May 28, 2010

Digital and Direct Marketing: Elements of Promotion

"I have never tried to be original in my life." –Mozart

I believe in stealing ideas. What works in one country often works in another country too. It's much easier to use time-tested methods than to re-invent the wheel every time – especially in marketing. Inspired by Mozart here we go.

Bob Stone and Ron Jacobs, the authors of Successful Direct Marketing Methods, say there are five elements of promotion. Here they are with their weight in a direct marketing program:

      • List / Media 40%
      • Offer 20%
      • Layout / Format 15%
      • Copy 15%
      • Timing 10%

The traditional elements of a direct marketing program are list/media 40%, offer 40% and creative 20%. Because we live in a world where everything can be measured, I recommend the more detailed approach. But don't fall in love with numbers – only measure things relevant to you.

Most people make the mistake to focus on the creative side rather than finding answer that has weight in the scale. If you compare the old and new approach you will notice that creative gets only 20-30% of the weight – while picking the right media with a good offer brings 60-80% of the success of your marketing program.

By the way, I'm sorry that I haven't been writing to you as much as usually during the past three months. I will try to write more.

I'm proud to announce that lately I have been pushing
forward our new business AdEffie online advertising network in Finland. In the past weeks I have got many new clients – including Reader's Digest.


Until next time,

Timo

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