a) What is direct marketing?
Support institutions should try as much as possible to address their messages to the individual potential client or member especially in view of restricted resources and comparably small target groups (e.g., all buyers in the paper industry). This practice is referred to as “direct marketing”. With the exponential development of the use of electronic mail and the Internet, direct marketing became very modern also with big consumer companies.
Direct marketing focuses on building a long lasting relationship with the individual potential customer, where the company collects more and more information about the client and uses this information to make tailor-made offers. The information will also be used to analyse the needs of the target group, test new business ideas, etc. Direct marketing thus combines market research and testing, client relationship management, sales approaches and promotion activities.
The most important is the direct contact (e.g., via mail, telephone, Internet) with individuals from your target group(s). This is a very efficient form of promoting your products and services with a message or offer especially focused on the target audience. In order to establish this direct contact you will need to have contact details of individuals of your target group.
Many professional support institutions use direct marketing for promoting and selling their products and services.
Good examples for direct marketing are membership and past client (alumni of training courses) programmes. Potential clients and supporters are offered membership with the support institution. The institution will maintain a member/client data base including valuable information about characteristics and needs of the members/clients. The members/clients enter into a long-term relationship with the support institution. Some organisations even send birthday cards or special holiday greetings to their members/clients. The members/clients will for example get access to professional events, get free copies of publications and other advantages. In return, members/clients should develop to become ongoing customers who acquire the institution’s products and services on a regular basis.
Another typical example for direct marketing is multi-stage selling. First you try to get “the feet in the door of the potential client” with the offer for, e.g., a brief counselling, the offer for a short 1-day course, free sending of a publication or the invitation to a professional event. The institution will then find out more about the client’s needs and requirements. It will follow up, maybe by doing a client focused presentation at the premises or sending further information on suitable products and services. In the end, the client should positively respond to the institution’s offer.
Direct marketing involves staying in contact with potential and existent clients. Sending out direct mail, (email) newsletters and doing phone surveys all serve this purpose. Direct marketing does not only communicate a message that should influence your target group, direct marketing wants the target group to interact with you. For example, you want them to ask you for a presentation in their company or to ask for your brochures and membership registration forms, etc. Potential clients interested will ideally contact your institution.
b) How to do direct marketing?
1. Collect data about your clients, members and potential clients:
- Use a member/client registration form
- Do member/client surveys
- Build up alumni groups, professional interest groups, etc.
- Use evaluation forms for all of your training, consulting and other services
- Put feed-back possibilities on your website (email, discussion fora, survey questionnaires)
- Invite members and potential clients to experience exchanges or discussion rounds
- Invite members to feed-back on your (email) newsletters
2. Store the data in a systematic way
- Build up a client and prospect database (there are many available software packages and quite some are for free, see http://www.itforcharities.co.uk/free.htm) Another possibility is to use ITC’s model Web site “SupportNet” that includes a contact database for interested Web site visitors, members, partners, clients, etc.
- Maintain the database regularly, feed in all relevant information from various sources (see point 1).
- The database should support a regrouping of the data by different criteria (e.g., existing clients, potential clients, members, sectors, public or private, etc.), the generation of reports, printing of labels and automatic creation of forms or serial letters (mail merge), etc.
- Always keep a saved version of your current database on a disk (back-up) in case your computer catches a virus, someone coincidentally deletes the database or your computer crashes.
3. Chose the target audience you want to send your message to
- Select the group of recipients depending on the purpose and content of the message you want to send out.
4. Chose the media that best carries your message to your target audience
- Direct mail
- Telephone
- Newsletters
- others
5. Put together the message you want to send out
Tip 12 How to write a good direct marketing message?
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First put together the characteristics of your target audience (e.g., small companies, paper sector, the owner or sole manager is responsible for SCM, the companies are most interested in inventory management and capital goods buying) |
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Second, define the purpose of the direct marketing activity (get request for your new training initiative, raise interest in your SME consultancy services, sell subscriptions to your journal, etc.) |
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Design and write the message for the target audience. Use everything you know about them to combine a target oriented message with a tailor-made offer for the target audience |
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Do not send an anonymous message - use personalised features (address, personal greeting Dear Mr., Dear Ms., etc.) |
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Use a simple and concise style that is easy to read |
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Use short sentences Use paragraphs at least every 6 lines Use simple language Avoid abbreviations, technical terms, “foreign” words Let different people read the message and consider their feed-back Use questions to raise curiosity at the beginning of a paragraph Make your main points and your offer visible (bold, borders, etc.) Avoid mixing font styles, sizes and using too many colours Spelling and grammar check by at least 2 people |
6. Monitor responses and decide on any follow-up actions
- Keep a list with all people who responded or acted on your message (best in your contact database)
- Plan for any follow-up with those who did not respond (if applicable)
7. Evaluate benefits and cost of the direct marketing campaign
Compare the sales, new memberships or other benefits out of the campaign with the implied cost (staff time, office materials, sending, etc.)
Note 20 Direct marketing
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Direct marketing involves “fixed” cost in terms of financial and human resources needed for: Information collection |
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Remember: all fixed costs need to be covered by adding a supplementary to the prices for your services and products or by receiving additional (donor) funds |