How to Succeed in Direct Response Marketing

What Is Direct Response Marketing? 

Direct response marketing is when you market directly to the consumer as an individual with a call to action. You’re seeking a direct response, and that should be clear in the call-to-action in your marketing message. This is in contrast to traditional marketing that is broadly aimed. For example, instead of showing an ad intended to make hundreds consider your ordering from your website, you send a marketing email with a personalized deal telling them to buy now. All they have to do is click on a specifically designated element in the email to be taken to the ecommerce site and complete the purchase.

What Are the Benefits of Direct Response Marketing? 

If you have good data on the customer in your customer relationship management system, the biggest benefit of direct response marketing is the high return on the investment. You send curated content that calls for them to book an appointment or buy a product. You send personalized offers with a call-to-action button encouraging them to buy now. And you create a sense of urgency with instant deals that expire soon. The conversion rate is hard to beat. 

Tips on How to Succeed in Direct Response Marketing 

If you can do it right, direct response marketing will generate a steady stream of sales for relatively little effort. Here are a few tips on how to succeed in direct response marketing. 

Know Your Customer 

You’re not going to succeed if you’re sending time-sensitive deals on baby products to people who aren’t parents. This is why you need a sales funnel that collects relevant information, in this case, the due date of their child or birthdate of said child. Don’t send emails or show online banners to people who aren’t likely to buy the product, or they’ll start blocking your marketing materials. 

Analyze the Sales Data 

The offer itself is a combination of the item, the price, the terms and conditions, incentives, and a time frame. There are offers that tend to do better than others such as discounts and extras thrown in as a bundle deal. Experiment with price points, delivery promises, warranties, and terms and conditions. Analyze the data to figure out which factors in an offer maximize the odds they buy, and which combination of factors are the most profitable for you. You can’t afford to be selling things at a loss for long. 

Benchmark 

You need to pay attention to what the competition is doing. Are they starting to offer free shipping? You could start to lose customers if you’re still charging for shipping instead of rolling it into the price tag. Is your shipping now considered slow? Find ways to meet or exceed customer expectations so that your offers continue to be enticing to the customer. 

Be Honest 

Any direct response ad must have the information customers need to make a decision such as the amount saved if they buy now and the delivery date. Do not play games in order to maximize profits. Promising a rebate while making it too hard to get will make customers turn on you, and it would have been better not to offer the rebate at all. Be careful with requiring them to buy qualifying items, because they may feel betrayed if they bought multiple items but failed to see the promised incentives.

One solution is to build the incentives into the shopping cart on your ecommerce site. Make it clear how much they’ll pay for the product, add-ons, faster delivery and taxes. Then they won’t feel like they were cheated when the total bill is higher than expected. On the other hand, you should make it clear when you’re making them sign up for an account on your website or signing them up for a mailing list. If you’re doing this, always give people the option to opt out.