It’s essential to pay attention to the marketing trends around you. Whether it’s a hot new color palette, a unique design aesthetic, or the need to be sensitive to specific social issues, paying attention helps you stay relevant. However, regardless of what’s hot right now, certain basic principles are important all the time, whether that is today, tomorrow, or ten years from now. Here are eight essentials of direct response marketing that you should be incorporating every time.
1. Have a great offer. Don’t assume the reader
understands your full value proposition. The proposal needs to go beyond the
product itself to include additional value elements, such as availability,
delivery options, and technical support. You would be surprised how many
marketers neglect to do this. Don’t be one of them!
2. Create urgency. Great marketing pieces
create a sense of urgency. Unless yours is a complex, high-value product that
naturally has a longer sales cycle, convince the recipient that the decision needs
to be made right now.
3. Provide a clear call to
action.
Don’t assume your reader knows what you want them to do. Do you want them to
make a phone call? Go online? Download an app? Tell them! Otherwise, there is a
good chance they’ll do nothing.
4. Track and measure. If you do not measure, you
do not know what works and what doesn’t. Measure everything.
5. Follow up. Whether by email, phone call,
or mobile, following up to your initial offer dramatically increases your response
and conversion rates.
6. Write strong copy. Effective selling requires marketing
copy that shows that you understand your customer’s pain points and explains
how your product solves them. It’s not just what you are marketing. It’s how you
are presenting it.
7. Remember that results
rule. This
is why you measure. If it works, keep it. If it does not, scrap it.
8. Stay focused. Don’t get distracted by
shiny objects. If a marketing campaign does not adhere to the previous seven
rules, “just say no.”
Every
once in a while, you need to go old school for a straightforward reason. It
works.
Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.
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