Every day, businesses are being told about yet another marketing tactic that they need to use. Ultimately, it’s important to consider the prospects of each against your existing marketing strategy. Today, the topic in question is direct response marketing.
What’s Direct Response Marketing?
As the name suggests, the aim of direct response marketing is to encourage prospects to take instant action in response to marketing material. When creating a direct response ad, you push for instant responses from prospects because you’re trying to generate quick leads. On the other hand, traditional marketing can sometimes aim to boost exposure and awareness rather than instant results.
While social media is a focal point right now, you can also implement direct response marketing on radio, email, TV, and various other channels. When discussing direct response marketing, it’s important not to fall into the trap of thinking that action means sales. Direct response marketing campaigns aren’t necessarily generated to make sales. Instead, it could be sharing contact information, signing up for a newsletter, or performing another action.
How Does It Work?
Firstly, you’ll need to focus on the difference between direct response marketing and traditional marketing. While traditional ads are successful if they generate awareness, direct response ads need consumers to perform an action to succeed.
How do you achieve this? Well, one core aspect is listing benefits rather than features. If you’re simply telling the audience about the brand, they won’t feel compelled to act. If you focus on their problems and how you can help them, consumers are more likely to click through.
Furthermore, two other critical components of direct response marketing are targeting and personalization. If you don’t know your audience, how do you expect to place the advertisement in the right location? The more you understand your audience, the easier it becomes to reach out to them with a great message.
Elsewhere, direct response marketing ads also bring a sense of urgency to the user. Have you ever read something and then felt compelled to act? Well, this is what you need to instill in your ads. For example, phrases like ‘discount ends this week’ and ‘while supplies last’ encourage people to click through now because they have FOMO (fear of missing out).
Finally, no direct response ad can perform well without a clear CTA. Since you’re hoping for prospects to act, you’ll need a CTA to tell them exactly what to do next. Do you want them to sign up for an event, leave their email address for a newsletter, purchase a product, or even download an eBook? If you don’t tell them, how are they supposed to know?
Pros of Direct Response Marketing
Fortunately, the good news is that many businesses are currently enjoying brilliant results with direct response marketing. Since you’re encouraging consumers to act, one of the main benefits is that these ads are simple to track. You can compare the number of people who have clicked on the CTA compared to the number of people who have viewed the ad (this is easier with digital channels).
Another benefit of direct response marketing is the establishment of communication lines between lead and business. Even if you’re getting people to provide their email addresses, this opens the door to future marketing opportunities.
If you need help getting started, don’t be afraid to contact an external digital marketing service. King Kong specializes in direct response marketing and can take this heavy task from your marketing team. Why not contact the friendly team today?