If You Are Serious About Growing Your Business, Direct Response Marketing Must Be Used

Direct  Response Marketing

Marketing programs where the response can be measured are in the category of direct response marketing. If you watch and add for Pepsi during the Super Bowl, you may be entertained.  However, Pepsico will not be able to track a specific purchase to that add. The add is brand development marketing. Pepsico will argue they can track the sales statistics and see a difference. Great! What made the difference? The Super Bowl promotion where the price was less expensive than coke? Was it the image of a celebrity drinking the beverage and you thinking you will be that person, or was it the taste? Pepsico doesn't know.

If you receive an invitation to attend a special showing of cars for sale at a dealership including a key that may open the door to a brand new car. The response to that promotion can be measured. If the ad copy and the idea of walking away with a new car if the key works appeals to you, then you will visit the dealership on the prescribed dates and if you do not win the car, a salesperson may succeed with a deal you cannot refuse. There is emotion tied to that promotion which gives rise to the term emotional direct response marketing.

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Direct response marketing applies to every place you promote your business. Print advertising, Internet web site, pay per click promotion, email campaigns, direct mail promotion, yellow pages and electronic media should all have a basis for tracking response.

Selecting a company to assist you with your marketing strategy is not difficult. What you must do is understand there are different steps involved in planning and executing your strategy. For example, the skills required for writing a direct mail campaign are different that the ones required to actually print and distribute the mailings. Each part is very important and if not properly handled will result in a wasted campaign. On the front end of this example is a strategy. The people used for developing the strategy, copywriting and executing the mailings, may all be different.

What is the most important of all the activities? Writing the copy including the headline and message. If the words don't sell nothing else matters. By the best copywriter you can afford. If you are a large company, I have a list of five people who I recommend. They are not cheap and many companies cannot afford them. If the money is a problem we will need to go to the next tier. In many cases we work together and will arrive at a campaign that will get the job done.