Direct Marketing
Direct Marketing
Direct
marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to
establish a one-to-one personal relationship between a
potential customer and a business.
A direct marketing message can be designed to make an
instant sale, open a dialogue between the potential
customer and your business or simply inform the
potential buyer about your many products and services.
Four ingredients must be coordinated to design and
implement a highly successful direct marketing campaign.
1. Procure a targeted list
2. Make a targeted offer
3. Create a properly designed piece with great
("dazzling") copy
4. All delivered at the right time ("timing is
everything")
The List:
First, the proper list must be procured. The
right list will give you the ultimate opportunities for
success. You can have the best product, but if it is
delivered to people who do not partake of the services
or product you are offering …we have wasted time,
effort, and money!
The Offer:
Unless your project goals are simply to provide product
awareness (and that can be a worthy goal) you must make
an offer. You have heard of WIIFM (What’s In It For Me).
As hard as it is for most in "the business" to believe,
relatively few people know who you are, and fewer are
motivated to pick up the phone and purchase your product
right now. You need an incentive to move your mailer
from the "to do" stack to the "do now" action item. The
secret is choosing the right offer for your target
market at the right time. Many of the prettiest direct
marketing pieces fail simply because they have the wrong
offer or worse…no offer!
The Design & Copy:
The goal is to make recipients open your mailer or visit
your web site, then we must maintain their interest and
get them to act. Speaking of action… A call to action
must exist, preferably with an toll free number, postage
paid business reply, and a web based Internet response
mechanisms with web pages designed to make the consumer
take action.
Timing:
An offer made too early, or too late will not work.
IMS-21 has a track record of success including numerous
mailings resulting in minimum of 2% to 4% response
rates, well above the industry average. IMS-21 has
generated direct mail campaigns, which have generated
better than 20% response!
"Top notch, innovative, one step ahead of the rest,
marketing company where the clients interests really do
come first."
- Bud Harmon, Executive Director Old Orchard Beach
Chamber of Commerce