What is a direct response media?

Direct response media is any media that can be used for direct response marketing. Almost any imaginable media channel – print, radio, TV, email, digital, social – can be used for direct response marketing, aka direct market advertising or direct response advertising.

As the name suggests, a direct response ad seeks to trigger immediate action. If you’ve ever watched a late-night infomercial and been exhorted to ring up in the next 30 minutes to order a set of steak knives at a steep discount, you’ve experienced direct response advertising while consuming direct response media. 

There are essentially two types of marketing. The first type aims to get people to do something in the future. For instance, prestige car companies spend lots of money building brand awareness. Few people will buy a new BMW after seeing a single TV, magazine or Facebook ad. But after decades of exposure to thousands of BMW ads, some people will buy a BMW. 

A direct response campaign is at the other end of the spectrum to this type of brand-awareness marketing. It encourages consumers to make an instant purchasing decision, or to at least enter a marketing funnel.  

Elements of direct response media

There is a consensus that direct response marketing must contain the following three elements:

A sense of urgency

Humans are inclined to procrastinate, especially when asked to hand their credit card details over to an unfamiliar business. The one non-negotiable element of direct response ads is that they use compelling copy to urge the target audience to do something immediately, such as purchasing a good or service, or at least supplying their contact details. 

A tempting call to action (CTA)

The best way to motivate people to engage in an immediate response is to offer them something that appears too good to miss out on. If you receive an email saying you could go into the draw to win a $20,000 overseas holiday just for supplying your email address, you will be inclined to hand it over. (Even if you realise that you probably won’t win the holiday and definitely will receive spammy emails.)

Simplicity

Direct response marketing doesn’t seek to be clever or win advertising-industry awards. It’s all about conveying a clear and compelling proposition – ‘Do X and we will give you Y’ – as powerfully as possible. 

The purpose or proposal

Direct response marketing focuses on the consumer’s pain points and desires. A property developer engaging in direct response advertising doesn’t wax lyrical about how good its properties are. It focuses on the hopes and fears of home buyers. Specifically, it engages in lead generation by making an attractive proposal to those home buyers. Such as, ‘Provide your email address and we will send you a guide to making your first real-estate purchase’. 

Direct response marketing works best when it targets a specific segment and is personalised. So, ideally, the property developer would target a demographic such as ‘Middle-income, thirty something childless couples looking to purchase a suburban house and start a family’ and create a proposal this demographic finds compelling. Such as, ‘Provide your email and we will send you a guide to buying a house you can raise a family in and make a large capital gain on’.  

Comprehensive information

Successful direct response marketing campaigns are built around the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle, but there is a limit on how succinct and simplistic the message can be. Direct response ads need to comprehensively explain what the prospective customer is meant to do (and what is in it for them if they do it). 

Response options

Direct response marketing needs to be crystal clear about how the target audience should respond. This can involve clicking a link, entering an email address, ringing a number, downloading an ebook, subscribing to a newsletter, signing up for a free trial, or buying one item immediately to get a free second item. 

Direct response channels

Basically, there are two direct marketing types. The first type revolves around legacy direct response media and the second around digital channels.

Digital channels
Most of us, especially if we are under the age of 60, now spend most of our time online. Accordingly, digital marketing mavens have devoted a lot of effort to working out how to leverage email lists, banner ads, search engine homepages and online video content in direct response campaigns to get consumers to reach for their credit cards.

Email channels
Email marketing has the virtues of being both cheap (at least once you’ve secured the email addresses of actual or potential customers) and relatively effective (once you’ve made it into someone’s inbox, they will usually give you at least a few seconds of their attention).   

Social media channels
Social media involves some expense as businesses need to pay Facebook, Instagram or YouTube to run their ads. Social media’s big selling point is that it makes it possible to reach niche demographics (e.g. ‘University educated, fifty-something widowers who drink craft beer’) affordably.  

Direct channels
Direct channels can be a cost-effective way of reaching a specific demographic. For instance, when a new restaurant opens it will often letterbox surrounding suburbs with an introductory offer, such as ‘Buy one pizza, get one free’ coupon.  

Traditional media channels
Traditional media isn’t what it once was, but it still provides the opportunity to grab the attention of tens or sometimes even hundreds of thousands of people, which can result in huge sales bumps.

Advantages of direct response media

It’s affordable: In the digital age, it’s possible to create tightly targeted direct response campaigns for a fraction of the cost of ‘spray and pray’ television, print media or radio traditional marketing campaigns. While many types of marketing are prohibitively expensive, even the smallest businesses can run successful direct marketing campaigns. 

It’s quantifiable: The old joke about marketing is that half of it works but nobody knows which half. Digital marketing, including direct response marketing campaigns, is eminently trackable, meaning businesses can ramp up the half that’s proving effective and dispense with the half that isn’t getting traction.  

It’s quick: Direct marketing can generate overnight results. If it doesn’t increase sales immediately, it should result in lots of prospects entering the marketing funnel and some of those prospects making a purchasing decision relatively rapidly. 

Disadvantages of direct response media

Consumer fatigue: Direct marketing advertising has become a victim of its own success in that it’s proved so effective that lots of businesses now do it. As a result, consumers – overwhelmed with spammy emails, junk mail and telemarketing calls – increasingly seek to avoid it

Legal or brand blowback: In recent years, governments have tightened up the laws around the collection and use of personal data. As a result, businesses often need to get a consumer’s consent before marketing to them. Even if such consent is given, businesses risk antagonising existing or potential customers if they bombard them with direct market advertising.   

Examples of direct response media

Direct marketing is only limited by the imagination of those engaging in it. Some classic direct response marketing examples are: 

— Refer a friend and get a 50% discount on your next purchase

— Buy this product today and we’ll throw in this second product for free

— Bring this coupon to our store this weekend and get 10% off whatever you buy

How to implement direct response media in your brand

While businesses can take care of their marketing in-house, outsourcing it to an agency is usually the smarter choice. Rothfield has been creating hyper-effective direct brand communications for Australian SMEs for four decades. It has deep expertise in the following areas: 

Intelligent Direct Mail Solutions: A large am of direct mail goes straight from the letterbox to the bin. Rothfield’s deeply experienced copywriters understand how to create the one-in-a-hundred exception that will drive business growth.

Email Marketing: Whether it’s direct or electronic mail, Rothfield’s experts understand how to grab and maintain your prospective customers’ attention. 

Campaign and Data Management: Rothfield staff have overseen thousands of campaigns and are industry leaders in drilling down into data to maximise the effectiveness of direct response ads.    

The Rothfield difference
Want to give your corporate branding a boost with some great branded marketing collateral that supports your sales goals? Learn more about what business solutions we can offer to match your needs and individual industry landscape by clicking here.