5 Tips On How Direct Marketers Can Add Value To Their Organisation

Posted: March 2nd, 2011 by Julie Knight comment-icon 0

Zero hour. Or zero quarter, to be more precise. With the economy flat, what can direct marketers do to add value to their organisations? Here are five suggestions.

    1. Hone the proposition. In the current climate, even a mid-range family saloon or a European resort holiday can look like luxury items to belt-tightening consumers. So look for ways that allow them to rationalise what might otherwise seem indulgent, such as highlighting a five-year warranty or all-inclusive prices.
    2. Sort out the customer database. The long-established fact remains true that selling to an existing customer costs one-fifth what it takes to attract a new customer. But only if you have got an integrated, accessible and well-populated single view of the customer.
    3. Check your permissions. Coverage of customer email addresses is still typically as low as one in five. That is a major obstacle for any cost-reducing strategy to move marketing communications out of more expensive physical channels and into email. Use every contact to encourage customers to provide this information – with the necessary opt-in.
    4. Review your prospect data providers. A lot has changed in the world of contact data since the last economic slowdown. Not only are there more options, but you can find prospects more cheaply, efficiently and cleanly than ever. But only if you are careful about who you work with and negotiate the right sort of deal with them.
    5. Remember that consumers still respond to ads. Media owners are among the first to suffer in a downturn and most press outlets have seen their ratecards falling already. Yet direct response advertising is still an effective way to attract new prospects as they enter the market. With low costs and decent response rates, a return to either pure response or even brand response ads could be worthwhile.

The last structural recession was nearly two decades ago (the blip of the early Noughties was caused by specific, localised events.) For many current practitioners, that was pre-history, or at least before they started in the industry. If there are still any left in your organisation, the final piece of advice might be to talk to anybody over 40 about how to cope with negative growth.

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