by Erna George. “Hello. How are you?” sounds like an amicable enough exchange — except when you have no clue who’s on the other side of your phone!
I sat opposite a colleague as he innocently responded to a greeting like this on his mobile (he was waiting for an important call), only to see his generally super-polite demeanour disintegrate into an exasperated and loud retort of “Which part of I am not interested are you not understanding?”
Right offer, wrong time
When we chatted later, he admitted that what had been on offer was actually interesting but it was the wrong time and the agent refused to understand he was waiting for an important call.
The reality is that direct marketing has a real role in marketing strategy but many are applying it bluntly in the hope of getting one hit —it ends up being like firing a shotgun in a china shop, hitting much but blowing all prospects to smithereens in the process.
So how may direct marketing be delivered in a way that avoids the hazards of annoying the consumer (helping one or two instead) and gains brand awareness and traction?
Counting the clutter
The other morning I counted five distinct marketing interactions before I got into my car and turned on my radio, from opening a new face wash to making my son’s formula to checking the weather etc. Direct marketing offers great benefits in this clutter, especially to brands with limited means.
- Bean-counters love the fact that it is highly measurable for conversion or return-on-investment calculation
- It can be cost-effective in comparison to advertising on traditional media channels
- It can offer a direct feedback loop for optimising the strategy and for driving greater efficiency into marketing approaches
- It could offer a means to collect insights for future innovation or campaign messaging
- It could allow the opportunity to focus on specific interested target markets, personalised messaging for better relevance and relationship-building, which can lead to definite and fast sales
It is not by accident that I have written that direct marketing could deliver these benefits. For this to be more of a certainty requires excellence in planning, analysis of who and where to target, and with what message and brilliance in execution to stand out. The biggest “Aha!” from my colleague’s interaction is that, just because the brand is waiting and set to sell, it does not mean the consumer is all set to purchase. Indeed, there are as many pitfalls with direct marketing as benefits mentioned, if not more.
Pitfall 1: Targeting the many in the hopes of hitting the right few
We all know that feeling of “who is this person on the other side of my cellphone and how did they get my number?” or “How did bank x get my name and address to offer me this personal loan?” It is these types of activities that have given direct marketing a bad name.
Effective direct marketing (as with all other marketing) starts with identifying your target market and how best to reach them. A blanket approach of buying or renting a standard database leads to you approaching people (in their personal space) who aren’t interested and get frustrated by this invasive approach.
Rather create your own. It may take slightly longer but returns are worth it. Offer consumers something of value (that is relevant to your brand) in exchange for them signing up, whether this be a great new online tool or a free trial hamper. Then grow your base by asking for referrals or allow people to opt in, rather than force responses.
Isabella Garcia International (women’s beauty products) does this well, using effective call-centre-by-friend-referral and, after checking your skin type and specific needs, sends you a trial skincare product hamper (small but highly tailored). These ‘gated assets’ allow you to get details of the most-relevant people at a relatively low cost.
Pitfall 2: Poorly planned approaches
Timing is key, as is a planned approach that covers multiple eventualities.
While I feel for call-centre operators who need to make a living cold-calling, I often want to whisper to a few, “If you just first check if I’m available to speak with you, I may be more open to your pitch.” Too often the scripts are so rigid that agents do not listen to the circumstances.
First impressions count and, if the first interaction is insensitive, credibility and impact are lost. This is harder to control when calling, e-mailing or snail-mailing someone but the odd call-centre person I have allowed to call back has veered off script and had a two-way conversation with me, reflecting an understanding of my context.
There are direct-mailer campaigns that have tracked first-time responses to campaigns that are several years old. Why? These campaigns targeted the right people with an offer and call to action that so piqued their interest that they filed it somewhere for use in time. The forced “buy now” or aggressive “you don’t know what you are missing” are rude assumptions that your consumers are less than capable of knowing what they need.
Pitfall 3: Following the crowd
I am not going to spend time on this obvious pitfall but I have experienced too many direct campaigns that mirror the look of the previous three received, using the same language and offering the standard “free if you sign up now…”
Get creative and be distinctive to motivate people to opt in, call back or click on your link. A message-in-a-bottle campaign sent to seminar participants with the message that started with “Don’t get caught stranded. Enclosed your map to…” yielded a 60% response rate (source: www.brandlauncher.com).
Direct marketing may benefit busy consumers through getting an offer or trialling something new that suits their needs without leaving their desks or couch. To avoid being the hindrance many assume direct marketing to be, some considerations are key:
- Direct marketing is not a mass-media channel. Use it in the optimal way to send targeted messages to the right people (don’t buy or rent databases just because they offer numbers).
- Be relevant, flexible and creative. Have purposeful planned approaches that cover multiple scenarios and break through the clutter.
- Invest to win. Direct marketing may offer lower costs but still require a decent investment. Make the engagement worth the consumer’s while — a small R150 hamper in exchange for the right consumer’s details and potential repeat purchases to offset this is worth the spend.
Erna George is the new marketing executive of Pioneer Foods’ Cereals & Other division. She has worked on both client and agency sides with diverse brands and categories — from FMCG, alcohol and agriculture to financial services and entertainment — in countries across many geographies, including South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Philippines and Brazil. She contributes the monthly “Fair Exchange” column, concerning business relationships and partnerships in marketing and brandland, to MarkLives.
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