Did you know that one of the best marketing strategies for small business owners is to include direct response ads in your daily marketing efforts?
Direct response marketing is a marketing strategy that compels a high-quality prospect to take immediate action and opt into the advertiser’s offer.
Direct response marketing educates instead of hard pitch selling. It costs very little to produce, and the results are measurable, making it ideal for small businesses to attract more customers quickly.
You are probably wondering what a direct response ad would look like.
There are five specific features that a direct response ad contains:
- A headline
- Creates interest in the service or product
- Creates desire in the prospect
- Has a specific offer
- Has a deadline or cut off date
Unfortunately, many offline and online advertising you see today are not leveraging the power of direct response marketing. Some ads are institutional advertising which is also called “image” advertising.
There is no way of accurately tracking the response since there is no specific offer. Many advertising agencies like institution advertising can’t be held responsible for zero results.
If an ad campaign doesn’t increase sales, they blame it on one following: A. The economy B. They tell you that you need to run these ads that didn’t work over again, and suddenly they will work.
They make the excuse that the public needs to see your ads more often and then you’ll start to get more sales’. The sad news is that many business owners waste a lot more money and still don’t get results.
This theory is flawed. If an ad doesn’t work at all once, it’s not suddenly going to bring in lots of money. It doesn’t work that way. There is a tiny bit of truth to it. A very, very small percentage of your response will come from people who have seen the ad before.
This is the frosting on the cake. There certainly isn’t enough of it to substantiate wasting more money. Advertising agencies are interested in being creative and ‘cutesy.’
The advertising field gives awards based on creativity, not results. Many ads that have won top awards didn’t produce any substantial increase in sales.
They have forgotten that advertising is meant to do one thing only: To Get More Clients. This is the ONLY reason why you advertise.
It would be best if you didn’t care about name recognition but simply generating more clients.
Direct response is results-oriented. You’ll know exactly how much money you made from each direct response method as you will be adequately measuring and tracking results.
Emotional direct response marketing gives your prospects something they want and tells them exactly what to do to get it. It gives them compelling reasons to use you.
It gets a response which means more sales and profits.
Here are some simple rules to follow when marketing:
- Never do anything that you can’t directly track the results.
- Never run an ad a second time that didn’t work the first time.
- Never fall in love with your ad.
This is a common mistake for people, first starting with direct marketing.
An ad is only good if it gets results. Period.
Don’t fall in love with any ad until you have tested it and know it pulls.
If you would like help to implement direct response marketing strategies to attract more customers and generate more sales, we invite you to book a FREE Quick Wins Growth Session!
