Getting started…

There are many intricate techniques and principles that can be applied to promote successful direct marketing and it’s definitely a discipline that rewards those who are process-driven and patient as it takes both to really understand what works and what doesn’t and to build meaningful relationships with prospects and customers.

The starting point is to identify and utilise the knowledge and resources that are available to you. This is simply an information gathering exercise.

It’s inevitable that not all the information gathered is available or useful to every business but it’s very valuable to understand what you have so that you’re not reinventing the wheel unnecessarily. It’s also valuable to understand what you don’t know, so that you can design ‘scientific tests’ to fill in the gaps. This knowledge can then be used to improve future direct marketing communications.

Strategic Objectives

• What is the objective of the strategy or campaign?
• When do you want to achieve it by?
• What is your budget?

Audience profiles

• What is the definition of the target audience?
• Can you identify smaller groups that would be more meaningful based on shared attributes such as past purchase behaviour, location, gender etc?
• Have you done business with this segment in the past?
• If so, what do you know about their purchasing behaviour (what, where, how, why)?
• Do you have any customer feedback reports to better understand their attitudes to your business?

List Segments

• What customer lists do you hold in house?
• What contact information does it contain?
• What is the data quality of the list?
• Are there any other external lists you have access to?
• How often are these lists marketed to and by whom within your organisation?
• How easy is it to extract data?

Communication Channels

• What communication channels have you used in the past?
• What is the rate of return mail / email bounce-backs?
• Do you know what channel is the most effective and cost-efficient?
• Do you know what your customers preferred communication channels are?
• What other channels might you have access to?

Offers

• What offers have been trialled in the past?
• What offers have worked?
• What else could you do?
• Do you have any specific offer objectives for the next campaign i.e. particular product focus?

Creative

• Review examples of past creative
• Review examples of competitor creative material

Results

• Have you tracked campaign activity in the past?
• If so, how?
• What were the key performance indicators of the campaign?
• What numbers are available in the areas of response rates, # customers, sales, costs?
• What processes do you have in place to track and report on campaign activity?

Once you have completed the information gathering exercise the next step is to understand the material provided. This will help with the next steps which include identifying the list segment, offers and creative opportunities and creating financial forecasts that detail these aspects along with testing opportunities to help generate valuable learning’s in addition to objectives set.

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