You should read the paragraphs below in order to gain more knowledge about how to organize your marketing material when creating a direct marketing plan. The facts mentioned are important for the success of any direct marketing campaign, annual plan or test.
Keep in mind that there is no real template for success. It is important to adapt to the situation you are in at the moment. There are companies that will need more details in specific areas when compared with others. However, incorporating what is highlighted below will be useful.
It is vital that you properly determine the response rates that will be needed from the test or the channel that you use. Think about the tools that you will need since many forget about this. For instance, some companies may need POS systems by Retail Express or similar. Think about top sales volume needs and profits. Figures have to be translated into number of customers and you have to calculate the cost per customer at all times.
The product has to be described from the point of view of the perspective target market and the user, not from your point of view. Think about the problem that the promoted product or service would solve. Are there some special benefits that are offered? Is there evidence that can support benefits that are to be highlighted? Maybe some testimonials! Make sure that you include proper research in your promotional plan so that the direct marketing approach can clearly highlight those benefits that you know. It is useless if you know them and the target customers do not understand them.
You have to describe the content of the inquiry database, prospect or customer. Do you have a relational file that will contain transaction data? Consider file segmentation capabilities and make sure that you would describe how responses would be tracked in the database that you are about to use. This ranges from start to retention and sale information.
There are cases in which a government group has to approve advertising. Think about all the regulatory limitations that are associated with marketing efforts. There may be some approval timelines you need to incorporate and there may be some creative work changes that may have appeared in the past. Consider all the information you gained in time and use it to your advantage.
This is an often overlooked aspect of direct marketing. You need to think about how inbound responses like online order or calls are handled and even consider how good direct mailing is for you. The selling process has to be reviewed in order to make profit increasing changes and find brand new sale opportunities. Infrastructure is very important as your past decisions will eventually become obsolete and you need to find new options that can be used. Always analyze your staff and be sure that there are enough sales individuals and representatives for customer services to handle increases in sales volumes.
There is always a lot of competition that appears. Make sure that you stay ahead and that you create a marketing plan that focuses on every aspect that has to be considered.
