adminThe World Wide Web is the ultimate direct response medium because it lowers the barriers between buyer and seller. Making a purchase online can be as simple as a few mouse clicks.
Unlike other direct response mediums, there is practically no physical effort involved in making a purchase on the Internet.
Let’s take a look at two other direct response mediums in order to fully understand the point I am trying to make.
Traditional mail – This is where it all started. Despite the past (and present) success of direct mail, there are some serious limitations with the direct response marketing medium. The main limitation is that there are multiple steps that need to be taken in order for a prospect to make a purchase.
Your prospect has to open the letter, read it and if they decide to purchase it they have to get a pen, fill in the order form and then post or fax it or perhaps call an 0800 number.
Another popular direct response medium is television. Here the prospect also has to make the effort of getting off the couch to make the call and place the order.
This effort (albeit a small one) drives response rates down. It’s all too easy for the prospect to rationalize that they’ll do it later and then never get around to it. (I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened to me.)
Now take the Internet. All the customer needs to do is click the “order now” button, fill in some details and that’s it. Done.
Barriers between customer and “the most wanted response” are lower and therefore response rates are higher.
The second thing that makes the Internet the ultimate direct response medium is the low cost. Compared to postage for a direct mail campaign or the cost of an infomercial, the cost of running a website is negligible.
Even the advertising mediums on the Internet are เว็บตรง far more targeted than any form of advertising that has existed in the past. PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising is like paying for postage only for those prospects who open and read your direct mail salesletter because with PPC you only pay when a prospect clicks on your ad.
The third reason I call the Internet the ultimate direct response medium is because, unlike TV and mail, prospects are seeking you out. They are looking for information (usually a solution to a problem they have) and your product provides the answer they seek. Where else can you get a more targeted prospect?
The point I’m trying to make is that traditional direct-response copywriting and marketing techniques that have worked in the past still work now. The web is just a new medium (and a fabulous one at that).
Far too many websites make the fatal error of forgetting the time-tested principles of direct response marketing. They focus their web-content on the company and it’s accomplishments.
The home page goes something like this “We at XYZ Company have been in business for 20 years. We have the best customer service, blah, blah, blah…..”
Who cares? Certainly not the customer who is solely focused on “What’s in it for me?”
And then company’s complain that the Internet is an ineffective advertising medium. It’s not the medium that’s to blame, it’s the message.
But this is a problem in disguise for the savvy copywriter who can step in and rewrite poor web content so that’s it’s more customer focused, rather than company focused. There are more companies out there who need great content than there are copywriters to provide it.