Stop Beating Around the Bush
Despite all of the different methods of advertising, it comes
down to two basic forms: Direct Response or Image. For most
everyone who reads this, direct response is absolutely the only
form you ever, EVER want to do. Unless you're Nike or McDonalds
and have spent a bazillion dollars on building your brand, image
advertising is a colossal waste of time and money.
For discussion purposes, image advertising, is that soft, feel
good kind of ad that makes people see you in a real human light.
See: white doves in funeral marketing pieces--car dealership
finance specialists smiling while shaking hands with a happy,
satisfied customer. It won't work . Stay clear.
Direct response, as its name implies, is a call to action. In
its most rudimentary form, it's a time-sensitive pizza coupon,
an oil change discount, and a half off offer at the local dry
cleaner. It moves consumers to your front door with cash in
hand--maybe. The offer has to be extraordinary, targeted to the
right audience, contain a unique selling proposition and be
creative enough to garner interest.
Direct response is fast and you can measure it. You know if you
got it right immediately, not at some indeterminate point down
the road. When that coupon arrives via email, snail mail or some
other mass distribution method, you either have new customers or
you don't. This lets you test your message on smaller groups and
take corrective action if something isn't working without
wasting a lot of time and money.
As direct response advertising continues to grow in popularity,
PLAN, EXECUTE, TEST and REFINE. The wrong message to the wrong
audience in a direct mail or email campaign can yield a dismal 0
to 1% response rate where a well-planned and executed campaign
can see results of a 10% response rate and higher.
Go where the results are. Get started with a strong direct
response marketing campaign and see marked, significant
increases in your bottom line.