Direct Response Advertising

Written by Timothy G. Little


"A Powerful Direct Response Marketing Guide that Can Literally Double or Triplerepparttar Number of New Clients Your Bring Into Your Business Online or Offline" Contact Information Timothy Little--For details on how to launch a direct response Web site or mail marketing campaign contact me by E-mail timlit7@nethawk.com. For free consultation e-mailrepparttar 100914 quote form at e-SiteSolutions.com or call me by phone at (989) 463-5951Part 1: Defining Direct Response

Advertising

Direct Response marketing is accountable. It is advertising you can justify and track. Not only is direct response marketing measurable but it can easily be adapted to fit your advertising budget.

The heart of direct response advertising is inrepparttar 100915 planning, organizing and pricing ofrepparttar 100916 marketing campaign. Small business entrepreneurs must match mailing list selection to prospect profiles and design a campaign that targetsrepparttar 100917 customer. Most importantly, providing follow up service with back-end analysis, fulfillment of orders and inquiries this allows a small business to test and measure campaigns quickly and inexpensively.

A small business financial planner can than focus onrepparttar 100918 most profitable segments of a campaign. Direct response marketing is efficient its small target groups made up ofrepparttar 100919 most interested prospects for a product or service.

Direct mail and direct marketing are sometimes used interchangeably. Direct marketing can be used effectively in many different media's and is not limited to direct mail advertising. Direct marketing goes far beyond sending self contained mailers. This reality is truer online since, accumulating opt-in permission based names for e-mail promotions can be done at a fraction ofrepparttar 100920 cost of bulk mail marketing campaigns. I can help you duringrepparttar 100921 critical planning stages e-mail me at timlit7@nethawk.com for more information.

Direct response advertising can be used in variations to support marketing and promotional activities for driving traffic to your Web site or inquiries for a product or service

A study recently published inrepparttar 100922 Marketing section ofrepparttar 100923 Wall Street Journal (December 2002.) Indicates that media spending will shift away from traditional media advertising and switch towards Internet marketing and direct mail since they appear to be more promising. "E-mail marketing is more measurable and is seen as a good value forrepparttar 100924 money as people get better customer targeting". The growth of direct response marketing online and off has grown tremendously overrepparttar 100925 last few years. The benefits and profit potential online has been recognized worldwide and will berepparttar 100926 number one advertising vehicle both online and off forrepparttar 100927 following reasons.

*Patrick Barwise - London Business School management and marketing.

Benefits drive direct marketing. If you don’t already think of your marketing in terms of benefits, now is a good time to start. Direct marketing is like no other form of advertising since you have control over your message and you control everything color, design,repparttar 100928 list, and your budget and payment options.

The flexibility of direct response marketing helps you to broaden your thinking. Precise targeting allows you to search for specific products. The more precise your message isrepparttar 100929 less money and time you spend on people who are not interested or qualified to use your product. Direct response marketing is an equalizer for a small business. Finally you are able to compete with larger competitors with targeted messages and react quickly to changes inrepparttar 100930 market because of your small size.

Direct Marketing is immediate and personal. What is more immediate and personal than a letter? New opt-in email technologies allow you to reach thousands of prospects in minutes with a personalized message including name and personal interests.

Direct marketing is a more testable form of advertising. Every mailing campaign you run is an opportunity for you to test something and gain information that can help you improve your marketing. You always haverepparttar 100931 opportunity to test different lists, offers and packages. You need to have a good tracking program in place to do this effectively.

Part 2: The money is inrepparttar 100932 list

You can use direct response marketing to build a database. Whenever a prospect buys from you simply add their name and purchase information to your database. The quickest way to build a database is to offer a free electronic brochure embedded on your Web site for example (9 ways to retire 10 years early or free quotes and 30 days of free life insurance.)

The reason for your database is to re-sell to your prospects again and again and test cross selling techniques for free. This brochure can be plugged in to your web site for download or you can personally make an appointment with your prospect and hand them a brochure in person.

There is no doubt that these techniques will help you to achieve success in your marketing efforts. It is important that you plotrepparttar 100933 destination of your marketing campaigns with a marketing or business plan. Direct marketing results are almost immediate and these results will not help you unless you plan your business objectives. Many companies falter and lose sight of overall goals without a marketing plan to guide them.

Improved Computer capabilities and more recentlyrepparttar 100934 internet has made both direct marketing and direct mail more efficient and more effective with database marketing. The way to make direct mail more efficient especially withrepparttar 100935 rising costs of postal rates and print media is to target prospects with database collections.

The database is a collection of information on customers and perspective customers including their names, addresses, titles and companies. Lists selections can be further segmented by geography or zip-codes, gender, income and commission levels.

Prospects are grouped together with common characteristics to increase marketing effectiveness. The database is used to fit customers with products or services and to aim a precisely written message to a special group of people.

Successful sales professionals know thatrepparttar 100936 more they know about their customers and prospectsrepparttar 100937 better they will be able to sell to them. The same is true in direct marketing andrepparttar 100938 list isrepparttar 100939 key resource.

Close list selection and analysis isrepparttar 100940 first step to ensuring a successful direct response program both online and off. The money is inrepparttar 100941 list and in this senserepparttar 100942 internet has not changed this fact. Today, it is much less expensive to collect and test different offers withrepparttar 100943 speed ofrepparttar 100944 Internet. This isrepparttar 100945 same way publishers have sold magazine subscriptions and books sincerepparttar 100946 beginning ofrepparttar 100947 century. The only difference today is thatrepparttar 100948 Internet has made it much faster and cheaper to compile permission based opt-in lists online.

Even a great product at a reduced price would be useless if it is presented torepparttar 100949 wrong prospects. You must target your prospect to generate traffic for your product by Web site or mail.

A NEWS RELEASE IS NOT AN AD

Written by Angela Booth


A NEWS RELEASE IS NOT AN AD

Copyright (c) 2003 by Angela Booth

You sent out a news release. Then a newspaper or a magazine (or both, oh happy day) published an article about you based onrepparttar release. Whoopee! Break outrepparttar 100913 Dom Perignon!

It's true, an article about your business does wonders for your business. Not only do you get an increase in business, but you can leveragerepparttar 100914 article in many ways. You can create reprints ofrepparttar 100915 article to send to current clients and prospects, and you can userepparttar 100916 article in your advertising. The article gives you instant credibility.

So how do you get all this free advertising? You're well onrepparttar 100917 way to that newspaper or magazine article if you realize that a news release is NOT AN AD. It's NEWS about your business. If your news release has a whiff of advertising about it, it will it hit journalists' round files faster than it took you to lickrepparttar 100918 stamp and paste it onrepparttar 100919 envelope.

Unfortunately many small business owners, and even many copywriters, are unclear aboutrepparttar 100920 difference between advertising and a news release.

So what'srepparttar 100921 difference between a news release and an ad?

A news release givesrepparttar 100922 FACTS. Justrepparttar 100923 plain, unvarnished, unembellished facts. It doesn't try to sellrepparttar 100924 business. It doesn't say how wonderfulrepparttar 100925 business, service or product is, it gives verifiable facts.

For example, let's say that you're a copywriter. You've gone solo, and have just started a new copywriting services business. So you've decided to send out a news release announcing your new business.

The fact that you've started a copywriting services business is a fact. The name of your business and its address is a fact. The hours you're open for business: fact.

A biographical note about yourself gives facts.

A statement that you make, in quotes, as part ofrepparttar 100926 news release is also a fact. The release could include this paragraph:

'Felicity Jones said: "I'm looking forward to becoming a part ofrepparttar 100927 Ocean Park business community. I've been introducing myself to local business owners, who have expressed strong interest in my services." '

Remember, a news release contains: FACTS.

A news release, because it's NEWS, is also written in newspaper style, that is, in Inverted Pyramid style.

==> Inverted Pyramid style

A news release is written in "inverted pyramid" style. Imagine a pyramid. Stand it on its apex. You now haverepparttar 100928 broad base uppermost. This signifies thatrepparttar 100929 base ofrepparttar 100930 story, orrepparttar 100931 root ofrepparttar 100932 story, comes first.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
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