That question has been plaguing a lot of people who have decided to turn to marketing as either an income supplement or their full time jobs. Most people know that buying and selling is not easy, whether you are doing it psychically or you are tasked to perform telemarketing, or any form of direct/digital marketing on or offline. The problem lies with finding a direct marketing solution to augment your strategy. This is because there are so many people who are doing this business that the market is completely saturated.
However, opportunity in the consumer capitalist market is continually refreshed as parabolic curves on consumer demand continue to redraw themselves. This means that people will always demand for new and more innovative products, and there will always be a need for people to sell them. Going back to the drawing board, you have a product that is fresh, innovative and a seller. It has all the features of an award winning product and you have plenty of confidence in it. In fact, you are certain that it can literally sell itself. So, where to go from here? This is the crucial time that people either fail or succeed in their efforts. To market the product, you need to find the ‘market' that will most likely buy it. For example, you would sell a financial product to business owners or entrepreneurs.
You would sell cleaning products to a demographic of housewives or moms to be. You would connect with car owners when you have on hand paraphernalia connected with motor vehicles. Let me remind you that this is a simplistic approach. There are so many things to think about, like income bracket, types of household, ethnicity, branding, gender etc. When you sell something, you have to base your strategy on whom you are selling to. Trying to market your product to someone who has no interest in it or has no predisposition to be interested in it is a waste of your time and in the world of buying and selling, time is money. What you need is the best direct marketing solution that is highly targeted business lists that you can use.
A targeted list is like gold in your hands, it is the battle half won when it comes to buying and selling. You do not have to excite the market because the market is already 50% on the way to buying the product. They have a need for it, all you need to do is to identify it and sway the purchasing decision. Just work on your sales pitch and your carrier and the rest should be elementary. You can find companies who offer detailed, almost tailor made lists for every kind of product and service around on the internet.
They range from fax lists, email lists, phone numbers etc, and the prices are reasonable and represent an investment into your success. Direct marketing solutions like lists are all over the internet, you just have to go out and look for them.
B To B Direct Marketing
Almost three quarters of larger UK companies use direct marketing as a marketing communication tool. These larger businesses also spend a higher proportion of their marketing budget on direct marketing than most small businesses.
Probably around two thirds of direct marketing takes place in the business to business, or b2b market and one third of direct marketing is aimed at consumers.
What budget should I allow for direct marketing?
Research by the direct marketing industry shows that smaller businesses usually spend 0.5-1% of their turnover on direct marketing. So, if you business turnover is £500,000, you would typically expect to allocate between £2500 and £5000 for direct marketing activities.
The other way to decide what budget you should allocate to direct marketing, is as a proportion of your overall marketing spend. Most smaller businesses spend up to about 25% of their marketing budget on direct marketing, and larger businesses often spend a far higher proportion - up to half of their budget.
What direct marketing tools should I use?
The most common direct marketing tool is direct mail - sending promotional mailings to named individuals in the postal system. Direct mail accounts for about a quarter of the total amount UK businesses spend on direct marketing.
The next most popular direct marketing tool is online internet advertising primarily through the use of pay per click advertising and banner adverts.Other direct marketing tools which are used on a fairly frequent basis are magazine display adverts designed to generate a direct response, door drops to consumers' homes, loose inserts in magazines and newspapers, and field marketing.
Telemarketing has decreased in popularity due to the increasing number of registrations with the Telephone Preference Service and Corporate Telephone Preference Service.
Newer emerging direct marketing methods include email marketing, which is overcoming initial concerns about the legality of its use by launching newer sources of double opt in email marketing lists. Also growing as a niche tool is mobile marketing, using SMS messaging to interact with consumers on their mobile phones.
Which direct marketing tools are the most effective?
Recent surveys of the sales generated by direct marketing show that nearly half of sales are generated by online sales from websites on the internet, and around 10% sales are generated by mail order and home shopping type direct marketing activities. The remainder of sales are generated by other direct marketing tools such as telemarketing and field marketing.
What direct marketing response rates can I expect?
Direct mail is by far the most popular direct marketing tool, accounting for around a quarter of all DM activity. Looking at the response rates from direct mail campaigns, it is generally accepted that you can expect typical response rates of 1-5% from your mailing.
Both Chris Burns & Webmarket Reports are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Chris Burns has sinced written about articles on various topics from Business Credit Cards, Direct Marketing and Business Loans. Chris Burns is an authority on mailing list services providing valuable advice on using business mailing lists as a direct marketing solution.. Chris Burns's top article generates over 12100 views. Bookmark Chris Burns to your Favourites.
Webmarket Reports has sinced written about articles on various topics from Legal Matters, Direct Marketing and SEO Articles. Steve Sellwood is from http://www.selectabase.co.uk, a UK provider of b2b and b2c business and consumer lists and databases for use in direct marketing. Selectabase als. Webmarket Reports's top article generates over 22200 views. Bookmark Webmarket Reports to your Favourites.
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