credit
used to fit customers with products or card verification. When the competition
services and to aim a precisely written is fierce and pockets are deep soft
message to a special group of people. offers can be very effective as long as
Successful sales professionals know that your billing package has been tested and
the more they know about their customers has proved to be effective. Payment
and prospects the better they will be variations (credit card, check,
able to sell to them. The same is true in installment by phone or emailed by CGI
direct marketing and the list is the key form) may work well for products and
resource. services on the internet. This technique
Close list selection and analysis is the used in direct mail would have the
first step to ensuring a successful opposite effect and may lower response.
direct response program both online and Testing this feature would give you the
off. The money is in the list and in this best answer.
sense the internet has not changed this Sometimes billing prospects for services
fact. Today, it is much less expensive to can triple the response rate. The payment
collect and test different offers with offer can be a crucial element in a
the speed of the Internet. This is the direct response campaign and should be
same way publishers have sold magazine evaluated closely, since the pay up rate
subscriptions and books since the could possibly break a small business.






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