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Response Boosting Secrets Maximize the Power of the Internet
By Jennifer Brenner Andrade and Sarah B. Jones
No longer are consumers passive receptors of television or print ads. Instead, they are participants in a global economy that enables fact-finding and research. Centered on and around the Internet, marketing finds itself in the middle of an information hub that usually bombards the user with more facts, figures, offers, products and services than any one person could wade through in a lifetime. Ironically, the very vehicle that proliferates such mayhem is simultaneously a powerful force for identifying, marketing and then evaluating a concrete target audience.
The task of boosting response becomes a matter of employing sound marketing principles based on essential human needs and tendencies, while utilizing available and expanding technologies to gauge, test and evaluate the response.
Paul Soltoff, CEO of SendTec, a Florida-based direct marketing services company, establishes his marketing philosophy on the principle that everything is response oriented. If you cannot measure it, then you are undoubtedly wasting valuable advertising dollars.
In a recent interview, Soltoff rattled off a long list of tried and true advertising techniques but instantly coalesced those principles to measurable response—a response that is best monitored and evaluated through Internet resources. The following response boosting secrets combine traditional marketing supported by today’s top technology.
Make the offer. Marketing starts first and foremost with a product or service. In other words, amidst the bells and whistles of Internet graphics and gadgets, flashy television commercials and radio jingles, the focus should be on the offer. Soltoff stresses, “At the end of the day the offer is still the most important factor. Make the offer up front, set deadlines for the consumer and offer multiple ways to respond.” Response to advertisements including a URL contact address is up 30% to 65% over the past two years.
Ensure deliverability. Reaching eligible customers and keeping them interested is a challenge of its own. “Small and large businesses alike are flocking to e-mail marketing because of deliverability, affordability and ease,” explains Janine Popick, CEO of Vertical Response, a software company that helps customers deliver sophisticated and targeted e-mail marketing campaigns. Additionally, Vertical Response educates clients on methods to ensure their e-mail reaches the intended recipient without being stripped or unwittingly trapped by spam filters.
Include a call to action. A convincing offer will include a call to action, which is key in generating response. Soltoff insists that effective marketing must “give a compelling reason for the consumer to act.” The act may include clicking to get more information, making a call, sending a fax, visiting a store or even mailing a form. The benefits are two fold—response can be measured and the anonymous consumer takes a step closer to becoming a paying customer.
Personalize. The Internet takes personalization to a new level. From including a name on a flyer or brochure, personalization has moved into the highly sophisticated fore of search engines and data mining. Vertical Response, for instance, offers an opt-in form builder that allows businesses to solicit customer information and then formulate personalized e-mails based on the collected data. Apart from e-mail, Web sites can remember the returning user and suggest products or services related to keyword searches or previous purchases. Surveys, preferences, socioeconomic data and past purchase history can all be culled from the Internet and used to pinpoint ready clientele. Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, founders of the marketing firm Peppers & Rogers Group, write about personalization as “product differentiation.” At its most extreme the personalization process learns about a customer,