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.
Association Of Direct Marketing
Mini Websites have become the most dominant and cost effective solution to promote and market your products and services. People generally prefer a large site with large number of pages which invariably confuse the visitors. Moreover, most of the pages remain unviewed by the visitor. When people conduct searches in the search engines they expect to get specific results. The normal web surfer spends very little time on sites and does not go beyond 3 to 5 clicks on a site. If the visitor lands at your site and does not find what he is looking for in first two clicks he will automatically switch to another site which he finds more relevant. The concept of direct marketing is always beneficial to the site owner as well as to the visitor.
The idea of mini site is advantageous to small time business or enterprise owners. Being a small business it becomes easy to showcase all the products in few pages. Visitors also find what they are looking for without getting confused.
According to visitor psychology, people give value to straight forward honest offers. Most of the sites now a day are filled with most irrelevant contents as per instructions of any search engine optimizer, which drives visitor away from site as he has so many options to choose.
Take a look at the examples of contents for cake selling site below and decide yourself which one you prefer.
Site one: Welcome to our site, we produce best of products in world. We have cookies, pastries, jellies, etc etc. We are established on ABC with the vision of our founder Mr. XYZ and also greet your visitor with an eye catching animation.
Site two: Looking for cakes? You have come to the right place for Cakes. Below are our regular offerings along with the price, Check out todays special what we have only for you. Like a custom cake of your choice click here and like to know more about us click here.
Definitely the visitor will give more weight to the second site. The reasons are:
1. Visitor was searching for “cakes" and likes to know what cake is, and then only he likes to know who the manufacturers of the cakes are.
2. The site is offering straight answers to the visitor like the prices etc
3. With minimum clicks he is getting all the information.
4. The site loads fast which is a very pleasant thing for any visitor compared to site one which has animation on it and will take time to download.
5. Site 2 showcases the product prices and discounts immediately which is what all visitors look for.
6. Even search engine will give more preference to site 2 as they have specific information’s on cakes compared to site one which have other products to sell.
Bottom line is to attract your visitor by the matter on your site. Give the visitor straight answers and they will become your customers. Today’s market is customer centric so your services have to be customized to suit the customers.
This article has been compiled by the content development team at Pegasus InfoCorp which pulls subject matter specialists from different work domains. They can be contacted through the Pegasus InfoCorp website at info@pegasusinfocorp.com. Pegasus InfoCorp is an India based web design, web development and online/offline software development company. Please visit http://www.pegasusinfocorp.com to read more articles and know more about us!
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William Dupree has sinced written about articles on various topics from Direct Marketing, Small Business and Coffee Advantages. William Dupree who has over 20years of experience in interactive marketing is the owner of Interactive Marketing & Promotional Solutions (www.intmktprosol.com) located in New York City, which specializes in developing interactive marketing strategies for. William Dupree's top article generates over 3600 views. Bookmark William Dupree to your Favourites.
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