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Direct marketing is a function of identifying a well-defined target audience, figuring out the most cost-effective way of reaching that audience and converting them into sales or sales leads. Black and White Marketing approaches this by first looking at desired outcomes. In contrast, some companies will say they need to be at X tradeshows each year, send out Y pieces of direct mail and telemarket to Z organizations. If one of these actions is more effective than the other two, why would you spend time and money on the other two? If you thought about it, you might not. What are the results you want to produce? For example, if you want to produce X sales, Y "A" leads and Z "B" leads, identify that upfront. Then look at what are the most effective ways to produce those results. Maybe you don't know, and most of us don't; there are ways to find out. Ask your prospects how they want to be marketed to. Perform tests; i.e., rather than spend a lot of money with expensive programs, try smaller samples of various programs until you find the most effective ones. Perform detailed analysis on each program by identifying the real direct and indirect costs and analyzing the results. Trade shows are a great example because they have so many hidden costs above and beyond the registration fee.. These include time spent in planning and implementation, booth creation and shipping costs, travel costs, costs of employees manning the booth and their time spent traveling, literature costs, costs to promote the event, etc. For some products and services, trade shows are simply the best venue for leads; for most, it's one of the least cost-effective. How many "B" leads can you convert to "A" leads, and at what cost? What percentage of "A" leads can you typically convert to a sale? When you perform these metrics, you can identify the value of leads. Once you identify, for example, that a "B" lead is worth $10 and an "A" lead is worth $100, you can start to look at marketing investments to obtain these leads dispassionately–i.e., without regard to how expensive or inexpensive a particular program might be. I can help you establish lead criteria and cost-effective acquisition programs.
©2003 William S. Weil. All rights reserved.
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