In Sunday, April 6th’s issue of The Tennessean, the Nashville daily newspaper, David Bohan, founder of Bohan Advertising and Marketing, writes about the resurgence of direct response marketing.
In his article, Bohan points out that, contrary to popular belief, people actually look forward to reading their daily mail . He says, according to the U S Postal Service, consumers spend 30 minutes a day reading their mail.
Smart direct marketers are taking advantage of this by selectively targeting niches and crafting messages that have high appeal to their audience. This market segmentation and quality copy is producing incredible results for those marketers who have honed their direct marking skills.
“The offer is the hero of the direct mail piece, but the creative is the sizzle”, says Chris Kelman, creative director of Catapult Marketing in Westport, Connecticut.
Using market segmentation, Kimberly Clark’s Huggies brand created a direct response program that targeted mothers by the age of their babies from pre-natal through a child’s 30th month. The long copy, information rich content focused on benefits of Huggies and directed mothers to the Huggies web site where they could obtain additional information.
Instead of trying to sell the mothers directly, the direct response campaign “sold” the mothers on going to the web site where they were offered more information, coupons to use and contests to enter. Every click of the mouse brought the mothers deeper and deeper into the sales funnel where they were giving their permission to be sold and marketed to.
Using Direct Response to Sell Season Football Tickets
One of the most prestigious football programs in the country is the University of Alabama. In Alabama football is more than a game. It borders on being a religion. That being the case, you would think that selling season tickets would not require a direct mail campaign. If you think that you would be wrong.
Seems as though the Crimson Tide has found a marketing strategy that will be copied as fast as you can say “Roll Tide Roll”.
In 2007, the University of Alabama’s Athletic Department hit the jackpot by developing a personalized ad campaign that was directed to season ticket holders. This campaign featured a postcard of Bryant Denny Stadium with the recipient’s name spelled out on the field by the Alabama Band. The postcard also included a personalized URL that directed ticket holders to a web site where the Alabama cheerleaders held up signs with their name on them.
The result: online renewals doubled from the previous year.
Smart marketers are reexamining their thoughts of direct response marketing when designing marketing campaigns. Maybe it is time you consider doing the same.