How Small Business Owners Boost Sales & Leads With Direct Response Marketing

Direct Response Marketing is a more effective strategy for small business owners and entrepreneurs because it makes better use of his/her marketing dollars. It takes the approach of compelling the reader to take some specific action ‘right now’ preferably one that allows the small business owner or marketer to follow up with the potential customer/client later and continue to build a relationship. Direct Response Marketing is also measurable, a factor critical to the success or failure of your marketing campaigns. For example, by placing a source code on your advertising and promotions, you can track where your leads and sales are coming from, which is far better than guessing, wouldn’t you agree?

There’s a famous advertising quote attributed to John Wanamaker, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising, in which he says that half of all his advertising is wasted, he just didn’t know which half. Well that’s not the case using a Direct Response approach because you can implement systems which allow you to measure and track its success. Probably the most common one we’ve seen is in classified ads that give a specific VIP code or coded PO Box to respond to. The marketer has coded each publication with a specific response code that tells him which publication the reader saw his ad in. Now let’s apply that online, one example is to have an additional question on your website’s contact page that simply asks: How did you hear about us? With a predetermined drop down list of selections like Google search; eblast; newsletter; postcard; blog; flyer; etc.

Let’s compare that with traditional marketing and advertising, let’s say a magazine or television ad, you’ll often notice being informed or entertained but find it difficult to recall later which company produced the ad. This is of little use to a small business owner because they typically don’t have the budget for mere brand-building efforts. By using Direct Response Marketing strategies in your advertising & promotions, you’ll always get better mileage out of your marketing dollars and know which efforts are working for you.

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