Marketing and Business Strategy

These Four Things Will Make Your Direct Marketing Successful

© 2005 Al Lautenslager

Direct marketing is built on four things. The other way to look at it is that when you think direct marketing is not working only one of four things can be wrong. Let’s look at each.

1.The Target – This is who you are sending your marketing to. The target is your list and the list is your market. These are the people most interested in what you have to say, what you have to offer and what you have to sell. These are interested prospects, hopefully, that will want what you have to sell. If this group does not want or need what you have then your target needs changed. Your target does not represent your market in this case.

When working with list brokers, you can specify what your ideal target, ideal client or market should be. This is where most people think of demographics. How big a company is, what the income is or sales level is, where they are located, their age, their family size, etc. All of this defines your target and the tighter the definition of your target, the higher the probability of success.

TO-DO: Write out the description of your ideal client. Contact list brokers and see how many of these there are. Make sure to specify geographical areas. Determine the cost of such a list. Buy the list and start mailing to it over and over and over on a frequent, consistent basis.

2.The Vehicle – This is what you are sending to your list. In the world of direct mail it’s pretty simple: A letter, A postcard, A catalog or a three dimensional package. Professional companies like letters. People that are on the run, multi-taker entrepreneurs may prefer postcards. C-level officers buying high ticket items may prefer a package. Consider this when determining your direct marketing campaign budget and base it on what you think your target market will want.

3.The Message – This component of direct marketing is what you are saying to your market; to your audience; to your list. This is also where you develop and communicate the offer that you are seeking a response to. Your job with the message is to communicate benefit oriented information and advantages that will motivate the prospect to take some type of action. The action might be a sale, a phone call, a visit or a web-site visit.

Think of a coupon. That is a response mechanism. The prospect sees the value and product offering on the coupon and visits a place of business and redeems it, all conforming to benefit communication and motivation to action.

4.Frequency – So many times people try direct marketing and give up because of low response. They typically give up before giving the campaign enough time to work. We are inundated with marketing messages everyday, therefore it takes repetition and consistency of delivering that message to match up with timing and desire to the point where the prospect will take action.

The rule of thumb is 6-8 times will create the top of mind awareness in the mind of your prospect so that they think of you, your product or service when their need or want arises.