By Danielle Stevens

Is your company interested in optimizing business performance? If so, it might be time to take a look at some new advertising strategies. These days, direct-response marketing is more effective than ever—as long as it is done correctly. The difference between a poorly-put-together infomercial campaign that airs on local TV at 5am and a carefully planned, full-scale media blast is night and day. Here are some ways that direct-response marketing can help your business to achieve and surpass its goals.

What Is Direct-Response Marketing?

Direct-response marketing is a more targeted way to reach potential customers and clients. Mass marketing is when companies saturate the media with their brand in the hopes that people will immediately think of that company’s product or service when something related is mentioned. For example, you may immediately think of Coca-Cola when soda is mentioned, and that is due to mass marketing. Direct-response marketing, on the other hand, is when an advertisement provides specific a call to action—such as buying a product, signing up for a mailing list, or calling for more information.

Drive Brand Awareness

While mass marketing is the most common strategy for branding a company, the right direct-response campaign can be quite useful, especially for niche products and services and local companies. This is especially true when the advertisements are targeted to specific markets, which means running them on the right channels, at the right time, and in the right places. As long as there is no major competition, a direct-response marketing campaign can be a highly effective way to gain followers, especially locally.

Increase Sales and ROI

How do you expect to sell your product if potential customers have never heard of it? Also, sometimes just hearing about it isn’t enough to get the sale. That is why infomercials are so powerful. They introduce potential customers to the product, explain why it is useful, and prove that it works. Of course, plenty of infomercials are humorously outdated, but that certainly doesn’t mean the genre itself is dead. In fact, more so than ever, savvy businesses are embracing modern long-form videos as an effective way to boost sales—especially for complex sales messages and high-end products.

Span Multiple Platforms

While television certainly remains one of the most effective advertising platforms, it is clearly not the only one. The right direct-response marketing campaign could hit TV, the radio, the Internet, social media, and more. Of course, there are plenty of other options out there if you’re willing to get creative. For example, the popular MEDIAblitz!® campaign includes airlines, print, and PR, in addition to the more standard media platforms.

Reach and Connect with Potential Customers

It’s so difficult to really connect with someone in a quick 30-second commercial. Done correctly, a long-form video has enormous potential to not just entertain someone, but change their view and way of thinking. An informative, well-assembled video provides tremendous insight into a product or service, and it allows the company’s unique personality to shine through. If you feel like your company’s message isn’t being made clear, or if you could just use a boost in business, consider a direct-response marketing campaign.

Danielle Stevens is a freelance writer who contributes to a number of online and offline publications, including TVA Media Group, a direct-response marketing company. She is passionate about advertising and marketing, and she is always looking for new ways to help today’s forward-thinking companies to get the competitive edge they need.

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