Direct Response Advertising – The Basics
By: Erica Bystrom
Bautista Direct Marketing Inc clients are all direct response advertisers. What are the basics for DR advertising? Number one, they require their advertising to generate an immediate response/action to their messaging from the appropriate target audience. And number two, the advertising must prove that it worked. DR media buying has the challenge of finding the most effective placements with the most effective ad/offer to prove the success of a campaign with real black and white results.
Whether you have a :30 sec TV ad, :60 sec radio spot, a single social media post with limited characters…the messaging needs to be clear and concise to the audience. The message should be personalized and resonate with consumer simply by stating the problem and resolution. At the same time, a specific offer with a clear call to action must be communicated effectively. The goal of DR is to drive consumers to take a specific action that can be tracked.
As media buyers, once we have the messaging completed, our next job is to find the targeted audience that will best convert. Who is the audience? Gender and age are the starting point, but several qualifiers are available to drill down for all media platforms. Also, is there a specific geographic location needed? We must locate customers as accurately and as efficiently as possible.
The point of DR is to track and measure success. DR advertising allows us to read results. We learn from each buy to know what works and what does not. The goal is building a significant campaign and keep growing it each year. There is a great satisfaction in finding the formula to reach a client’s ultimate ROI.
What sets BDM Inc apart is not only our ability to start with small budgets to test the waters safely, but also our connections and negotiating skills to get the most effective media opportunities at the lowest, remnant pricing. DR advertising media buying is hard work, but the pay off is worth it for all partners.
