Direct marketing campaigns are about making a direct connection with prospects and customers to promote your product and/or services. Direct marketing helps businesses communicate with their audience through a variety of marketing channels, including direct mail, email, telemarketing, and mobile marketing. Unlike media advertising, direct marketing lets you target specific people, often with a personalized message. Direct marketing can be a very cost effective way to generate sales and increase brand awareness, making it an ideal form of marketing for most businesses. Whether you are new to direct marketing or an experienced direct marketing veteran, here are 5 quick pointers to remember when devising a direct marketing campaign.
1. Target the Right Audience
Direct marketing allows you to generate a response from targeted audiences. You can focus your marketing resources where they will most likely receive results. Not properly targeting your audience hurts your brand when customers receive irrelevant material. It is important to identify and target the correct audience by delivering your marketing message using the right marketing channels at the right time.
2. Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse
Creating an attractive offer for the customer is crucial. You want to offer something that will entice the customer and hopefully have them coming back for more. Getting your customer to buy from you again is very important; for that reason try planning your offer around something that will have the customer coming back. Some techniques you can use are free trials and first-time buyer discounts. Make sure to make your offer easy to claim as well. If it takes too much work for them to claim, they won’t do it.
3. Write Compelling Copy
Most readers are skim readers. You only have moments to make an impression with your direct marketing campaigns, so use those few moments to your advantage. Copyblogger writes, “Copywriting is one of the most essential elements of effective marketing.” It involves strategic word choice to get people to take some form of action. When you have boring, long, or confusing copy, your audience is likely to delete it or throw it away before they get to your offer. When writing your copy, use words and phrases that excite and interest the reader. “Preferred Customer” or “Exclusive” are some examples of enticing words that draw in readers.
4. Choose the Correct Medium
Consider your goal and your audience when choosing the medium for your direct marketing campaign. A catalog that highlights your latest product line might have more of an impact than an email of the same products.
5. Keep the CTA Simple and Clear
Clearly state the call-to-action that specifies how you want your audience to respond. Sometimes people need to be directed before they take action. Repeat your CTA a couple of times in your marketing material so you are sure they aren’t skimming over it or missing it entirely. Give your audience the appropriate options to respond to your offer: a toll-free number to call, a website to visit, a QR code to scan, etc. Putting a clear CTA on your marketing piece will make it difficult for the reader to ignore it or misinterpret it.
Whether you are targeting businesses or consumers, a good direct marketing campaign can take you straight to your target consumer and deliver exceptional results. However, remember that the success of your campaign depends on planning and strategizing. If you need help with your next direct marketing campaign, be sure to call US Data Corporation at (888) 578-3282.