Are You Doing Direct Marketing?
Nearly every ad includes a Web site and toll-free number. Physical products packaging urges you to a Web address to register and check a unique prize winning number. And e-mails from various companies flood in to your inbox, each with a clickthrough to their Web site. Direct marketing clearly is still with us.
In Maine’s direct marketing world the classic definition “direct marketing is a database-driven interactive process of directly communicating with targeted customers or prospects using any medium to obtain a measurable response or transaction via one or multiple channels” still exists. Direct marketing is important to general advertisers, and direct marketing can be scientific. Everyone should learn and practice some direct marketing in their advertising mix. As part of our range of marketing solutions, we can help you launch and track the success of direct marketing, including direct mail, campaigns.
The Key Element of Direct Marketing
Testing, testing, testing. The pioneers of this industry assumed everyone doing direct marketing would know and practice this.
Obviously it’s possible to mail offers without tracking or even selling anything. It’s also possible to measure results without any comparison. And general advertising is always trying to measure, though because of the ubiquitous nature of mass media, its measurements tend to lean on focus groups, attitudinal surveys and test markets. None of which have the capability of precisely isolating causal variables.
In the most basic A/B test we send half our list “50% off” and the other half “Save $9.95” and see which one not only gets more orders, but after we’ve paid the cost of goods, mailing costs and order processing, which makes more money. If the total price is the same, I’d bet on the second offer every time (people don’t like figuring out what 50 percent comes to).
Field valid scientific experimentation through isolation of causal variables allows you to actually test and prove the impact of changes in your copy, creative, offer, list, timing, etc.
At Spire Express, we are always focused on your marketing spend and returns. As such, we test all channels. Our direct mail campaigns, our magazine and newspaper advertisements and our website SEO results and email marketing campaigns. We know which half of your advertising spend works!
Contact SPIRE Express today for more information on how we can help you develop cost-effective and successful marketing campaigns.