Top Tips for Focusing Your Direct Marketing Efforts

Determine who your best customers are and target your database marketing to similar people and companies for the best response.

A common complaint among companies which depend on direct mail and direct response marketing; "I'm tired of spending big bucks to send thousands of four-color catalogs and mail items for a weak 1% rate of response. How can I cut costs for a better method of reaching my target audience with my direct mail and catalogs?"

The best place to start:

- Determine who your best customers are
- Target your database marketing to similar companies

First rank your customers in three categories:

1) Amount of revenue they generate for the company
2) Profitability of each customer to your company
3) The fit between the target company and your offerings

Companies appearing at the top of all three lists are your best customers.

The next step - determine the unique attributes of these top customers and look for trends.

- What industries do they work within?
- What similar uses do they have for your products?
- Are the companies large, medium or small?
- Where are they located?
- What are the titles of the top decision-makers?

With this information you can analyze your database and compile the companies which are similar to your best customers. Then it's time to start directing your marketing efforts toward them.

The database can be supplemented by buying some lists of these particular types of companies and contacts.

Also consider targeting customers who purchased in the past, but not recently. Occassionaly it just takes renewed contact to get these inactive customers back. Thank them for previous business, acknowledging that they haven't purchased recently, asking if there's a problem or some corrective action to be taken. Also consider making a special offer or discount on their next purchase.

The next group to focus direct response marketing on - prospects who made an inquiry in the past, but have not yet purchased. Three out of four companies which make inquiries have longer-term needs; keeping in good communication as they progress along the buying cycle can help build a winning business relationship.

Direct mail doesn't have to be expensive. Some companies simply mail two-color postcards once a month, to keep in touch with their prospects. These postcards gather a response from a large percentage of the contacts when they're ready to take the next step in a purchase.

Focus your direct response marketing with these direct marketing strategies and you'll improve the overall quality of your campaigns.