What Is Direct Response Marketing?

Marketing strategy in which the aim is to encourage an immediate response from the customers to generate quick leads is referred as direct response marketing.

Description

It is important that the marketers know how to influence their target audience, further encouraging them to take desired actions.

Though it involves market analysis and behavioural study of the target audience, a marketer also has to take care of brand identity while taking care of their targets and revenue.

It is a strategy that drives specific actions rather than building long-term goals. The actions are driven to motivate consumers to take an instant action because the motive here is to generate leads.

It is one way to engage the audience for a long time and drive quick benefits like higher ROI and lead generation. It helps them find the interested prospects and allows them to measure how many prospects come from the direct campaigns.

For an effective direct marketing campaign, it is essential that you neatly draft value proposition, pitch and call-to-action (CTA) in one place. The strategy helps the prospect to move quickly from buyer’s stage to final decision making stage.

Marketers can use direct mails, radio and billboards, digital marketing to get that quick response.

Apart from direct emails, marketers can also use landing pages, paid ads, and social media ads.

Example

One effective example of direct response marketing is a referral program. Brands that motivate you to bring referrals motivating the family and friends to make the purchase is an example of direct response marketing.

Myntra-India’s biggest online shopping program provides referral feature to the existing customers. It is known with the name MynCash. Under the referral program, the customers earn some MynCash by referring friends.

This is direct response marketing where you are asking your customers to take immediate actions on the offer.

Relevance of Direct Response Marketing

Direct Response Marketing allows the marketers to:

• Generate quick leads: Marketers can generate quick leads through the existing consumers. Marketers can lay tempting offers to capture the attention of the prospects and encourage them to make a purchase.
• High ROI: Other than generating leads, it yields higher return on investment. It happens when the prospects purchase products and existing consumers shop to leverage the cash or discount earned. Overall, the return on investment is higher.
• Easily track and measure: For a marketer, evaluating the performance of a marketing strategy is important. They need to find which ads and campaigns perform effectively. The report can then assist to decide proper resource allocation to drive higher ROI.
• Helps in identifying prospects: Consumers who respond to direct messages or emails sent to receive direct responses can be counted in as prospects. The sales team can then concentrate on following these prospects instead of cold leads that hardly respond.
• Establish stronger relationships: With this marketing, the marketers can establish stronger communication and hence relationship with the prospects and the existing consumers.

Future of Direct Response Marketing

Keeping the customers engaged for a longer time influences how an online business can grow fast.

• The figure shows some stats about online business and eCommerce:

It depicts that nearly 55% of people will search online for reviews and recommendations before they could make a purchase. 23% of people talk with family and friends, 26% check out the physical store and 47% visit the company’s website.

Studies also show that 92% of online feedback is considered positive, 2% is taken negative and 6% is considered neutral (Source: wpforms.com). This is why executing marketing strategy for direct response marketing makes sense and it will continue to affect the outputs in the future also.

Research has been made to show that 55% qualified leads rely on word of mouth and 46% keep in mind customer references.

Acquiring new customers can be 5 X the cost to retain an existing customer. Marketers can change their ways and try successful high yielding plans like email marketing and search engine optimization to build trust in the customers. It will help to gain more loyal customers.

With the rising competition, increasing the customer base will be important. And direct response marketing is a cost-effective way that can bring in more prospects.

Best Practices for Direct Response Marketing

Starting with a direct response marketing, these are the best practices for a marketer to include:

• Make Call-to-Action Specific: Including a specific and easy-to-understand call-to-action is a part of the strategy. Making the CTA simple, pushes consumers to know what is the next thing they should do and how they should do it. For example if your motive is to encourage people to shop for the products, you will write “Shop Now”, “Shop Now for 10% discount”, etc. You cannot write “Learn More” in this place.
• Use Compelling Copy: It is important for a marketer to stand out with a compelling copy. Ad copy should be personalised making it simple enough for the consumers to understand the offer.
• Keep the Response Easy: Filling long forms can be boring for the consumers. Hence, make it simple for the consumers to respond.
• Follow-Up: Do not give a slack when it comes to following up with the prospects. The marketing team should be aware of how they can move the prospects to keep them engaged.

Best examples of Direct Response Marketing

These are some of the best example of direct response marketing:

Upselling: It is a powerful act of selling a superior product to the existing customer. How can you do it? When a customer is completing a purchase, you can send them a message asking that they can shell out a little bit more money and get higher or more products.

Social Media Ads: You can promote your product or service on social media to motivate your customers or prospects to act quickly before the offer is gone. To get higher engagements, the ad copy needs to have high-quality content and visuals, should have a punchy copy, and must contain a clear CTA.

Contests and Giveaway alerts: Contests and Giveaway alerts are a major attention catcher trick. The biggest advantage is that it gets a good and immediate response from the target audience.

Text Messaging: It is a great way to alert your customers about exclusive deals and offers. Direct messaging is a simple and effective way to get customers direct to your website.

Chatbots: Chatbots were the new rage ever since they were used. It is fast and yields instant response from the users. This could be a great window to market your offers.

Direct Mails: Direct response marketing works when you try direct mails. When you send emails, you can easily attach coupons, newsletters, and brochures. You can align direct mails with modern techniques like using QR codes to direct your client to your website.

Google Ads: Another effective way to market your product and service is Google Ads. If you want to reach a wider audience Google Ads serves the best.

FAQs

What are the 3 key components of direct response marketing?

These are the 3 key components of direct response marketing:

• Offer: It will motivate the customers to engage with your brand.
• Information: The next important thing is information. When you make an ad, it is important you give clear information to the customers.
• CTA: Call-to-Action is the third crucial element for direct response marketing. It tells the customers what to do next when they have visited your website or landing page.

Tips to design a direct response marketing campaign

These are the tips to design a marketing campaign:

• Focus the campaign around the customer’s needs. Stress on target audience and not on promoting the brand.
• Personalise the campaign as it is more appealing and easier to connect with your brand.
• Use simple call-to-action.
• Make it sound urgent. FOMO helps brands to connect with their audience as the fear of missing something motivates the people to engage more with the brand.

How do you calculate the direct response of the target audience?

You can calculate the direct response of the target audience by:

Response rate= Responses/Sends

It is the percentage of people who respond to the direct marketing campaign you have designed.

Is direct response marketing effective?

Yes, direct response marketing is effective. Because it helps marketers in both branding and generating consumer response at the same time. It saves time and efforts of the marketers to follow prospects instead of cold leads that may not ultimately convert.

What is the difference between direct response and brand marketing?

Direct response marketing refers to closing a sale or transaction. On the other hand, brand marketing is building awareness. It is establishing a brand value proposition in the mind of the target audience.