I recently joined a team where we service clients looking to drive direct response online sales. This involves identifying a viable target market to launch a new product, gaining momentum in the market or scaling an already-established brand. From beauty brands to household goods, luxury kitchen appliances to kids’ toys, the variety of products we promote is endless. It’s been fascinating to be so laser-focused on direct response marketing strategy which takes test and learn and customer-centricity to the next level.
What is Direct Response Marketing?
The goal of DR marketing is to elicit a specific action from your audience as quickly and efficiently as possible. This almost always involves clicking through to a website or landing page with the final desired action being a form completion (newsletter sign-up, webinar sign-up, lead capture) or, most commonly, a purchase.
Infomercials have long been the stereotypical direct response ad. You know the drill – a 2 to 30 minute TV spot with spokesperson pitching the product, explaining the features and benefits of the product, while we watch footage of the product in action and actors giving testimonials about it. They end with an offer and a website to visit or phone number to call. You may remember this classic informercial for OxyClean by the late and great Billy Mays.
But selling product is not just a TV play anymore. Far from it. Digital advertising affords the option to expose your product to a targeted online audience at scale and in an agile way. Infomercials like this are now being preceded by digital campaigns, most commonly on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. These channels are an instant litmus test for product viability in any market and a great driver of awareness and sales.
What You Need to Know to Produce a Killer Digital DR Campaign
Know Thy Audience: Create niche segments to which you plan on promoting your product. Everyone is not your customer! A general rule of thumb is to use one or two interest audiences, a lookalike audience and a retargeting audience.
Create an Irresistible Offer: Be an impulse-buy magnet! Give your audience every reason to buy now and dispel every reason not to buy now. There should always be some kind of offer as well as social proof. Examples:
- Buy One Get One
- 20% Off
- 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
- Free Returns
- 4.7 Star Rated (data shows 5 Star is less credible)
- 1000’s of Happy Customers
- Coupon code: XXX
- Limited Time Free Gift with Every Purchase
Make it easy: Provide a clear Call to Action – Call Now (click to call button) or Buy Now (link to a website or landing page) that makes it super-simple to snag that sale. The action that you want your prospects to take should be front and center at all times on the landing page too. Feature one clear Call to Action with buttons that are easy-to-see and easy-to-click – seems obvious, but we can often overcomplicate it. Avoid the temptation to use witty and clever calls to action and go for the obvious: Call Now, Shop Now, Buy Now, Order Now.
Why are Digital Channels the Way to Go for DR?
You can test and learn: See the data immediately and make tweaks on the fly. Shift budget from one audience or ad to another based on performance. Get immediate feedback from prospects in the form of comments and engagement.
Easier to measure success: Tracking pixels means you can attribute orders and revenue to digital efforts. If you’re not hitting your CPO (Cost Per Order) or ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) goals, you can kill a campaign immediately or pivot with your strategy. Your digital advertising platform will do a lot of the work for you based on what you set your CPA goal to, so you’re always in control of media spend.
Retargeting: Prospects often need more time to ruminate before making a purchase decision, especially for higher price-point products. Create a retargeting ad campaign to draw them back in and seal the deal. Capture audiences who have abandoned their shopping cart, visited product pages, viewed videos or engaged with your social media posts, pages or ads. Then serve them ads that are more specific to their past experience with your product or brand. For example, you know they’ve watched and liked a video ad outlining the benefits of your organic coconut tanning oil, so now you can show them an animated graphic featuring reviews from real customers vouching for how good the oil smells and how moisturizing it is!
Exclusion audiences: Exclude people who have already recently bought your product from your targeting and avoid wasted marketing dollars.
Scale Quickly: Use learnings and trends from digital performance to scale your marketing plan and reach more of the right people at the right time with the right message. Keep CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) to a minimal level while acquiring a growing customer-base of loyal advocates and repeat purchasers.
Direct Response Marketing is fast-paced and fun! I’d love to hear about your experience with it!
