Why Direct Response Beats Image Advertising

Imagine investing your hard earned money with the assistance of a financial advisor who couldn’t promise any measurable ROI and wouldn’t be held accountable for his advice.

Now picture yourself gladly paying him a commission for his services and continuing to do so for an extended period of time with the hope that his advice might eventually pay off.

Would you ever do this?

I hope not.

But many companies utilize this approach when it comes to promoting their businesses by investing in general or “image” advertising. Image advertising influences the reader, makes them feel better about a product or service and creates brand awareness. Some agencies steer clients in this direction because image ad campaigns are normally lengthy and guarantee them consistent media placement commissions that average 15%. They inform clients that image campaigns take an extended period to work and that they must have patience.

While you’re being patient and taking all the risk, they’re still getting a healthy commission check each month.

You deserve a better approach.
It’s called direct response advertising.

What makes direct response so effective?

A direct response message doesn’t merely influence the reader or build awareness, instead it entices, promises things they desire and gives them a compelling reason to act now and take your most desired action. This could be to phone you, return a BRC, visit your website and download a free report or anything else you desire. In all instances, it is a response you can actually measure.

With such results, your agency or marketing firm can be held accountable for the success or failure of the advertising. Agencies aren’t big fans of the short term accountability inherent in direct response. If the results aren’t good, they risk losing the account and missing out on media commissions that would have been guaranteed with a longer general advertising campaign.

If the ad or direct mail package is getting acceptable results, with direct response advertising you can begin to implement testing strategies and change one element at a time in an effort to increase the response rate even further. This method will increase your ROI and save you money because you won’t have to run the ad as often or mail as many pieces to get the return you need.

One last bit of advice when selecting a firm to help you with your advertising. A good marketing firm isn’t afraid to be held accountable. They have confidence in their ability and utilize direct response methods and testing strategies that are proven to work.

For assistance writing direct response copy that gets results, contact Ben Edwards today at 617-670-1888, ext 1.