Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Gary Hennerberg here, co-author of Reinventing Direct, and in today's presentation we take
a look at three trends for direct marketers to reinvent and make twenty fourteen a game-changer
for revenue and profit.
The first of these trends we're observing is that we're all in the business of generating
and cultivating leads, whether you're a business-to-business direct marketer, business-to-consumer marketer,
or even a non-profit. In twenty fourteen you'll want to take on characteristics of a magnet
and draw prospects to you. You've heard the term content marketing. We like to think of
content marketing as magnetic marketing. That is, you draw and attract your best prospects
to you. How do you do it? Resist the temptation to indiscriminately distribute your sales
message. Instead, get in front of prospective customers with relevant, quality information
that's sought out in blogs, social media, videos, personalized web pages, and other
low-cost ways. You need to be everywhere, using content management workflow systems
so that you EARN media exposure instead of PAYING for it. Establish your brand as an
authority, give solid information and insights, and build trust and confidence so your prospects
are magnetically attracted to you and they opt-in to your sales funnel.
Which leads us to the second trend. When you magnetically draw prospects to you, you must
begin a nurture marketing campaign. Once you've drawn in a prospect and you have succeeded
in having them opt in to hear more from you, your marketing can become more influential
using marketing automation software to deploy your messaging based on triggers. Send a high-production
value direct mail package only to those who have shown the greatest interest. Or, contact
them via email and direct them to a landing page customized to their needs, using personalized
URLs. Use social media or text messaging, so in this always-on mobile world, you have
access to your prospect virtually around the clock with your message distributed in a format
most relevant to them. Our research, by the way, tells us that not all marketing automation
software is optimal for traditional direct marketers. For organizations that rely on
direct mail, surprisingly, many marketing automation software systems don't have robust
technology in place to enable you and your production facility to automate personalized,
printed direct mail. Finally, we conclude with a trend that could
have been the first one we discussed. But instead, we end with the beginning in mind
because we believe that to be successful as you embrace these trends, you need to understand
the ultimate game-changer. And that's the reality that people are being driven to wanting
to know WHY they should do business with you or contribute to your cause. A Ted Talk video
titled, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, speaks to marketers about the importance of
THE WHY in our messaging. As direct marketer's we've mastered messaging of the WHAT and HOW
as we describe features and benefits. But triggering response from people today often
requires that you connect with emotions through a WHY message. That is, those real reasons
where you connect more deeply with your prospects and customers. If your messaging isn't working
as well as it used to, it could be because, as a culture, we're evolving. We challenge
you to think deeply about the emotion-based WHY component. WHY do customers choose your
organization and the product or service you're selling? HOW do you enhance their lives, solve
problems, or make things easier with WHAT you are selling?
We wrap-up today by encouraging you to integrate these game-changing strategies in your marketing
mix. We believe these three direct marketing trends will help you move your twenty fourteen
results to new levels. That's for now today. On behalf of my co-author,
Perry Alexander, thank you for watching Reinventing Direct.