Advantages of Direct Marketing

Everyone wants to get the most out of marketing that they can, but with so many different types of marketing methods, it can be hard to choose the best option. The best option is usually a blend of different methods, with one of the most tried and true methods being direct response marketing. Direct response marketing gets a fast response from customers, which means companies get a quick turnaround and almost instantly know if the ad worked or not. Beyond fast turnaround, direct response marketing has other benefits that are part of the reason this method has been around for so long and is still used today.

What Is Customer Service?

Direct response marketing is designed to present a customer with an enticing offer to get the customer to respond right away, hopefully, to accept the offer. The offer can be almost anything from selling a product to asking a customer to sign up for a newsletter or refer a friend. These ads cost very little to make and return measurable results in a shorter time period than other methods. The name direct response marketing may give people the impression that this type of advertising is mainly meant for email responses, but the scope is far more extensive than just emails. Any ad that demands a response is a type of direct response marketing, whether on Twitter, a landing page, or email. While a company of any size can use direct response marketing and ads, this method is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses.

Direct Response Marketing Advantages

Every type or method of marketing has unique strengths and benefits. What one method excels at might not be as effective with a different method, so it is crucial to use the right tools for the right job. Direct response marketing has many benefits that not everyone sees, but the most important perks are explained below.

Measurable & Trackable

One of the best parts of direct response marketing is that results are directly measurable, and the data from one campaign can improve your next one. Because direct response ads are connected to actions, it is easy to see how many people completed that action and what had prompted them to act. The measurable data lets companies know what worked and what didn’t, so the next direct response ad is even more successful. You can calculate return on investment, cost per action, actions per views, and much more with the objective data from direct response marketing.

Increased Communications & Customer Relationships

Direct response ads help build stronger relationships with potential customers by creating a direct line of communication. The best direct response ads will have customers wanting to engage and act to receive information or services from brands they like. Having prospects that want to be contacted is a marketer’s dream as you are more likely to find success with those customers than blindly sending out ads or cold calling. Once a customer accepts or acts on a direct response ad, they have signaled they are willing to be contacted again for more ads in the future. If you handle this customer relationship right, customers will look forward to whatever valuable and informative content you send. However, you can squander this relationship by sending low-quality content or spamming customers with too much.

Targets Specific Markets

Direct response ads let companies target and plan who the ads are sent to for the best results. Companies can personalize ads and send them to specific groups of customers to target what those customers want to see and respond best to. The vast majority of customers say they would be more likely to do business with brands that send personalized ads or interactions. Rather than trying to reach everyone with the same ad, brands should focus on sending the right group of customers the right ads. Once a brand finds the right targets and groups, the company can increase conversion rates and use the subsequent data to make future ads even better.

Helps Identify Prospects

Direct response marketing can also help a brand’s sales team by giving them invaluable information on prospective customers and clients. Since these prospects come from targeted ads, the sales team knows how to establish a relationship, what the prospect likes, and how to move them further through the process towards conversion. With direct response ads, the data collected on targeted customers means the sales team doesn’t need to waste time with cold leads that may never pan out because there is already an established customer relationship. Direct response marketing is an incredible tool that businesses should use to its full extent but getting started can be daunting. No one wants to waste time and potentially waste money on ads that don’t work. However, the experts at ListenTrust are here to help get any company up to speed and used to direct response marketing along with any other services a company wants to add. Let the professionals help your brand make the most of the various marketing tools so your company can thrive. Get Started by Contacting ListenTrust Today! For more information, contact Tom Sheppard, VP Business Development, at: tsheppard@listentrust.com

Digital marketing is all the rage but is there a place for Direct Response Television Marketing?

 

Marketing has been a part of the sales process as long as people have been selling things. Tactics and tools have evolved, but the need remains the same. Newspapers required newsboys, product manufacturers in the early 20th century needed traveling salesmen, and today, applications require app stores.

Having a great product or service has never been enough. If people don’t know who you are, or what you sell, they can’t make a purchase. History’s greatest brands would never be successful without clever marketing. Regardless of industry, finding new and innovative ways to build awareness is priority number one.

 

Direct Response Television Marketing is still a valuable tool

Marketing, in the last 30 years, has relied heavily on television. Before the explosion of social media marketing, Google ad campaigns, and all other digital marketing tools and practices, TV served as the most effective platform for driving brand awareness and sales. And television, despite many marketers insistence to the contrary, is still a valuable tool in your marketing toolkit- it merely needs to be understood and used effectively to produce relevant results.

Fact: The first recorded use of Television as a marketing tool was in 1941 when Bulova Watch Company ran a 10-second spot in New York that was viewed by roughly 4,000 people. The ad cost only $4.00 to create.

 

Has the Landscape of Direct Response TV Marketing Changed?

 

Though the ways we consume media have changed, TV maintains its position as the most effective medium for advertising. In fact, Nielsen ratings show, the average American watches roughly 5 hours of television per day. With an audience this large, TV can rapidly scale the reach needed to grow a business. This is true despite the pervasiveness of new digital tools and consumption methods. People’s perception of Direct Response Television Marketing (DRTV), however, formed by the less-than-compelling “infomercials” of the past, is not an accurate representation of the current Direct Response marketplace.

Today’s digital tools have been implemented alongside Direct Response with positive results. Savvy marketers are combining DRTV with Google AdWords to improve search rankings after an aired TV advertisement, bumping online ads to the top of search results. Mobile video is also being used as an extension of Direct Response, inspiring conversions, and engaging a target audience who might watch television less frequently.

DRTV has transformed since the era of late-night infomercials. To be successful, however, the medium must be understood.

“Over the last 8 years, all the new, non-TV things: Facebook, phones, YouTube, and Netflix have only cut about an hour per day from the dizzying amount of TV that the average household watches. Americans are still watching more than 7 hours and 50 minutes per household per day.” Alexis C. Madrigal for The Atlantic

Understanding Direct Response Advertising

Direct Response provides real-time data, loyalty-building customer experiences, and measurable ROI. It’s all about seeing results RIGHT NOW. And, it works. Why then, are so many contact centers no longer providing support for Direct Response campaigns? The answer to this question is relatively simple. While the components of DRTV are basic, there are critical, mistake-prone areas.

Despite the continued popularity of classic television, it has grown more difficult to make Direct Response TV campaigns a success. There’s just no guarantee it will work. Additionally, the level of difficulty, investment of both time and money, and heavy-lift required to get a campaign live are all deterring factors to most businesses as well as to contact centers, many of which have provided support in the past for DRTV campaigns.

If the initial test doesn’t work, you’ve made a substantial investment of time and money with no payoff.

Additional reading: PBS profiles a failed DRTV test campaign 

Understanding Direct Response Advertising

 

Before a business sets out to test television response and acquisition, the test must be built appropriately to deliver effective and measurable results. An ineffective and poorly planned test might have you rejecting a valuable marketing channel.

Potential challenges aside, businesses willing to make the investment in Direct Response television marketing, when partnered with an experienced contact center, are seeing near-immediate ROI and more importantly, accelerated customer acquisition and higher retention.

“If you aren’t using DRTV your company is missing out. Companies that run multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns without DRTV leave a big piece of pie on the table for their competitors to eat up. DRTV provides a distinct channel of communication and distribution that supplements any current marketing program already in place. And it does so without cannibalizing any other media.” HubSpot

Partnering with an Experienced and Optimized Call Center is the Key to Success for DIrect Response Advertising 

Your commercial and media might be perfectly executed, but if the contact center providing support for your DRTV promotion isn’t optimized to handle the campaign, failure is guaranteed. The contact center you’ve partnered with might be missing calls, literally not picking up the phone. For any Direct Response campaign to be successful, your business must partner with DRTV specialists. Due to the challenges inherent to Direct Response from a call center perspective, effort must be put into optimizing results from the beginning.

ListenTrust puts in the hours and work required to optimize your DRTV campaign from the start, even with a test. We tune and maximize every call received, and we won’t shy away from taking on new test campaigns, a rarity in the DRTV call center space.

Contact center staffing is another component of success in optimizing for Direct Response TV. The model is challenging, no doubt. Call centers must staff based on the anticipated response, including evenings, overnight, and weekends. With over 12 years of experience in Direct Response, we’ve dialed-in our approach to appropriate staffing for DRTV, and we are stronger today than ever before.

Staffing aside, agent quality is yet another critical success factor. Many outsourced contact centers employ a remote workforce. While positive from a staffing perspective, agent quality is drastically reduced. Operating a brick and mortar contact center gives us complete control over the quality of our agents and the ongoing training they receive.

If agents don’t establish trust and connection leading to an outstanding customer experience, your campaign will fail. It’s that simple. When your business invests $20-$100,000 (or more) on a DRTV test, you want to be sure your contact center partner is optimized from the start. ListenTrust is that partner.

ListenTrust is the Authority in Omnichannel Experience & Direct Response for the US Hispanic Market

The convergence of online and offline advertising platforms is a potent mixture for brands willing to take a calculated risk. There are compelling arguments for combining data-driven digital marketing practices with Direct Response television campaigns. We are highly committed to Direct Response and have the necessary capabilities to maximize this channel, but we are also capable of providing support for the omnichannel digital experience.

ListenTrust, as a healthy contact center with over 12 years in the Direct Response space, has the resources necessary to provide the essential contact center support to your DRTV marketing campaigns.

Get Started by Contacting ListenTrust Today!

For more information, contact Tom Sheppard, VP Business Development, at: tsheppard@listentrust.com.