Direct-response marketing is a form of marketing designed to solicit a response which comes directly from your targeted prospects. There you have it – the secret of direct response marketing revealed. Mastering it has made the producers and pitchmen for infomercials and home shopping channels into millionaires and (sometimes notorious) celebrities.
To make a direct response campaign work you must answer the consumer’s #1 question, “What’s in it for me?”
You’ll need to figure that out to develop the right words to express this. What’s next? All you have to do is give your prospective customer a reason to act now and an easy way to connect with you. Surprisingly this is where a lot of direct response campaigns fall apart. Here are two examples from two different mediums (direct mail and online) about the simpler “contact us” issue.
While it feels like I am on every direct mail list on the planet, I probably don’t get much more than you do. The offers reach my home in simple ways, like flyers taped to my door to elaborate (and expensive) mailings delivered by FedEx. My favorite pieces (and I’ve seen way more than a few) are the ones that forget to include a response mechanism like a telephone number or have no company name. If it wasn’t an oversight, maybe they thought the element of “mystery” would add allure to the piece but, for me at least, it meant an express trip to the round filing cabinet. I have enough to do without becoming Sherlock Holmes to discover the hidden identity of the mailer.
I also spend a fair bit of time online. Whether it is for personal shopping or research for work, I want to quickly and easily understand what is being offered and how I can get it. I just finished a marketing study for a leading building product manufacturer where, as part of the project, I reviewed more than 200 websites belonging to their “premier/certified/elite” dealers. More than four out of ten websites (44% to be exact) did not have an adequate online response mechanism – a “contact us” or “request a free estimate” button or form on their home page. Even more amazing is that 17% of the sites (almost two out of every ten) did not have any online response capability at all. I am all for driving telephone responses through a toll free number that is answered 24/7 by qualified sales agents. But if a consumer is on your website they might want to, make contact with you online. How else can you order the deluxe box set of the Soprano’s when you’re surfing the web one the clock at work?
Do yourself a favor and look at your print and electronic messaging (be it ads, mailings or websites) and make sure that your prospective customers do not have to look twice to find an easy way to connect with you.
Post a comment if you found a response tool that works great or you’re not sure what a great response tool would be.
Next time I’ll share some thought on offers that can compel them to ACT NOW.
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I value the blog post.Really looking forward to read more. Really Great.
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