I’m a long time direct marketing professional and cheerleader. Direct marketing’s purpose is to motivate a response in a short period of time. I began my career at a recruitment advertising agency. That was the ultimate pressure cooker of advertising. You can’t hide the results. Clients had job openings that need to be filled and wanted good candidates at career fairs. You don’t get a second chance in this field. My purpose in stating this is to consider that every marketing touch you have should include elements of direct response to make ultimate impact with marketing budget.
Though the internet has dramatically developed over the past 10 years marketing techniques are still evolving. Now there are online providers of inbound marketing like Hubspot, which make websites function as a direct response lead funnel, but inbound marketing is at its infancy.
Inbound website techniques help to capture information about your prospects early in the sales process. Looking at inbound from a direct marketers perspective you see the opportunity of using automated email to push that lead through the sales funnel. Inbound marketing is a term coined for the specific online marketing efforts built into your website. But the term can encompass all efforts used to push prospects through a sales funnel regardless of the initial contact point with the prospect (web or phone).
So is Google. In fact experts expect Google to start penalizing websites that are not responsive or delivering a version for mobile devises. One of our client’s mobile sales eclipsed their computer traffic and sales this past year.
Gartner analysts predict by 2017 the market will be worth around $41.9 billion. Some industries will grow mobile activity faster than others. No matter your business success requires the proper foundation, a well-built and planned mobile experience that delivers what the customer wants. Smart business’ will integrate direct response mechanisms at the top of the page to capture lead information and institute a plan to keep in touch with them. With mobile your follow up may be text, email or social platform. Know you audience and you’ll know the answer. Don’t rule out mailing as a follow through technique. Direct mail can have a bigger ROI than email when you use the information gained from the visitor activity and information they provided to you.
Direct response is about an emotional connection no matter the vehicle that delivers the touch point. Be honest and evaluate which web pages have less to no traffic and how you can make them better. This advice is the same as I give for direct mail. People make emotional buy decisions. Pushing their pain point, tweeking their dream of what makes them happy, feel sexy feel loved and safe is what you have to capture in your marketing messages.
The direction is the same for direct mail as it is for web copy or print ad copy and imagery. Translating the concepts for print and web takes a little different approach because of the delivery method. Consider the way your consumer uses the marketing tool delivering the motivating message. Know the response rate of every direct response tool in your kit. Where is there opportunity to grow your business.
Remain vigilant watching the results from online and print marketing efforts. Don’t respond to the pull of exclusively focusing on online marketing. Your object needs to be that you have a cohesive direct response effort so that the experience online magnifies the visibility and reaction to the direct mail and vice versa.
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