By Lindsey Carnett
BEST PRACTICE BRIEF: MANAGING YOUR REPUTATION—ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK
What do all direct-to-consumer (D2C) advertisers have in common? Visibility! If you are spending ad dollars to promote a brand, the goal is to earn valuable impressions that will convert to sales. Unfortunately, this also makes these brands susceptible to negative press, an online war with the competition or someone looking to ride the coattails of their ad dollars all the way to the bank. How can a product marketer make sure their ad dollars are yielding high returns from start to finish? A positive reputation, brand loyalty and management of the brand messages to own the category marketshare all aid in optimizing advertising campaigns.
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH FACEBOOK AND TWITTER?
By taking an active role in social media communities direct response (DR) advertisers can increase awareness of their brands. Having a D2C product name become synonymous with value, practicality and innovation is key to seeing an increase in orders. The use of social media is fairly new in marketing, but is rapidly increasing. Although 88 percent of marketers surveyed use social media to market their business, 72 percent have only started doing so within the past few months, according to the April 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, sponsored by the Social Media Examiner. Since social media is so new, companies are working to understand how to best utilize it to generate sales.- READ THE ARTICLE: Managing Your Reputation—All the Way to the Bank
By Rick Petry
Many products are successfully sold via short-form direct response television, yet programs that are asking for the order, versus just trying to generate a lead, frequently require a full two minutes. The one hundred and twenty seconds is required because it takes time for a commercial to set up a problem, offer the solution in the form of the product’s unique selling proposition, and then do an offer build and provide the requisite order information. However, whenever a marketer is putting together a “deuce”, as the industry sometimes refers to it, they should also include a 60 second version of their commercial for the following reasons:
Two-minute short-form DRTV inventory can be challenging to clear depending upon what is happening in the marketplace. General advertisers pay a premium for guaranteed placement, whereas DR advertisers are immediately preemptible. Therefore the strength of the general media marketplace determines how much inventory is left over for DR and that inventory can ebb and flow depending upon a variety of factors. For example, if a show under-delivers the audience of a particular demographic that was promised to the general advertiser, the network or station may run free airings to make up the audience shortfall. This siphons inventory away from DR. - READ THE ARTICLE: Why Short-Form DRTV Marketers Need a 60 Second Spot
By Doug Engebrethson
Many companies, start ups, established DRTV outfits and others attempt to handle fulfillment of their products. We define fulfillment as shipping products, collecting payment and handling customer care. While this may seem like a good business decision, it is fraught with peril. The complexities of inventory management, payment processing, reporting and returns require expertise of staff and technology…most times entailing a significant investment. Investments in these technologies require substantial scale to justify the appropriate ROI. Often, but not always, this investment would be better directed to increasing customer acquisition and retention. Loyal customers who buy again because the quality, price and service were exceptional, is the best strategic course to pursue. Creating a good buying experience is akin to handling fulfillment and customer care in a professional manner. Far too often, the lifetime value of a customer is overlooked in building a brand.
Our top ten reason to consider outsourcing fulfillment follow and can be applied to most products and services. - READ THE ARTICLE: 10 Compelling Reasons for Outsourcing Fulfillment
By Justin Kilgore
The commencement of a new Direct Response campaign brings a myriad of choices for a client. Often times, the task of making these choices can be daunting, particularly for the inexperienced. One of the primary choices is that of selecting which call center will represent your company by handling the inbound volume for the campaign. In an effort to clearly and efficiently focus on this step, I’ve highlighted three core criteria a client can use to make the correct selection: product, media format, and co-vendor familiarity. By utilizing these three categories to help delineate their choice, a client can save time, effort, and resources needed to complete all of the tasks associated with a launch.
The first criterion mentioned is product, the basis for the campaign itself. What is the product or service being offered? What is the estimated price point the product will be sold at? Is the product technical in nature, potentially requiring a more in-depth sales approach, or is its purpose more self-evident, potentially requiring a more direct approach? Like DR campaigns themselves, call center vendors come in a wide variety of specialties. Approaching the product from this perspective can help focus the call center search to those vendors with a history of success in handling similar campaigns. According to T.C. Blumberg, CEO of Evolve Tele-Services, Inc., “Most of the major DR centers have handled the gamut of product types at one time or another, but each of us tends to have certain models that work better in our own environments.” - READ THE ARTICLE: Picking The Right Call Center For Your DR Campaign
