Fix your Direct Marketing: Kern Organization

I attended a webinar about direct marketing, but to me it was sort of a self-marketing education/time management seminar. Here's notes on what I learned:

If the strategy is right, poor creative won't hurt you.

If the strategy is wrong, great creative won't save you.

Financial strategy:
30% target/list marketing
30% reason to respond
20% creative concept, brand leverage
20% Cost per contact

Compare cost (time?) per contact, with response rate (percentage)

Direct mail has the most response

Right price = free
Free stuff:
White papers
problem/solution recommenders

Limited quantity for quick response:
t-shirts, USB drives, binoculars, stuffed animals... not one to everyone

Selection criteria: do our targets read that?

Passion profile: figure out what they do in each part of their life, how they interact with product

Focus on emotional appeals
fear, greed, guilt, anger, hero, pain avoidance
time savings, making money
Stop barfing on your prospects - less is more (Thank you!)
Which worked better? Education or guilt -- Guilt, of course! 200% better.
So good!
Pick the wrong phone system and you could meet some new people: Unemployment office
Humor! Like companies with humor, approachable

Marketing - don't try to rush sale. Sales is not marketing. Marketing is developing contacts, asking them to qualify themselves, get them to inquire, then send them over to sales who close it.

Lead scoring:
Attributes - business type, etc.
Position - authority
Need - problems, issues, initiatives
Readiness - interest, budget, timeframe
Preference - channel (how contact), frequency

Use online interactive games to collect data
yaya.com created this: a series of fun "travel personality" questions - product recommendor at the end... What's your "viewer personality"? Which script would you like to read? heheh
Then enjoyed exclusive content

Overall:
Financials: lower cost, increase quality, quantity
Offer: change offers, match to buy cycle, pain, or pocketbook
Targeting
Messaging: use emotional keys, say just enough to drive action
Back end: capture, qualification, conversion -- relevant eNurturing based on behaviors

Their behaviors are: buying into your brand... they go to your webcast, they take a survey, etc...

You're not selling a product, you're selling a solution to a problem.