Firstly, you might be wondering what direct marketing is all about – so I will take a little time to explain precisely what we mean when we’re talking about direct marketing.
According to Wikipedia, direct marketing is defined as “a sub discipline of marketing focused to driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific call to action”. It’s called specifically direct marketing, because once the call to action is fulfilled, a marketer can speak directly to his customer. Popular examples of direct marketing include mail-shots, email newsletters, newspaper adverts, radio/TV and Internet signup boxes.
Overall Strategy
For any marketing strategy, the focus should of course be in maximising ROI (return on investment) – that is to say reduce the cost per acquisition, and try to increase the overall volume of customers you are reaching. The campaign might have other benefits too, such as establishing your company brand name.
How To Target Audiences
One very important factor in designing your direct marketing campaign is to decide on the audience to target. In using proper targeting techniques, you’ll be able to get inside the head of your customer and then address their wants and needs, as well as address concerns about your brand.
Several important questions to answer when developing any direct marketing campaign are:
* Who..? Who do you think might benefit from your product, and who are you inviting the call-of-action to?
* Why..? Why would anyone want to fill in your form for more information? More importantly, why do you want them to do it? What do you stand to gain as a marketer with their information?
* What…? What is the main benefit you’r providing to your customers?
* When…? How soon are you looking to take your customers into your ‘sales funnel’? Do you need an immediate respsonse from them, or are you just looking to start building a relationship with them?
* How…? What method are you going to use to distribute your marketing material? Printing leaflets, online, telephone? What’s your strategy?
Don’t forget your existing customers
I’ve talked today about the very basics of designing a direct marketing campaign. It’s important not to overlook onen of the most underrated resources you already have: existing customers! Quite often, an existing customer will alread have placed their trust in you and is therefore much more open to suggestions.
Since it’s going to be January again soon, you might want to use this time to start planning a customized calendar to send to your existing customers.Calendars are great because they’re useful, they can be on a customer’s wall for an entire year and they keep your brand in the customer’s mind.A properly designed calendar can really help your business.
Aglobalworld.com is a company producing international calendar for businesses. Ours is the only truly international planner that includes holiday dates from around the world.