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Adding Direct Response into Small Business Advertising

Some small business advertising isn’t produced in order to make an immediate sale. There are advertisements and other promotional strategies which are designed to build or enhance brand image, raise or maintain consumer awareness of a given company, product or service as well as marketing materials which are intended to elicit an immediate response and hopefully, generate sales – and that’s what we’re going to be addressing here.

There’s many forms of direct response marketing, from the short-form advertising copy (such as print ads, TV commercials, radio spots, contextual PPC advertising, etc.) to the longer marketing messages like text-heavy, full page, advertorials and the Dale Carnegie-style sales letters. All of these techniques are valid, and which one you use to get your message out there mostly depends on what product or service you’re offering, and who you’re target market is; all of which you should already know if you’ve spent maybe ten minutes in marketing. – but when you reach your audience with your message matters just as much as everything else.

The Right Message To The Right Market In The Right Media At The Right Time

Direct response advertising campaigns rely on these four factors. – and we’ll briefly cover all four below:

Message: If you can’t effectively tell your target audience about the advantages over your competition in regards to your product or service, then it doesn’t really matter how good what you’re offering really is. – in other words you won’t make any sales. You need to appeal to people on several levels, especially on an emotional level if you want to spur them to action immediately. We’ll cover more about how to craft an attention getting message that closes the deal later.

Market: Again, it doesn’t matter what your product or service is or how great it may be or even how compelling your message is if you’re trying to sell to the wrong audience. In other words, don’t bring coal to Newcastle. You should know who your target market is, if not then you need to clear the board and start over with your business’ marketing research, before beginning any direct response campaign. If you don’t know who you’re selling to, you’ll never be able to put together an effective direct response message.

Media: Depending on the demographics, and other areas that your marketing research has focused on, greatly come into play when choosing the type of media to use to attract your target audience. Depending on who your target market is, different media channels will be more – or less effective in reaching them. Some people are more influenced by direct mail, and some by print advertising, and others prefer online marketing strategies such as email and banner ads. Just like getting ready for a speech, you need to know who your audience is going to be in order to create an effective impact with your message and direct response method.

Moment: It’s not just about reaching the right audience with the right message through the right media; you also have to make sure that your message reaches them at the right time. What’s the right time, you ask? It’s not when you’re ready to sell but rather when your target market is ready to buy. You’re always ready to sell, at least if you’re in the least bit suited for business – but you need to remember that not every person out there is ready to make a purchase, even if they’re decidedly part of your target demographic.

Incorporating these factors: Message, market, media, and moment, can ensure that your direct response campaign produces positive results and a good return on investment by targeting the right people that are ready and willing to buy from your business right now.

This can be accomplished in a number of ways. You can keep in touch with prospective and current customers via a series of email messages using auto-responder software. If it’s more likely that your audience would go for offline methods, then by targeting the media channels that have the greatest influence on your target’s demographic area can ensure that your message is heard loud and clear.

But any way you look at it, these are the 4 componenets of successful small business advertising…

You’ve just read a small segment of the free guide titled “How to Use Direct Response Small Business Advertising to Grow Your Sales and Profits.” The guide is available for free – along with several other resources for small business owners – when you sign up for small business advertising e-course…

To learn more about how to massively increase the sales in your business through smart advertising and marketing, click the link to grab your FREE small business advertising Course…