After seeing an ad in “Direct Response”, a magazine that I get, I decided to pass along the great tips that they had, mixed with my own commentary.
6 Rules for Marketing Success:
1. Empirical, not emotional decisions.
This is one of the reasons using a CRM is an absolute must. If you don’t have a CRM, you won’t (most likely) have the data on which to make accurate decisions about which marketing strategy is profitable and which is not. You should be able to easily see your cost-per-incoming-call, cost-per-lead, and cost-per-closed deal for any given marketing source.
2. Numbers are the truth.
Humans delude themselves, want to be right about certain assumptions, so they’ll frequently conclude things which the numbers won’t support. Awareness creates action, action creates results – but step one is accurately measuring anything you want to improve.
3. Frequency is the benefit of success, never the key to success.
Frequency is the benefit of success, never the key to success. Ad sales reps love to pound this – “oh, you gotta run it before it sticks” or “frequency is the key to success”. No, it’s not. That said, you do often need more than one impact before people buy, and usually the 4th impact of direct mail (on average) will have more impact than the first impact – but you can focus your test. Test small before scaling up.
4. Programs should work out of the gate.
If you’re within a few points of an acceptable cost-per-closed-deal, and the sample size is small, then perhaps make a few tweaks. If you’re off by 10% margin, drop it and retool rather than chase a dud. This can be disheartening but is better than chasing a loss.
5. There’s a life cycle to creative and windows of opportunity.
Watch your numbers as they’ll start to weaken at some point, which signals that it is time to revise or start a new campaign.
6. Internet & all other marketing = marketing.
Treat it as such. They need to work hand in hand. Offline media can really help scale your internet presence, so you get more value, and the internet can really help the fulfillment and efficiency of offline media.