Our offices are closed until fuhrer notice due to Coronavirus
Developing a deep understanding of your ideal customers is a key element of developing a successful direct response marketing campaign. So if you don’t have a very clear idea of your best customers are then get one and quickly!
Why? Because if you don’t you would be shooting in the dark and probably wasting a load of money and time creating marketing materials that have the wrong message and directing them at the wrong people. No matter what product or service you are selling it will appeal much more strongly to a certain group of people than it will to others. Too many businesses make the mistake of just throwing their message out to everybody and hoping the right people will find it.
This is like trying to play darts while blindfolded – throw enough darts at the board and you are bound to hit it some of the time and if you area really lucky you will hit the bulls eye once in a while.
If this is what you are doing with your leafleting campaigns, STOP NOW!
Firstly you have to have a very clear picture of what your ideal customer ‘looks like’. There are many variables, some of which may include age, sex, income, job, lifestyle, qualifications, etc. For example, if you are selling double glazing then it is unlikely that people who do not own their home will be interested in your products. This sounds obvious right? Perhaps but you would be surprised how many companies will distribute their leaflets to entire postal districts irrespective of what type of residences are in that area.
Secondly design your marketing material to appeal to you ideal customer. Too many people make the mistake of creating generic leaflets in the hope that they will appeal to everyone. The truth is that doing this makes it is less likely to appeal to your ideal customer. If you want people in your target audience to respond to your direct marketing materials, write it specifically for them. Those who are not in your target audience are not going to be interested anyway so there is no point in compromising your leaflet design for them.
Finally, ensure that your leaflet sells on the benefits to the customer and not the features. Again, I hear you say that’s obvious but I guarantee that the vast majority of the marketing material that you will see or hear, irrespective of the media, will sell mostly on features and not the benefits the product or service mean to the end user. 