In Direct Marketing, Aim for the Response
In direct marketing, you aim for a response. But what do you do when the only thing that seems to be listening is your shoulder blades? The art of creative copywriting takes a lot more than just good ideas; it takes knowing the product and who's going to buy it. Creative copywriters put themselves in their customer's shoes and write messages they believe will motivate them to act on impulse. Asking questions such as, “What are three things I love about this product?" can start the wheels turning.
There is a crucial aspect to creating effective copy, writes Mark Ford in his book The Copywriter's Handbook : understanding your audience. When you are able to talk directly to your prospect, you're able to create a response. Your ad should make the potential customer feel like they are being spoken directly to and not at.
One of the most common errors in direct mail marketing is that the company doesn't know its target audience. In fact, they may have done a great job of creating an offer and developing their mail piece, but because of bad demographic targeting they spent thousands of dollars sending their message out into cyberspace instead of its intended market.
When you begin to write copy, it's important to know who your audience is. Where are they located? What are their ages and interest? Are they male or female? Do they have children? What do they do for a living? Do they read this magazine that I'm writing for?" Understanding your audience will determine how you present your offer and will increase the effectiveness of your direct mail piece.
For example, a woman in her fifties with two children is busy running her household and going to the office and probably doesn't have hours a day to devote to looking at mail offers. She may not be the best target market. However, another woman in her fifties without children who's retired and living on a fixed income and doesn't have to leave the house may be the perfect prospect.
Knowing your audience is also important when it comes to developing your offer. If you're selling a self-help book for women, you'd better make sure that the audience for that book has some interest in or intent to buy self-help books for women. If you know that your audience is interested in gardening, then you would probably want to put together an ad offering an herb garden starter kit, as opposed to a special edition of "The Beach Boys.”
For a floral business, your audience may well be women with children. If that's the case, you're probably not going to be able to offer a book called “How to Grow a Giant Tomato in Your Bathroom." By knowing your audience it is easier to develop an effective offer.
According to Mark Ford, the tools of direct marketing can help you make better use of your time and money. If you know what the product is like, you'll have more confidence when writing copy. You'll also know how best to market it and how targeted your message should be.
Creating response-oriented copy for direct mail can help stimulate demand for a product or service. Having a well-thought out strategy for direct mail is key to creating a successful campaign.
With relatively small start-up costs, direct mail offers many benefits over other forms of advertising, such as TV and magazine ads. This medium is flexible enough to allow you to test new ideas without spending a lot of money. Your mailing can even be used as an ongoing series of sales promotions, either to establish your business name or as part of an existing program.
Creating a successful direct mail campaign does take some effort on your part. You have to do some research and develop your idea into something unique and attention-getting that will motivate someone to respond. However, the effort is well worth it when you see that direct mail offer being devoured by your ideal customer. Then, of course, there's the little matter of profit to consider.
Direct mail doesn't have a monopoly on profits either. You can make money using your catalogs in other ways besides mailing them to people. If you sell toys, for example, put a few toys in every catalog and sell them from your Web site.
As with any business venture, direct marketing has its drawbacks. Direct mail can be expensive as well as time consuming and labor intensive to produce and ship out to the public. The cost of buying lists of names can also be very expensive initially. Once you've created your own mailing list, however, the cost of mailing a catalog is relatively low.
Over the years, people have found that using direct mail is a successful way to present products or services. They've also found out that there's no hiding from direct marketing. No matter where you are, what you're doing or where you're going, if it involves a product or service and money, direct marketing will be there waiting for you. You may be able to avoid TV and magazine ads by not watching television or reading magazines. You may be able to avoid telemarketing by not answering your phone if you don't want to hear from everyone. But you can't avoid direct marketing, because it's involved in every aspect of your daily life. If it's involved in your life, you'll probably want a piece of the action too.
© 2007 Direct Marketing Magazine® (www.DirectMarketingMagazine.com) All Rights Reserved
Source: Direct Marketing Magazine® (www.DirectMarketingMagazine.com) All Rights Reserved -- For personal non-commercial use only. Do not photocopy without permission. Mailing address: P.O. Box 641, Lake Elmo, MN 55042-0641 USA
Copyright MMVII Pat McKeown/Indie-Music.com
Gripes, Grumbles and Griping: Customer Complaints and the Right Way to Respond by David Parlett, author of "Managing With Style" (Capstone). After all the hard work that you put in setting up your business and creating a product or service that meets the needs of your target audience well, it's a shame to throw it all away -- and lose customers -- through poor customer service.
Conclusion
We can easily get frustrated and angry when we don't receive the service that we had intended to receive, but what should we do? Should we give up and accept the fact that there's no remedy for our dissatisfaction, or should we find a way to turn things around? Even though customer service has been a big topic in these pages, there still are many unanswered questions.
The frustration of not receiving a product that was shipped in a timely manner or not receiving the product at all after it was ordered is understandable, but it's critical to be aware of how unhappy customers really are in order to deal with their issues effectively.