I have just written a piece for a leading marketing mag. Here is a sneek preview of my ten top tips for Direct Marketing channel selection - i.e Traditional paper based Direct Mail v Telemarketing v email...
- Be clear about your objective. Lead generation v relationship building, up sell v cross sell, sales v service, educate v inspire...
- Start with the customer. Who are they? How will you segment them? What do you know about them and their behaviours? Are you talking to customers or prospects? Will they have gate keepers that you need to get through? How environmentally conscious are they?
- Research their media habits. If you have the budget for TGI then that is a great place to start. If you don’t, conduct your own research. Consider how they spend a typical day. What are their media habits and when are they more receptive to your marketing messages?
- Ask for their preferences. If you have a relationship with the target audience, give them the choice. If not, use your research to find out what the majority want.
- Allow people to opt out by channel. Don’t keep sending the paper catalogue to people who buy and browse online.
- How complex is your message? Direct mail has the advantage of being physical and tactile. People open it and experience it. If you want to reveal the message gradually or if you want to include extra information, samples or vouchers, then traditional DM may be the best option.
- Focus on your call to action. If you want to drive traffic to your web site or social media channel, it is one click away from the email. This is not the case in DM and telemarketing.
- Personalisation is key. Treat different people differently. Email and telemarketing are simple to personalise. Direct mail customisation has got easier with digital printing, but is still generally more expensive.
- Test and learn. If you want instant feedback and to test different variants then you will have to wait longer for responses from traditional DM. You will get results back from telemarketing and email almost instantly. You’ll get more data too. With DM the outcome is either responded or didn’t. With email you know if it is delivered, opened, clicked through and which content has got their attention.
- CRM is very different to Direct Marketing. Are you looking to build an engaging on-going programme that is driven by changes in customer behaviours? If it is short term sales leads you need, then telemarketing can work for you, but what will the impact be on your brand reputation and customer relationships from more intrusive marketing? Ideally a CRM programme will be integrated, using combinations of channels.
