Direct Response Marketing

Do you want to advertise a new product in such a way that the prospective consumer could give you immediate feedback about your product? Why not try direct response marketing techniques?

The success of direct response marketing can be attributed to the fact that this form of marketing allows the prospective consumers to be able to contact the marketer immediately. Direct response marketing is carried out by communicating directly with prospective buyers, whether they are individual consumers or a business. This can be done in different ways, the most common being :

– By mail ( also known as direct mail marketing). This is by sending out postcards or letters to prospective consumers.

– By email. This method is perfect if you want to save time and reduce levels of expenditure for marketing .

– By telephone

– With the help of door-to-door salesmen. As most salesmen may also carry a sample of the product with them, this is an excellent way to increase sales.

For all the above methods, it’s important that you first construct a list of potential consumers. For this you need to be clear as to what you target group would be. For example if your product is more likely to appeal to teenagers, your list should contain addresses of this age group only. Although you could try direct response marketing with other age groups, you would only have wasted time, money and energy if they simply throw away the leaflet.

However direct response marketing should not impede on a persons privacy. This means that consumers on these mailing lists should be given the option of being able to choose not to receive promotional material if they don’t want to.

Here are a few tips for effective direct response marketing:

Remember that your advertisements need to be attractive and eye-catching! Try personalizing any promotional material that you send by adding your logo and maybe even pictures of the product.

Make it easy for people to able to respond to your letters and emails. Your telephone number and address must be clearly stated should they decide to drop by and have a look at the products.

Make your letters and messages as simple as possible. The more complicated it gets , the less likely consumers are to actually read the letter and respond.

Infomercials on TV are another common form of getting your consumers to call back. The consumer can then call back and use their credit cards if they want to purchase the product.

Donna Price, Marketing Strategist & Business Consultant

Donna Price is a strategist, working with entrepreneurs to increase profits using the 7 Profitability Accelerators. Create your system for success.

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