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.
