News
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Don't Neglect These Marketing Basics
Rick Doss, GM, InnerWorkings
Most of us know the keys to direct marketing success
are multifaceted and include many—if not all—of the
following techniques:
• Define the goals of your program with a clear and
concise call to action.
• Create and scrub your list.
• The creative approach needs to be compelling
enough to break through the clutter.
• Add multiple touchpoints using varied media
whenever you can, and follow up with a live sales
call throughout the process.
This all sounds pretty basic, right? It should, but
I can't tell you how many times I've seen companies
get 90 percent of it right, and then fail miserably
on one very critical piece: follow-up. To better
illustrate my point, here's an example of how a
company brilliantly marketed to me last year, but
failed to follow through:
Last year, a postcard arrived from a company. It was
personalized with the correct spelling of my name
and information (good), and it teased me into
visiting my very own personalized URL (good again).
While I didn't take the bait and visit the PURL (I
remember being quite busy the day it arrived), I did
save the postcard, as I liked the creative approach
and wondered what would come next.
About three days later, a box arrived on my desk
sent via FedEx. This easily made it past my office
manager who is very good at keeping "time wasters"
away from my desk. This was the three-dimensional
mailer of all time. It was themed, personalized
(good again), sent overnight in a box (sense of
urgency), with all sorts of relevant material
inside. The company also gave me a useful, creative,
branded promotional item that I still have to this
day.
What happened next? Silence. Crickets. No phone
call, no e-mail, nothing. I consider myself a busy
executive with very limited free time, but I would
have welcomed a call. The company had done its
research and perfectly targeted its message directly
to my needs, but didn't pick up the phone to call
me. Great marketing and no follow through made its
campaign a complete waste of precious marketing
dollars.
---Source: DMNews June 15, 2009 (www.dmnews.com).
Rick Doss is General Manager of InnerWorkings. Reach
him at rdoss@inwk.com.
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