Lesson 25º

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct Publicity

With direct publicity we are aiming specifically at specific consumers. Using postal advertising we can send our message to very select potential clients.

Postal advertising has an advantage in that we can measure the result. If we put an advert on the television it is very difficult to know how much of the the increase in sales comes directly from the advert and how much comes from the sales team. With postal advertising we can measure the result of every letter/leaflet, etc.

Postal advertising allows continuous change. You can try different headlines, photos, offers, etc. You can send your publicity to populational groups, changing one element and test if the results for every one thousand increase or decrease.

Some elements that increase results when dealing with postal advertising are:

The first element is a good list of people. A refined list with correct addresses. The list of people that buy similar products can give better replies. You can increase answers when you carefully select the group that you aim your publicity at.

A good offer. An attractive offer that can be a group offer.

Present the offer in an attractive way. The same offer can be presented in different ways. You need to remember that "new", "free", "gift" are some of the consumer's favourite words. .

Make it believable. A big problem that postal advertising faces is credibility. To increase the credibility you have various tools like using famous people, having companies that support you, having known brands that support you, and having a money back guarantee.

Make the advert urge action. Add a question which will make the consumer one step nearer the order. Put for example, "gift if you respond before the end of the week".

Postal advertising requires the use of a list of addresses. In Spain, the legistlation limits the possibility of buying these lists. Therefore it is necessary to use other means:

Use information coming from public lists.

Ask the consumers for permission to include thier information in a Database. For example, we put an advert which gives away a free cookery book and we ask for the consumer to send their personal details and their permission to use them in a list. Later we can use this list to send them personalized publicity.

Send publicity out with another company that we have a deal with. For example, we make an agreement with a bank, so that, without giving us their client list, we can incorporate our publicity when they send information out to their clients.

In Spain the Organic Law 15/1999 from 13th December refering to the Protection of Information limits the possibility to buy lists with client information. The practical consequences of this law are:

You require the consumer's authorization to include their information in a database.

You can only include limited consumer information.

You can not buy or sell addresses or client information.

You can find more legislations and sanctions on the following web DatosPersonales.