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Lessons Learned in 2011: A Direct Marketer’s Perspective

December 27, 2011 Leave a Comment

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. 2011 WAS a very good year from a direct marketing perspective. As it turned out, the year was filled with hunches confirmed, tests proven and insights gleaned….regardless of the client.

As experts in the industry, the Direct Choice Staff has decided to share their thoughts on the most significant lessons learned in 2011 from their perspective:

The Direct Choice Family

Karin: I would say, stick with what works. My clients have been tasked with saving money, and can’t afford to put a wrong foot forward. We took our controls, made them even stronger and strengthened the branding aspects to support the retail level, and then off we went. Our programs have been pulling hard for several years, and thank goodness, they did even better this year.
Nick R.: Qualifying the lead pays off. It was the client’s prospect list, so we used messaging to deliver a serious lead, instead of a so-so one. We delivered more sales than the current control, which is what really matters.
Anne: Creative matters. I say it every year, but this year it was REALLY important.
Mike: “Couldn’t have said it better than Anne.”
Christine: At a time when budgets are tight, we are making it work! Drilling down on the data is yielding some incredible results. We customized our messaging and went back out there to a tightly targeted file, speaking to them about what we knew really resonated with them. I would say that in any marketplace a 24% response rate is extraordinary…but at this time and in this economy, it is truly amazing.
Nick L.: Tuning in to the budgets for each client. I know it sounds really boring, but in this kind of year, that’s where the victories are. That and reinvention. It’s a time to review where you are at, where you are going, and set up a different navigation path.
Scott: Innovation that can bring down cost per lead has been the name of the game. Whether that’s reducing paper, implementing a digital communications build-out, and looking at every communication contact for its efficacy…it’s been critical.
Beth: There are no sacred cows. In 2011 and into 2012, everything has been up for taking a second hard look.

These are all wise words to take into 2012, and if you follow this blog, we will have many more to share throughout the year. What were your lessons learned?

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Filed under Case Studies Tagged with 2011 lessons learned, cost per lead marketing, marketing best practices, marketing budgets, marketing creative, marketing lessons learned, marketing sales leads

Prospecting: The Real vs. The Brand

December 20, 2011 Leave a Comment

You’ve invested a lot of $$$$ in your brand. Why? Because the conventional wisdom is that it is the age of the brand and no longer about “advertising” (sorry Don Draper). Sorry to say, but the era of the fabulous campaign that makes you think as you sit captive to the boob tube every night is a bygone relic.

So, as long as your brand is resonant, your image is clear and competitively delineated, your website and your materials carry forth all those brand characteristics,…then you are assured of success, right?

Wrong……Brand-schmand (I know, spoken like a true marketer, you might say).

The truth is they are both necessary. While marketing is all about the P’s (Product, Place, Price, Promotion), branding exists in a more esoteric universe.

Marketing separates; brand unifies.
Marketing is about segmenting a big group of people, and targeting them with the proper market mix. Branding preaches the unifying element that combines.

In general, branding assures that a product stands for the same thing to a15 year- old kid and a 50 year-old plumber.

If true prospect marketing had its own way, Coca Cola, for example, would have to create a marketing mix for each segment or demographic – teens, ‘tweens, kids, oldies, etc. But, because Coca Cola is at the end of the day a brand and not a product, it preaches the singular message that “Coke is the real thing,” and that one message brings us to one platform & one positioning….from Alaska to Australia.

But how would we prospect most cost-effectively for Coke? Ah. That is the province of the marketer. One retail chain owner recently came up empty-handed after spending a ton on TV advertising to drive traffic into his stores. After an initial surge, his stores were empty. Under siege from shareholders, he came to us at Direct Choice to do, as he put it, the “boots on the ground stuff” to get his outlets busy.

As lead generators, we knew it wasn’t all about his brand. It was about smart micro-targeting in the neighborhoods, leveraging online tactics, special offers and incentives, and buzz in the local markets. Most of all, it was really about knowing who his customers are—and therefore who his best prospects really were.

His branding work had been done. Then it was up to us to make it pay off. Branding and Marketing working in harmony.

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Filed under Case Studies Tagged with Brand marketing, Brand vs. Marketing, Branding Best Practices, lead generation, LeadGen, marketing best practices, Prospect Marketing

The Five Most Egregious Marketing Mistakes

October 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

In a continuation from last week’s post listing the (dis) honorable mentions when it comes to marketing mistakes made by organizations, we have identified the five most egregious marketing mistakes that are made. This may Marketing 101 for most, but we wouldn’t share these if we didn’t see them occurring across the country:

5. Focusing on branding when you really need leads:

That new logo and brand pyramid (not to mention and the money you spent on them) won’t mean a thing if there are no new prospects!!! Branding is great, but it isn’t sales. Let me repeat, it IS NOT SALES. It may seem counterproductive to build up a fan base for a brand you are thinking of changing, but you will want those customers in your back pocket when the new brand launches. Remember, it is much easier to convert than it is to sell.

4. Hiring Sales People for demanding Marketing Jobs (and vice versa):

Sales people are amazing. A career in sales requires years of training and experience. However, that experience is rendered pointless in the face of a major marketing campaign. A sales team has a great talent for one task…and marketing is not it. The flip side is also true; marketers have a completely different skill set, unique to their training and experience. Learn the difference between the two and make sure you have both.

3. Not setting up the back end first:

You’re bringing in new customers, but you have no plan for how to keep them. They may linger for a while, but eventually, those customers will fade away, and you are back at square one. Plan ahead, and come up with a way to keep new customers loyal to the brand. Then you won’t need to waste time and money picking up a new batch every time a new campaign starts.

2. Thinking your customers will always be there:

They won’t. You need a Customer Relationship Management plan, especially to keep the ones that are profitable. This is one of the easiest mistakes to make, and it leads to many marketers and owners down the path of becoming lazy and complacent. Maintaining a loyal customer base requires constant effort and innovation. People will not stick with your brand year after year because of a good campaign a decade ago.

1. Not knowing who your real customers are:

A good salesman knows the names and families of every customer. A good marketer knows their income, the street they live on, what industry they work in, languages they speak, causes they support, and products they are likely to replace within the next few quarters. Marketing is only done properly when data management is a core component. All the creative effort and brilliant ideas in the world are wasted if they aren’t targeted to the right audience. Marketers can’t take business owners at their word, and owners can’t immediately dismiss a marketer’s ideas. The data can show who a business’s real customers are, and those results may be surprising.

Most industry experts can agree that these are some of the worst mistakes that can be made, but in our mind, these five rank as the most egregious not just because of their ability to ruin a company, but also because of their unfortunate commonality across marketing departments and agencies in a number of industry sectors. For those interesting in some dichotomy, we recommend this link on best practices in marketing.

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