The only known that I am sure of, is not to do nothing. I recently read an article on the CDC website that this pandemic may last through 2021.
Your advantage is what you decide on doing now, going hard after new and present business, will keep working for your company in the new world you are facing when a vaccine is available for controlling and ending the pandemic.
Could you comment how your company has changed the way they are marketing in the pandemic.?
Conversely, if your company is facing tough times in marketing and sales, send me a note or comment about your situation and I’ll be happy to share some suggestions.
Everyone who responds will become a subscriber to our Direct2Customers community.
This form of writing stems from the well-informed point of view. For example,
My name is John Smith, President of XYZ Company, and 99.5% who have purchased Product X, make more in sales than all the other products combined.”
The third person is more authoritative by mentioning the person by name, his or her position and further, by building a clearer brand image for company X.
Landing pages are quite the accomplice to direct marketing+mail. They get visitors the exact information they need to say yes and show how easy it is to place an order. Direct marketing can make a buying experience more pleasant for the customer and measure the effectiveness of different ads, copy or design with a landing page.
Give the reader a little incentive, or an offer of value. Do not get greedy, just go for one goal and you will capture more later.
“Which marketing channel is the best one for us to use?” The best answer may be all of them. What channels do your customers respond to? All your contacts in your databases control the marketing communication channel they use in their company.
View marketing as a science. Whatever product or service you offer your audience, everyone is different. The larger the audience, you must adjust your data collection and analysis. You will need to adjust or add new segments and customer profiles on a schedule. Change comes and goes differently within your audience. You are always reading and always doing.
The efficiencies of direct marketing led to a long success for many small business marketing firms and importantly, how to make them work for your small business today. Today I read a report that larger companies are eyeing ways to use it as well.In small businesses...
This form of writing stems from the well-informed point of view. For example,
My name is John Smith, President of XYZ Company, and 99.5% who have purchased Product X, make more in sales than all the other products combined.”
The third person is more authoritative by mentioning the person by name, his or her position and further, by building a clearer brand image for company X.
imagination for converting more people to customers.
Let’s face it, the variety of ways to get a customer in a B2B or a growing business is an unknown number.If you were looking at a map of planet earth, the customer attraction tactic may be to send a message to everyone on the planet. Is there an app for that?
A ridiculous example? Absolutely. But honestly, it does feel like that at times, right? The one missing link in B2B small business marketing is the lack of creativity throughout the marketing strategy, planning, copywriting, advertising and sales.
Look at our creativity featured image. There is graphic design, branding, and print design. Print design for this post means whatever the advertising and communication channel is used to deliver your message.
The light going on in the persons brain starts the thinking about the next marketing effort. Scattered around are some of the tools required to use for building the strategy and marketing message.
For example, creating the copy for the campaign. When you start copywriting for the next customer message, but before sharing with your team, consider weaving creativity –
Your copywriting must grab the attention of the readers.
The copy must focus on them and not your company.
Differentiate your product or service from your competition.
Tailor your copy to relevant niche customer segments or profiles.
Use as many of your customer’s favorite communication channels as possible.
Tell them why they should buy from you and no one else.
This is about as quick and concise to mix creativity using direct marketing copywriting. But without creativity in your organization, you are lacking a critical tool which can keep your marketing stale.
Your company is not going to stay the same forever and that goes for your creativity.
Usually, a good product and service will help your company grow. As that happens some of the one-to-one personal dialogue become harder to maintain. Further, customers are evolving, the market is ever-changing and there is more competition, direct and even indirect that you face daily.Match your products to the wants and needs of as many customers and prospects as possible. Looking at this bigger picture, can help develop more creativity.
Salespeople need to keep their focus on customer needs and be creative.
The knowledgeable salesperson can start a conversation with a customer where they left off the last time they talked. When customer comments are added to a marketing database,reviewing thecommentscan make a marketing message more relevant to both parties. No time is wasted, and a good salesperson used it as a leg up on the competition. That was truly a branding moment at its finest.
Writing good proposals is an example of knowledgeable data users for use in sales. No matter how hard you try to piece together good copywriting, if your data is bad, then your copy is bad.
If your data is good, the writing will get to the point quickly. Your objective is to get the reader’s attention and attract the reader’s interest, quickly. Three to five seconds is a reliable model. The copy does not need to sell but to generate immediate interest, such as sending the reader to a website landing page. Another awesome creative moment.
Digital marketing.
In the age of digital marketing via numerous communication channels, people do not hesitate to move on to something else quickly. Even the fastest and most motivated readers cannot read everything they wish. When you are direct, and your readers know your point immediately, they are more willing to connect with you and eventually make a purchase.
As with all the direct marketing strategies, customer-centric, direct mail, data driven, and digital marketing, they work harder together when built with creativity. If you are into digital, try writing copy designed for mail, direct response, or direct marketing. This copy not only focus on direct-2-customer creativity, but uses customer data fromcompany segmentation tools, prospect and customer profiling and relevant copywriting leading to a potential purchase.
Summary.
Direct marketing plus creativity, provides more ways to get customers to buy – such as:
Create a picture of your customers’ buying patterns.
Create customized offers for your marketing channels such as direct mail, email,sales people, advertisements, digital channels,or social media.
Create an increasing number of marketing responses, leading to better relationships and eventually, more revenue.
Learning what is relevant for each data segment.
Add and correct customer information into your marketing database.
The backbone of direct marketing copy is simple – reach your customers in a timely manner with relevant communication, a strong offer and a product that exceeds your customer satisfaction.
Thanks for reading and please share with others – except your competition! Your time is truly appreciated.
Learning and doing, marketing, and selling ideas, is what you’ll find at your Direct2Customers community.
It’s what we do. It’s what we love to do.
Thanks again for reading. Questions? Mdoc@direct2customers.com or 800-251-3608
But hold on a second. Are more choices still a good idea?
My experienceas a business owneranda direct marketing geek, I know that sometimes less is more when it comes to choosing. In other words, choice comes with a cost.
For example, if you are selling a new app every mother would want, you may be tempted to offer a variety of response avenues: email, contact us page on your website or a landing page, social media, and even a toll–free phone number. Just like my direct2customers marketing community. The logic is that everyone prefers a different method, so if you offer them all you increase the number of orders you get. Right?
Not always. Sometimes, all those choices work against you because choosing between them may take an extra split second, which is enough to cause someone to put off responding until later. Once that happens, you may never get the answer at all.
It may seem like a subtle distinction, but there is a difference between offering choices and introducing extra decisions. If the “choice” of response method becomes a “decision,” you can reduce the number of buyers and even orders.
For a reader-oriented medium such as a blog or content marketing, it is often best to offer a reader-oriented response and nothing else. That means forcing people to respond and provide no other avenue for response. Since there is only one way to reply, there is no decision to make.However, your copywriting must be crisp and to the point ofwhat you want them to do.
If you own orwork for a companythat does most of its business online, driving people to asingle contactlinkin your copy, makes the most sense. Again, there is no decision on how to respond, so there is one less hurdle for prospects to jump.
Is this always the best approach? Yes and no, depending on what your marketing contacts prefer. The only way to be sure whether to offer one or multiple response methods, is to test. If you offer several ways now, look at your data tracking to see how many answers come in through each type.
You might be surprised to find that one is favored to a much greater extent than the others. This could be the basis for testing whether one type of response can increase or decrease your total response.
Thanks for reading and please share with others – except your competition! Your time is truly appreciated.
Learning and doing, marketing and selling ideas, is what you’ll find at Direct2Customers community.
but pounce on them with an offer they cannot refuse.
Direct and digital marketing is a combination of words, pictures, and ideas. A great visual tool without compelling words often goes unnoticed. Great words without the ability to attract the consumer’s attention often doom those glorious words to oblivion. Great visual images without substantive words and ideas often diminish the result.
At times, your audience may not understand a visual. Many have heard of the Pareto Principle, but after seeing in use in a post or an article, it deserves a trip to Google to answer people’s questions.
Use another pause visual to slow or stop the reader to check it out. Make sure a post or solicitation opens in another company web page so the trip back for the visitor returns to the original location. Also, this is a clever way to explain the definition of a word or phrase.
Do you know your competitors, directly or indirectly? Find out before you read their product description after seeing their product in a photo or video. You may say, “Now, why didn’t I think of that?” Or, “this new product will kill us.”
Each example is important, but prospects and customers will overlook the best words and most monumental ideas unless something grabs their attention. Producing “grabbers” work well with about any communication channel today.
The grabber for direct mail is the design. It’s the proper mix of color, shape, size, illustrations, photos, and typography.
I know what you are thinking. If you said your digital and social media communications could use a design makeover, you are correct. Try it. You won’t be disappointed.
A good headline accentuated with a photo or art is “a double whammy.”
Bright colors and bold graphics set your work apart. Illustrations are easily editable to fit your brand and can even be more universal than photography. Let Vector illustrations help your next project wrap up a punch.
Focus on creating a “how-to” or “why” or a “number series” while adding value and/or supplying entertainment in the form of a photograph, vector art, or even a short video or GIF.
As we learned in Direct Mail 101, the how-to is powerful because it engages the prospect on a deeper psychological level. It’s self-centered and most of us pay more attention when we hear “how-to and whatever follows after it.”
Try using a catchy relevant headline in the email subject line and see your open rate increase. Go a step further and add visuals with copy.
How to Reach a Qualified Target Audience… and motivate them to seek you out!
Momentum is not only a powerful force; it can keep people in motion. Eventually, when focusing on a segment of your contacts, such as once-buying prospects, you will learn how to qualify them.
The copy and the photo are enough to draw the reader in to the post. The copy can appeal to a human emotion.
Ask a question in the headline.
“What marketing communication channel delivers over 700 million messages each day?”
Curiosity can draw many reasons to find an answer. A good copywriter will add more subtle information. Like, in…
Subhead. Hint. Something you do with marketing.
The answer is 700 million of letters and parcels are delivered yearly by the United States Postal Service. When you decide to use the US Mail channel, it’s a good guess the contact will get what you sent.
Thinking of using direct mail?
When designing direct mail, many people tend to be overly concerned about the individual design elements in the piece. Such as:
How does the headline look?
Should we put a few bullet points here?
How about some added color here?
Stop! Always try to look at your design. Stand back from your thoughts and look at it as you would a cool piece of art.
Imagine the blocks of text, the headlines, and various color blocks and photos as design elements – squares, circles, rectangles. Look at what stands out and what doesn’t.
Summary
If you want to learn more about this communication channel, direct mail, visit our Direct2customers.com and visit the Library of Marketing. There are a variety of sample writings. If you have a specific need send an email to Mdoc@direct2customers.com.
Thanks for reading and please share with others – except your competition! Your time is truly appreciated.
Learning and doing, marketing and selling ideas, is what you’ll find at Direct2Customers community.
The goal of writing great marketing copy is to get people into taking action.
Like buy my product or service.
The more you address specific human elements that motivate your audience, the greater your chances of moving them into action, calling, e-mail or buying.
So, what moves people, besides a big truck?
People cannot resist a bargain. People seek pleasure and satisfaction. People like exclusivity. And some are even moved by greed.
People seek to improve themselves. They want to save time. People seek security and safety.
People seek power, stature, fame, flattery from others and inside information. They are often envious, revengeful and proud.
People want to make money, save money, save time, stay healthy, become more knowledgeable, increase their status, boost their prestige.
This is a never-ending list as we try to understand the human mind and how it relates to purchasing your products and services. You need not attempt to solve the human condition in every direct marketing copy you write. But it’s recommended to learn continuously about your customers.
What you need to do is think carefully about what you sell, to whom, and how best to make them want to act.
It’s a complicated activity and, at the same time, it is easy. Your direct marketing must lead people to consider worthy opportunities to improve their personal situations. Train your mind to react to them.
It becomes much easier when you take the time to keep learning more about your customers and provide products and services that exceed their expectations.
Some of those expectations may even be in the preceding paragraphs. It’s all about learning and doing.
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