Why All Marketers Need to Think Like Direct Marketers - Irv Brechner

In this day and age where CEOs are demanding that CMOs produce ROIbased results and where customer acquisition is more important than ever a marketer39s mindset may be in need of a tuneupIn the recent quot2011 MidYear Marketing Trends Studyquot reported in dmnewscom 67 of marketers view customer acquisition as their number one challenge And 84 indicate that aligning sales and marketing is a priority for their companiesGiven that I39m thinking that most marketers need to have a quotdirect responsequot mindset This means that you may need view customer acquisition differently than you do nowBy having a direct mindset you start focusing on things like the cost to acquire a new customer the lifetime value of that customer and other ROI metrics Instead of or perhaps in addition to reach and frequency and eyeballs maybe it39s time to think more about direct responsetype metricsDoing so might result in your questioning some of the tactics you now use and evaluating new ones It might lead you to think about how you can convert Facebook fans to paying customers in a different way than you do now It may result in your finding measurable ways of acquiring new customers that your CEO is demandingWhile the common notion is that direct marketers make most of their sales direct to consumer DTC experience direct marketers know that39s not true in most cases For example successful Direct Response TV DRTV campaigns almost always have one thing in common for every one DTC sale anywhere from 3 to 10 sales occur at retail Additional quotDRTVdrivenquot sales also occur at etail amp8211 sites owned by companies other than the advertiser or marketerRight now we39re working with and talking with companies that you would call classic brand marketers We39re talking with them about reinventing their business in a direct response mold amp8211 not because it39s fashionable but because it makes all the sense in the worldGiven all the options that consumers have in terms of learning about products reviewing them sharing information about them responding to your advertising and eventually purchasing only a direct response set of best practices can help you find the best way to find new customersYou39re faced with an endless number of combinations of the purchase cycle One example1 Consumer sees TV ad for a product2 She goes online to check out reviews3 She Tweets friends and strangers about the product4 She emails the company with a specific question5 She Google39s competing products6 She finally places the order online but picks it up at a local storeSee where the world is headingA direct mindset will help you better track some steps in the above chain of events and track all steps in less complicated chains of events A DR mindset will give you tools to evaluate which advertising tactics you should be using based on their potential ability to acquire customers or leadsBased on the goals of acquiring new customers indicated in the survey mentioned earlier quotthinking directquot could very well be the first step in formulating a plan to get new customers who now have more choices than ever and are in more control of media consumption than ever beforeGrab a PDF of this article at httpA78acquirgynetIrv Brechner has written over 100 published direct marketing articles and 13 books on a variety of topics He39s been a pioneer in online customer acquisition since 1996 and offline for his 35year career He has developed Acquirgycom39s quotCustomer Acquisition Intel Centerquot acquirgycomintel he evangelizes bestofbreed tactics to help companies acquire customers in the digital age He can be reached at irvacquirgycom Read all Irv39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Customer Acquisition IntelCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

Become a Thought Leader.
Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

Why All Marketers Need to Think Like Direct Marketers - Irv Brechner

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Irv Brechner

Hispanic Leadership Roundtable: Inclusion, Mentorship, and Building the Next Generation (Video) - By Juan Ayala

More Videos:

Become a Thought Leader. Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

Why All Marketers Need to Think Like Direct Marketers - Irv Brechner

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Irv Brechner

Hispanic Leadership Roundtable: Inclusion, Mentorship, and Building the Next Generation (Video) - By Juan Ayala

The payment was successful

Cookies

Become a Thought Leader.
Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership