Understanding Direct Marketing
To really learn about direct marketing and how you can use it to better your business you should first understand what direct marketing is.
The most general definition of direct marketing is something along the lines of this: any advertising or marketing literature that involves asking a customer to do something. In other words, a ‘call-to-action’. The advertising is responsible for getting the customer to respond to something, which will then put them in your sales funnel. It’s called specifically direct marketing, because once the call to action is fulfilled, a marketer can speak directly to his customer.Some examples of direct marketing include, direct mail, email, newspaper, radio, television, and of course the internet.
Overall Strategy
For any marketing strategy, the focus should of course be in maximising ROI (return on investment) – that is to say reduce the cost per acquisition, and try to increase the overall volume of customers you are reaching. The campaign might have other benefits too, such as establishing your company brand name.
Targeting Audiences
One of the most important aspects of designing a successful direct marketing campaign is in targeting your audience. In using proper targeting techniques, you’ll be able to get inside the head of your customer and then address their wants and needs, as well as address concerns about your brand.
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..? Do you just want people to review a few helpful products..or do you want them to retain your services?
* 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…? How do you intend to present and distribute your message to your potential customers?
New customers are all very well…
This article has outlined the basic ideas of direct marketing and the ways you can approach it. However, you shouldn’t neglect existing customers at the expense of new ones. 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. Calendars have a huge advantage as marketing material – they’re actually useful, and can allow you to keep your brand and message in the customer’s mind for a whole year!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.