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5 Ways of Using Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is the best way to attract and obtain clients.

By William Dupree

Direct marketing is attractive to many marketers because in most cases its effectiveness can be measured directly. For example, if you were to send out one thousand solicitations by mail and you receive seventy responses, then you know that the mailing led to a seven percent response rate.

Any medium that you choose to use to communicate directly to your prospects is being employed in direct marketing. These 5 methods are examples of direct marketing that you can use to obtain prospects and increase sales for your business.

Direct mail

One of the most commonly used mediums in direct marketing is direct mail. Direct mail allows you to design marketing pieces in many different formats. Direct mail can include envelope mailers, catalogues, self-mailers, snap mailers, dimensional mailers, brochures, and postcards. When you write your direct mail piece make sure you know your target market, and how you are going to appeal to their wants and needs. Write your objective and refer to it often. Don’t lose sight of where you want to go with the piece that you are writing. You can purchase a mailing list of businesses and services in your target market from a list company, or you can develop your own list by gathering email addresses on your web site.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing is a direct marketing sales technique that has the advantage of speed in a marketing campaign. When you are a conducting a telephone solicitation you should first introduce yourself then offer an incentive in solving a problem that you know exists (to do this would require you to do some research on the business or what individuals would be looking for in your product). Ask question that you know will lead to a yes answer (keep prospects on phone answering yes to your questions). Describe your product or service and how it solves the client’s needs. Ask if they have any questions. You now can ask for a face to face meeting, or to get permission to send information via mail or e-mail, or make another brief follow-up call. If unavailable, ask what would be a good time to call back.

E-mail

The most common medium today for direct marketers is e-mail because of its low cost, and because customer responses can be generated rapidly. You must understand that the internet is a different medium. The copy that worked for you in postal mail will not on the internet, not as e-mail. In e-mail copywriting, the subject is the headline, you must write succinct headline-3 to 5 words. Your subject determines whether your e-mail gets read or not. Next, make it personal. People on the internet want personal notes. Next, get to the point keep it short and simple. Next, give them an incentive to act by giving them a reason to buy now. Next, include a call to action to tell people what you want them to do. Don’t leave them wondering what to do next. Next, drive people to your web site (don’t try to close the sale in the e-mail). Next, build relationship with your clients. Listen to their want and needs. Treat your clients like you would treat yourself. Next, you must follow through on your promises that you made to your client. Do what you said you were going to do.

Direct response

In direct response marketing the customer responds to the marketing message directly. An example, of this would be infomercials, where prospects view a television presentation of a product offering, and can make a purchase with a credit card over the telephone or internet. You can use communications in magazines, newspapers, radio, e-mail, and direct mail to solicit a response. For example, order forms or coupons in magazines and newspapers to purchase products, or receive discounts on products are techniques that have been used very successfully in increasing sales. These same offers are distributed by e-mail and tell and toll-free numbers, which in today’s marketing world, is more economical and faster.

Personal selling

Making personal sales calls on prospects is another technique of direct marketing. You should first conduct research on the companies, or the target prospects that you are trying to sell your product or service too. You can also buy a list from a reputable list company. If you take this route make sure that you have complete information on your target market. When making a personal sales call you must write a sales presentation before hand. This presentation should be written to fit the needs and desires of the prospect that you are presenting your product too. Your presentation should provide clear examples, or even demonstrations of how your product or service will accomplish this. Your presentation should contain more that just one way your product can be of service to your prospect. You must also be prepared to handle objections and questions that the prospects will have.

About the Author

William Dupree is the owner of I.M.P.S. (Interactive Marketing & Promotional Solutions Inc.) (www.intmktprosol.com) a sole proprietorship marketing firm located in New York City that specializes in developing interactive marketing strategies for small businesses. Prior to founding I.M.P.S. in 2005, Mr. Dupree was a senior partner at E.D.L. Marketing for twelve years. Before joining E.D.L. he worked for the Diamond Marketing Group.

This guide is packed with tips and tactics to help you write successful sales letters and target your marketing campaigns for maximum response. You are taken from the basics of Direct Marketing, how to profile your targets, and develop prospect lists, through to the planning and writing of successful Marketing literature. A longer version of this guide can be found on the author’s website the URL of which can be found at the end of this article.

Understanding

Direct Marketing is direct to the customer. This includes Direct Response Advertising, email and Interactive Web Sites. However, the most common format is Direct Mail. In terms of overall expenditure, Direct Mail ranks as the third largest advertising technique in the UK.

Despite sometimes receiving negative press (often being referred to as “junk mail”), targeted direct mail is an effective and valuable form of marketing. On a cost-per-head basis it may sometimes appear more expensive than other forms of advertising but when you look at its unique advantages – its accuracy, testability, flexibility, personalisation etc – it can in fact turn into the MOST cost-effective form of communication.

Research

Once you have decided to use Direct Mail, you must research to understand who your targets are in some detail.

Profile your existing customers. Look for any similarities between customers in terms of their type, regional distribution, age, economic characteristics etc. If you have only basic customer records, Upgrade any old records you have by consulting a database marketing company to add marketing information from their own extensive company database into yours. If you don?t have a customer base, use market research and your product/service USPs or Unique Selling Points to try to identify what types of people or companies would most benefit from your offering.

Next, Identify your “hottest” prospects. These are customers who return the most for your time and money investments. Next, look for any potential customers or groups that you could try to target that you haven?t already. If your customer base has any geographic bias, think about whether you want to maintain that bias or expand it. Finally, think about the individuals. Do you have a preferred profile of age, sex, occupation or job title. What responsibilities do you think they would have?

Locating New Prospects

Now you know who your potential customers are, you have to locate new prospects to target. The easiest way to locate new prospects is to buy or rent a mailing list.

Mailing lists are available directly from database marketing companies that specialize in business to business or consumer lists. List brokers broke many lists from many different sources. Many lists, especially consumers, are available through Internet groups. These databases are often compiled on an “opt in” basis where all consumers have freely submitted their data, interest areas etc.

As mentioned, lists can be rented for a one-time use only or purchased for multiple use. Lists can provide contact names, titles, company names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers and sometimes email addresses. Each element of information potentially adds cost so be clear as to what data you require before ordering.

e-mail addresses are currently a bone of contention within the Direct Marketing industry. Unless the company has indicated that they want to receive your e-mails (permission based or opt-in marketing) your e-mail may be considered as SPAM (unsolicited commercial e-mail) and can be the cause of your ISP being blacklisted or, at worst, court proceedings to be threatened. If you want to buy an e-mail list, be clear about the criteria under which it has been collected and how it can be used.

Define Your Campaign

Direct Marketing or Direct Mail has a clear advantage in that it allows you to measure exactly the response to your campaigns, their success and ROI (Return on Investment). Before you start you will need to be clear on what the objectives are of your campaign(s). A clearly-defined mission makes for a clear message to customers. Are you looking for direct, immediate sales? Do you want sales leads? Are you informing your customer about something new? Are you looking to change people?s perception of your product/service/company? Are you offering an incentive? It is vital that you know what you wish the successful outcome of your campaign to be.

Planning the Literature

You know your target customer. You are clear about the mission. Now at the heart of every Direct Mail shot is the sales letter. Whether you are emailing, faxing or posting. Whether you include coupons, reply-paid cards, brochures or leaflets, offers, gifts…it?s the sales material itself that provides the personal communication element. Although great sales letters don?t grow on trees, bad ones mostly fail through one or two simple and fundamental mistakes.

You can use experts to help such as Direct Marketing agencies but this this can be costly and time consuming. A simple sales letter which you can design and/or print in house may work just as well for you. Five key points to remember in creating the marketing literature are simplicity and clairty in the language and message, enthusiasm and belief in your product, empathy towards your audience, imagination and creativity in your style and “Call to Action” to let your customers know what to do next.

Remember that a product or service is seen for what it DOES for the buyer, not what it IS. Work to the FAB rule. Write down the Features of your product/service. Then write the Advantages. Now focus on ommunicating simply the Benefits that arise from these in your Direct Marketing material.

Make your FABs relevant to the readers? needs/wants/ambitions. Look for Exclusive or Unique aspects. Make it Worthwhile and Valuable. Support your proposition with credible evidence or testimonial.

Research, research, research. You don?t have to go it alone. What are your competition doing? If you received their mailshots, would they work for you? Collect and review the Direct Marketing that you receive. Learn from their mistakes as well as harvesting their best features for your own campaigns.

Call to Action

A great sales letter does not necessarily lead to great sales. It?s amazing how many otherwise passable sales letters leave the reader floundering as to exactly what?s expected of them AFTER they?ve read the letter.

Be precise and clear in what you want them to do. Direct the recipient to the required actions. Make it as easy and as quick as possible for them to respond by including such items as direct ordering forms with preprinted names and addresses, fax back sheets, response mailers (reply paid), hyperlink click-throughs for e-mails.

The Nitty Gritty

This is it. The time to put pen to paper. You should be clear on all your objectives, output formats, target customers, FABs, mechanisms for reply, etc. Now you have to make it all happen. There are a number of simple techniques or formulae designed to help you approach a sales letter logically. They are not intended as a ?straitjacket?, merely as a guide to ensure you cover the right points in the right order.

Wavelength. Readers decide to read or junk a letter, fax or e-mail in about the first 5 seconds. That?s the length of time you have to grab and hold them…or lose them forever. The most effective way to grab them is to show that you?re on the same WAVELENGTH as they are. Get on their wavelength right away – with your first headline or sentence or message topic for an e-mail.

Interest. Or more importantly, holding it! Use some surprising or intriguing facts relevant to your product or service. Make sure you are talking about the reader?s problem, need or opportunity, not about your company or product.

Salespoints. This is the ‘Big Promise’ answer to the reader?s ?what?s in it for me?? question. Back it up with as many subsidiary salespoints as you can without confusing the
main issue.

Conviction. Support your Big Promise with evidence – market research, customer response, lab tests, testimonials from experts. Try and anticipate the audience?s doubts or questions, and answer them, don?t sidestep them.

Desire. Merely informing your reader of the facts isn?t enough. Since we?re all human, it helps to involve our emotions as well as our mind. Even the most practical or technical product can make the user feel better or more successful or more secure. So help them turn that conviction into desire for your product or service.

Action. Provoke strong, clear action from the reader. Many readers may MEAN to reply: it?s only the ones who actually DO that produce your results.

It’s All About Style

It?s not what you say – it?s the way that you say it. The actual style will depend very much on your product and customer type. Some of the biggest expenditure Direct Mail campaigns you will see push the creative boundaries as far as they will go. Sometimes they push them too far and fail to communicate the message effectively to their customers. Don?t let your message get lost in the rest of the design.

Be personal. Committees don?t write personal letters, individuals do. Don?t be afraid to use ?I? and even more important ?You? rather than third-party expressions like ?This company? or ?customers?. Write as you would talk. Sales letters are meant to be clear, easy and friendly. Take just as long as it needs to tell your story. If it?s a complex technical matter, don?t be afraid to take the time to explain it properly but remember to keep it interesting all the way through. Use active not passive words. Not ?Deliveries within 3 days? but ?We?ll rush it to you within 72 hours”.

Now circulate your material. Show friends, colleagues and even existing customers. Get their views or comments and be prepared to adapt your communications.

Wrapping it All Up

The actual physical nature of your package can help to produce results too. For Direct Mail through the post, don?t forget the envelope. Use the outside to whet the reader?s appetite. Hint at what the offer is, who the letter should go to, and why.

Think about who else might see the material first. One successful letter to senior managers put a shorthand note to their secretary on the outside. Another was posted from abroad with foreign stamp and postmark – to create extra interest for an export service.

Raise your mailshot above the herd with some element of surprise or originality. Altering the promotional offer can make a huge difference.

If posting, consider when. Items received on a Monday or Friday for instance, may not receive the same amount of attention as a package received in midweek. Or consider ?tying in? with some special event as Valentine?s Day, Mother?s Day, the anniversary of Waterloo(!) etc.

Record who replied and to what message or offer. This will help you fine tune both your message and your mailing list.

Success

As so much planning goes into what communication you are sending out, ensure you leave enough time to plan what you will do with the successful outcome. Having spent so much effort getting customers, don?t lose them again through poor response or customer service. Don’t be caught in a trap by failing to acknowledge replies, responding too slowly, running out of leaflets…and so on. Few campaigns work entirely alone so plan to follow them up with a second letter, a phonecall, a visit, a follow-up e-mail or faxshot.

This guide is packed with tips and tactics to help you write successful sales letters and target your marketing campaigns for maximum response. You are taken from the basics of Direct Marketing, how to profile your targets, and develop prospect lists, through to the planning and writing of successful Marketing literature. A longer version of this guide can be found on the author’s website the URL of which can be found at the end of this article.

Understanding

Direct Marketing is direct to the customer. This includes Direct Response Advertising, email and Interactive Web Sites. However, the most common format is Direct Mail. In terms of overall expenditure, Direct Mail ranks as the third largest advertising technique in the UK.

Despite sometimes receiving negative press (often being referred to as “junk mail”), targeted direct mail is an effective and valuable form of marketing. On a cost-per-head basis it may sometimes appear more expensive than other forms of advertising but when you look at its unique advantages – its accuracy, testability, flexibility, personalisation etc – it can in fact turn into the MOST cost-effective form of communication.

Research

Once you have decided to use Direct Mail, you must research to understand who your targets are in some detail.

Profile your existing customers. Look for any similarities between customers in terms of their type, regional distribution, age, economic characteristics etc. If you have only basic customer records, Upgrade any old records you have by consulting a database marketing company to add marketing information from their own extensive company database into yours. If you don?t have a customer base, use market research and your product/service USPs or Unique Selling Points to try to identify what types of people or companies would most benefit from your offering.

Next, Identify your “hottest” prospects. These are customers who return the most for your time and money investments. Next, look for any potential customers or groups that you could try to target that you haven?t already. If your customer base has any geographic bias, think about whether you want to maintain that bias or expand it. Finally, think about the individuals. Do you have a preferred profile of age, sex, occupation or job title. What responsibilities do you think they would have?

Locating New Prospects

Now you know who your potential customers are, you have to locate new prospects to target. The easiest way to locate new prospects is to buy or rent a mailing list.

Mailing lists are available directly from database marketing companies that specialize in business to business or consumer lists. List brokers broke many lists from many different sources. Many lists, especially consumers, are available through Internet groups. These databases are often compiled on an “opt in” basis where all consumers have freely submitted their data, interest areas etc.

As mentioned, lists can be rented for a one-time use only or purchased for multiple use. Lists can provide contact names, titles, company names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers and sometimes email addresses. Each element of information potentially adds cost so be clear as to what data you require before ordering.

e-mail addresses are currently a bone of contention within the Direct Marketing industry. Unless the company has indicated that they want to receive your e-mails (permission based or opt-in marketing) your e-mail may be considered as SPAM (unsolicited commercial e-mail) and can be the cause of your ISP being blacklisted or, at worst, court proceedings to be threatened. If you want to buy an e-mail list, be clear about the criteria under which it has been collected and how it can be used.

Define Your Campaign

Direct Marketing or Direct Mail has a clear advantage in that it allows you to measure exactly the response to your campaigns, their success and ROI (Return on Investment). Before you start you will need to be clear on what the objectives are of your campaign(s). A clearly-defined mission makes for a clear message to customers. Are you looking for direct, immediate sales? Do you want sales leads? Are you informing your customer about something new? Are you looking to change people?s perception of your product/service/company? Are you offering an incentive? It is vital that you know what you wish the successful outcome of your campaign to be.

Planning the Literature

You know your target customer. You are clear about the mission. Now at the heart of every Direct Mail shot is the sales letter. Whether you are emailing, faxing or posting. Whether you include coupons, reply-paid cards, brochures or leaflets, offers, gifts…it?s the sales material itself that provides the personal communication element. Although great sales letters don?t grow on trees, bad ones mostly fail through one or two simple and fundamental mistakes.

You can use experts to help such as Direct Marketing agencies but this this can be costly and time consuming. A simple sales letter which you can design and/or print in house may work just as well for you. Five key points to remember in creating the marketing literature are simplicity and clairty in the language and message, enthusiasm and belief in your product, empathy towards your audience, imagination and creativity in your style and “Call to Action” to let your customers know what to do next.

Remember that a product or service is seen for what it DOES for the buyer, not what it IS. Work to the FAB rule. Write down the Features of your product/service. Then write the Advantages. Now focus on ommunicating simply the Benefits that arise from these in your Direct Marketing material.

Make your FABs relevant to the readers? needs/wants/ambitions. Look for Exclusive or Unique aspects. Make it Worthwhile and Valuable. Support your proposition with credible evidence or testimonial.

Research, research, research. You don?t have to go it alone. What are your competition doing? If you received their mailshots, would they work for you? Collect and review the Direct Marketing that you receive. Learn from their mistakes as well as harvesting their best features for your own campaigns.

Call to Action

A great sales letter does not necessarily lead to great sales. It?s amazing how many otherwise passable sales letters leave the reader floundering as to exactly what?s expected of them AFTER they?ve read the letter.

Be precise and clear in what you want them to do. Direct the recipient to the required actions. Make it as easy and as quick as possible for them to respond by including such items as direct ordering forms with preprinted names and addresses, fax back sheets, response mailers (reply paid), hyperlink click-throughs for e-mails.

The Nitty Gritty

This is it. The time to put pen to paper. You should be clear on all your objectives, output formats, target customers, FABs, mechanisms for reply, etc. Now you have to make it all happen. There are a number of simple techniques or formulae designed to help you approach a sales letter logically. They are not intended as a ?straitjacket?, merely as a guide to ensure you cover the right points in the right order.

Wavelength. Readers decide to read or junk a letter, fax or e-mail in about the first 5 seconds. That?s the length of time you have to grab and hold them…or lose them forever. The most effective way to grab them is to show that you?re on the same WAVELENGTH as they are. Get on their wavelength right away – with your first headline or sentence or message topic for an e-mail.

Interest. Or more importantly, holding it! Use some surprising or intriguing facts relevant to your product or service. Make sure you are talking about the reader?s problem, need or opportunity, not about your company or product.

Salespoints. This is the ‘Big Promise’ answer to the reader?s ?what?s in it for me?? question. Back it up with as many subsidiary salespoints as you can without confusing the
main issue.

Conviction. Support your Big Promise with evidence – market research, customer response, lab tests, testimonials from experts. Try and anticipate the audience?s doubts or questions, and answer them, don?t sidestep them.

Desire. Merely informing your reader of the facts isn?t enough. Since we?re all human, it helps to involve our emotions as well as our mind. Even the most practical or technical product can make the user feel better or more successful or more secure. So help them turn that conviction into desire for your product or service.

Action. Provoke strong, clear action from the reader. Many readers may MEAN to reply: it?s only the ones who actually DO that produce your results.

It’s All About Style

It?s not what you say – it?s the way that you say it. The actual style will depend very much on your product and customer type. Some of the biggest expenditure Direct Mail campaigns you will see push the creative boundaries as far as they will go. Sometimes they push them too far and fail to communicate the message effectively to their customers. Don?t let your message get lost in the rest of the design.

Be personal. Committees don?t write personal letters, individuals do. Don?t be afraid to use ?I? and even more important ?You? rather than third-party expressions like ?This company? or ?customers?. Write as you would talk. Sales letters are meant to be clear, easy and friendly. Take just as long as it needs to tell your story. If it?s a complex technical matter, don?t be afraid to take the time to explain it properly but remember to keep it interesting all the way through. Use active not passive words. Not ?Deliveries within 3 days? but ?We?ll rush it to you within 72 hours”.

Now circulate your material. Show friends, colleagues and even existing customers. Get their views or comments and be prepared to adapt your communications.

Wrapping it All Up

The actual physical nature of your package can help to produce results too. For Direct Mail through the post, don?t forget the envelope. Use the outside to whet the reader?s appetite. Hint at what the offer is, who the letter should go to, and why.

Think about who else might see the material first. One successful letter to senior managers put a shorthand note to their secretary on the outside. Another was posted from abroad with foreign stamp and postmark – to create extra interest for an export service.

Raise your mailshot above the herd with some element of surprise or originality. Altering the promotional offer can make a huge difference.

If posting, consider when. Items received on a Monday or Friday for instance, may not receive the same amount of attention as a package received in midweek. Or consider ?tying in? with some special event as Valentine?s Day, Mother?s Day, the anniversary of Waterloo(!) etc.

Record who replied and to what message or offer. This will help you fine tune both your message and your mailing list.

Success

As so much planning goes into what communication you are sending out, ensure you leave enough time to plan what you will do with the successful outcome. Having spent so much effort getting customers, don?t lose them again through poor response or customer service. Don’t be caught in a trap by failing to acknowledge replies, responding too slowly, running out of leaflets…and so on. Few campaigns work entirely alone so plan to follow them up with a second letter, a phonecall, a visit, a follow-up e-mail or faxshot.