It is a simple idea, really: orchestrating brand building and direct marketing (DM) into a synergistic harmony. Marketers use brand ads as instruments in the critical role of consumer awareness building. DM identifies prospective consumers and helps the sales team convert them to paying customers. Brand ads create an emotional connection, while DM uses persuasion and incentives to get the prospect to act, ultimately choosing your firm over a competitor. Achieving synchronization between the two is key in creating a seamless buying process for consumers, the kind which leads invariably toward a successful conversion.

An effective brand/response campaign combines branding ads across television, radio, print and online media channels, and joining them with response vehicles such as direct mail and e-mail. A successful marketer ties it all back to a centralized prospect database. The database connects these individual media channels into a closed-loop marketing system, adding power without increasing the media expenditure. It’s like fitting a Harley cruiser with a turbojet engine.

A well-executed brand/response campaign builds awareness, identifies qualified prospects and then leads them along the purchase path with a series of communications designed to educate and inform. Each message includes a purchase incentive and purchase mechanism. Over time, prospects progress from general interest, to desire, to conviction, and finally to buying your product or service. This approach recognizes the disparate levels of interest and purchase conviction among prospective consumers. It treats each one accordingly, without letting qualified prospects fall through the cracks because of some ill-suited, one-size-fits-all approach. Read more