Direct Response Advertising

There are two main approaches to advertising – direct response and branding. While branding is more effective for larger companies, direct response can be a more effective technique for less easily-recognisable companies. Direct response advertising is designed to get an immediate response from customers. It is directly aimed at the market you want to reach, and it is designed for immediate, perceptible results.

Branding is hugely effective for building and improving the recognition of large brands. It is a technique used by companies like Coca Cola, McDonalds and Apple. It is based upon making your brand and products and services well known to the general public in order to make profits. But for smaller, less well-known companies, direct response can be a far better alternative. While branding works out better in the long term, direct response gets fast, measurable results. Branding is hard to track in regards to how successful it is, but direct response shows exactly how successful it is and how many responses and purchases it receives.

With direct response, the customer is encouraged to immediately and directly respond to the advertiser. This is done via direct response mechanisms. Direct response ads can be found in print, mail, text messages, fliers, billboards, internet, radio, TV and telemarketing. The desired response could be signing up for a mailing list, going to a website or making a call.

Direct response requires a lower budget in most cases as it does not need the high-profile ad spaces needed in branding. It is highly targeted at specific groups of people, and has a focus on customers, data and responses. Direct response advertising gains data on demographics so that advertisers can improve their targeting based on demographics of responders. This can include data such as sex, age, location and devices.

Direct response is measured via CPC (Cost per click), CPM (Cost per thousand) or CPA (cost per action). It is a direct relationship between buyer and seller. It’s accountable, and shows clear results. That way you know that if it is not working, you need to try something else.

While branding concentrates on creativity and bizarre, complex ads to draw attention, direct response is honest and straight to the point. They offer you their products and services then and there. Direct response is a clear call to action, and that is why it can be so successful.