Direct Marketing Consultants

Direct marketing consultants can be a key resources for a company wishing to wage marketing war on consumers for its share of the business marketplace pie. Direct marketing is defined as straight to the customer advertising attempting to get the attention and sale without a middle man such as a retailer. Or it may be a retailer that goes hard at the customer where he lives, not waiting on the consumer to actually come in the store. Direct marketing is the arena in which snail mail, emailing and telemarketing plays each day. It's the advertising that drives consumer crazy with phone calls at dinner time, junk mail that crams mailboxes and three hundred spam emails over night in the inbox. But it can also be effective if developed correctly.

Many small business owners have attempted one of the direct approaches on their own and the results have usually been shockingly pitiful. This is due to the fact that going directly at consumer takes some research knowledge as well as being abreast of the current promotional trends. Experienced direct marketing consultants that are on top of their game can offer that very experience and in that process can help a small business add to its bottom line substantially. There is a stark reality embedded in the "straight to the customer" approach of product and company. The response rate in a general marketing canvass, defined by the customer clicking, opening or not hanging up on the senders of these messages is very, very low. In fact they are pitifully low, typically hovering around one percent. Then the actual conversion rate, defined by the sale that is made from those responses, is usually around two percent.

That means that the final result of a straight to the customer approach to promotion can be around .002%. Two out of every thousand are typically converted to sales, so these statistics don't take rocket science to figure this all out; it's a numbers game and the client that is using this kind of advertising better stuff every mailbox in the city if anything is going to happen. If no statistics change in this scenario, the merchant will have to really figure out if the return on investment (ROI) is worth the expense of the effort. If the merchant is selling Bentleys, this could be extremely lucrative but three dollar coat hangers-not so much. But there is some hope in all of this. If the direct marketing consultants are listened to and their advice is heeded, then the response rate may to lifted to three or four percent, making the conversion rate .006 to .008% and then the ROI may be favorable.

In today's sophisticated advertising world, the presence of highly focused recipient lists is of supreme value. In fact, the most important linchpin in the whole "straight to the customer" plan is that recipient list and for the small business, that list will probably have to be rented or purchased. Direct marketing consultants will all agree that while their high quality mailing lists are good, the finest mailing lists are those compiled by a business over time. Buyers, window shoppers that are better known as "lookie loos and repeat customers can form an incredible mailing or calling list for a small business. But that prime list takes sometimes several years to comprise and there may not be the luxury of time for some small businesses. So the direct marketing consultants used in a particular campaign can offer a potential client quality mailing lists...maybe.

Now every firm of direct marketing consultants is going to tout their email marketing list as being washed, germ free and thoroughly vetted. By that they will mean that their Internet mail lists have been formed by a trusted relationship with the recipient. All three forms of straight to the customer promotion can be quite discriminatory in who they call or contact. Databases can be delineated by age, gender, income, residence location, education, hobbies and occupation. But email marketing has become a permission based field of play in which recipients can actually say yes to receiving emails that would otherwise be viewed as spam. Do you have a relationship with God that allows you to say these words with conviction? "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations." (Psalm 89:1)

Because "straight to the customer" types of campaigns typically have low response and conversion rates, more and more companies are turning to email as a low cost way of contacting customers. Direct marketing consultants can show potential clients how successful they can be in a highly focused and permission based advertising campaign. With a permission based campaign those very low numbers can be turned into just low numbers, and since the email method costs are extremely low, the choice of advertising method may come down to the email genre. However, mailboxes are still flooded with direct mail efforts and while telemarketers have been effectively reined in by the no call lists, the industry still exists and is profitable for some companies. So choosing the right advertising advisors will be important in the success of a small business marketing campaign.

When interviewing direct marketing consultants, make sure to ask hard questions. Get lists of former customers and ask them the consulting firm's success rate. Ask whether that company would hire them again. Find out the consulting company's reputation from the Better Business Bureau. The lowest priced consulting firm may not be the best return on the dollar. Ask whether the mailing lists are opt-in lists or opted in lists. Stay away from the opted in list providers.