Putting together a successful direct marketingcampaign takes more than a hit-and-miss approach. You can’t leave anything to chance, and it’s essential that you include the most important elements and that they all work together. Here are the three primary components that you need to ensure are rich, well-rounded and fully fleshed out before you hit the ‘send’ button:
Media Channels and Formats
The selection of media you use for a direct marketingcampaign is vitally important for its effectiveness. Using the right tools, channels and formats can make the difference between hundreds of responses—or none at all!
Direct marketing is what’s called ‘channel-agnostic,’ which means you can use any combination of media or methods, including:
- Direct mail, such as personalized letters, flyers, brochures or catalogues sent by mail to the recipient’s mailing address
- Digital marketing, such as downloadable content, email marketing, social media, mobile alerts, online catalogues and offers
- Sampling, either in person or online depending on the product
- Telemarketing, including outbound telephone calls from sales agents
- Couponing, sending either physical or digital coupons and offers to users
Two aspects that are unique to direct marketingare strong calls to action (CTAs) and analytics, which provides measurable results and comprehensive reports.
The Offer
Identification of an offer that appeals to your primary target market doesn’t happen on its own. You’ll need to segment your market carefully and determine what benefits are the most attractive to your ideal customer. If your offer isn’t carefully crafted, clearly presented and offering value, you can kill the response to your campaign.
The Creative
This is third for a reason. It’s the packaging you use to present the offer you send out using the channels you’ve chosen. While packaging is important, it’s slightly less critical than what you send and how you send it. The vital aspects of packaging your offer are:
- Clarity of the message
- Easy response mechanisms
- Value exchange
As long as your recipient can easily identify what he is getting, how to get it and what you want from him in return, your campaign is all set for a good response rate.
Finally, testing is an element of all direct marketingcampaigns that is often overlooked. And without it, you’ll never know what worked or not, and why! So test each campaign on a pilot group first before you invest the time and money in the full campaign, and make sure you’re getting the bang for your buck that you really want.
